This
week’s blog entry definitely made me think, but after repeating the question
for the 23rd time, I believe we get the media we want. The media has
to know what the audience (us) likes. On page 37 of the textbook, O’Shaughnessy
and Stadler (2012) stated, “if people do
not like a product, they will look elsewhere for one, so the media must satisfy
their popular audience”. The media has to listen to our ideas, know our likes
and dislikes, and what is popular in our society so that the media knows what
to show. If the media showed something that people had little interest in,
people would ignore it. An example is the “vampire” fad. It all started when
the “Twilight” series became popular. After the movie was a hit, the “Vampire
Diaries” series became very popular as well, and someone decided to make this
series into a television show. Smart move, because whoever created the show
knew what people wanted, and now the show has become very popular (amongst
female pre-teens and young female adults). However, it’s not just vampires,
it’s mystical creatures in general. Television shows such as “Teen Wolf” have
become very popular as well because of the character Jacob from “Twilight”. I
am not a fan of this whole vampire and werewolves phase, but many people are,
thus the media picks up from that and creates the stuff we want.
If
we want to know how a society is/was, we use the media to help us. For example, if
we wanted to know how people back in the 70’s dressed like, we look at
pictures, films, and etc. “…The media reflect the realities, values, and norms
of a society (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, p.42). In my opinion, if society did
not have these things, the media would have no idea what to create and to show
to their audience. The media gets our ideas, our taste in style, our beliefs,
and our actions in order to create something because why would they waste their
time and create something that no one had interest in? The media only grab
things that are popular, and present the stuff that WE want.
- Jen
- Jen
References:
O’Shaughnessy, Michael, and Jane Stadler. Media
and Society. 5th ed. Australia: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.
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