The media is an essential part of the society. It informs the public on numerous issues including politics, the economy, social welfare, sports, the weather, and culture among others things. In a democratic society, it is not only desirable to have a free and independent media, but it is also significant that the media should maintain high standards of integrity in their reporting. This is because the information given out is consumed by the public without significant evaluation. Most people believe in what they read on newspapers, what they watch on television or hear from the radio. Increased technological advancements have also created others forms of communication such as the social media, social websites and mobile applications. People rely on the knowledge passed down by the media to learn new things and understand new phenomena. Therefore, it is extremely essential that the media evaluates any piece of information before it is released for public consumption. This paper will interrogate a number of readings and themes discussed therein. Indeed, the paper will canvas the subject matter of these readings illustrating how they can be used for learning and understanding the world. More fundamentally, the paper will demonstrate the ramifications of the acquisition of this new knowledge and how relevant it is to the public.
Gitlin correctly predicted that the advertising culture would be significantly altered by the spread and influence of DVRs. Indeed, they have the ability to free themselves from scheduled commercials. Advertising is a cardinal element of marketing. It is tailored and designed to have a particular effect on people, that is, to influence their choices and convince them to buy particular products. A study by the University of Oregon found out that advertising was being used to infiltrate broadcasters. DVRs users have the ability to skip scheduled commercial adverts. It is vital to note that the economy heavily depends on how consumers spend their money in the market. Spending on the other hand is a functional marketing strategy. The study indicates that within four months, television viewers had scanned over 17 TV stations. The use of DVRs is an obvious threat to media owners. They make significant amounts of revenues from TV ads. The fact that viewers now have a choice to skip these ads is not good for business. It has been reported that a 25% share of the Media Behavior Institute has been acquired by GfK MRI. This is a huge investment by the giant research company. The company is involved in the study of consumers’ moods, experiences and emotions. They help marketing companies design mechanisms to tap into the emotions and experiences of people to sell their products. Marketers heavily invest in coming up with techniques, strategies and measures on how to influence the behavior of consumers. This information enables the reader to understand the input of sociology and psychology in marketing. It is critical to understand that when consumers may think of the idea like buying an item from a store that is theirs may not necessarily be correct. These readings demonstrate that behavior can be manipulated to benefit producers either through television or TouchPoints. Using the current dynamic media ambience, producers have become aware of consumer behavior and employ a number of strategies to ensure that they benefit from this knowledge.
Indeed people think that they are aware of their tastes and preferences. However, what most of them do not know is that they may have been preprogrammed to like particular things in order to create a market base for particular companies. It has become a policy for corporations to ensure that loyal customers get hooked to their products and then they are made to pay outrageous prices for these commodities. Apple marketing strategies is an ideal illustration. Additionally, corporations have used the media to launch new products. They use these occasions to educate and inform the public on their new inventions and new features. Such presentations are designed to have the maximum impact to the public. The presenter will elucidate their facts with percussive enunciation, persuasive passion, and conviction. The reader, viewer or the listener will have the impression that the presenter has a lot of faith in the product. These corporations can blow one’s mind with products that one so much desires. It is a fact that people like modern and more sophisticated devices. Therefore, these marketing executives will try to make them extremely sophisticated but cool to own one. They allege that the product will place one in a class of their own. The fact that businesses spend billions of dollars in marketing and research on marketing should make consumers afraid. The underlying question is whether at any time the consumer buys things that he or she really needs or those that he or she is made to think he or she needs. While the new products may be relevant and more technologically advanced than what a consumer is used having, they come at an either expensive price or a huge sacrifice on the part of the consumer.
Social media is also another useful tool that is used by companies to sway consumers’ beliefs and opinions on products. Companies have started taking social media marketing seriously with even some establishing corporate executives dedicated to monitoring social media. In 2010, McDonald’s announced the appointment of Rick Wion as their first director of social media. A decade ago such an appointment would have been regarded as outrageous and a waste of the company’s money. However, now it is seen as a prudent move. The company’s strategy is to use social media to speed up their outreach to more customers, manage customer complaints and expand their business to uncharted territories. Such bold measures by traditionally conservative companies are an illustration that marketing means a lot to a profit making enterprise. Producers are always devising new schemes in the name of marketing policies to prey on consumers` money.
As argued before, the media serves to inform, educate and influence the public. Just like corporates use the media to market their products, other organizations, agencies and individuals use it for education, entertainment or advocacy. A new study indicates that sexualized music that is popular in the western culture has deleterious effects. The study articulates that the sexual behavior of adolescents is negatively influenced by popular music that has sexualized lyrics. Indeed, music broadcasters like MTV and BET among others have made sexualized music cool and fun not only to listen or watch, but also to sing along. A link has been established between sexual activity and exposure to sexual music either through TV or radio. It is unfortunate that sexual references through music can make adolescent girls think that that their value to society is to satisfy men sexually. This can lead some of the girls to depression, poor body image and substance abuse. Educators can use this study to design ways to ensure that such effects are minimized and their effects controllable. From the study, one can thus understand the role of the media in relation to mentoring children. Indeed, there are reports that children are nowadays more exposed to sexual content through television compared to the internet. While parents can take extreme measures to control content downloaded from the internet, it is not the case with television.
The government and its departments extensively rely on the media to inform the public of its programs and policies. Most times it has used the media to distort the truth and justify the violation of its constitutional obligations. The government has with impunity invaded the privacy of individuals by wiretapping in the name of national security. It has also engaged in propaganda against foreign nations with the pretense of protecting the motherland. President George W. Bush used the media to convince Americans that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and must be attacked. The current regime continues to propagate repressive measures initiated after the September 11 attacks.
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