The media we want?

Hey readers. I was asked to write about whether we want the media we get or if we get the media we want, but I decided to take a different approach to answer this question. When I looked at this question, I kind of thought that they were the same things so I can’t give a straight answer to this. Instead, I’m going to sit on the fence for this one and give two answers.

                I think we want the media we get. The media makes us want whatever they tell us and then we get it. The media makes us think we want something that we don’t need. They persuade us so much by making us think that we won’t be cool unless we buy a certain product or that we are defined by the things we have, so whatever they are selling is essential to our lives. For example, a few years ago, the cool phone to have was a Blackberry. Everyone had them because it was cool to have one. Now, the cool phone to have is an Iphone. If you don’t have an Iphone but you have a Blackberry, you are not cool because everyone has an Iphone. Even though Blackberry was cool, it isn’t now and that is the media’s fault. The media tells us what is cool and what isn’t and if you don’t have the cool product then you are not cool.

                I also think that we get the media we want. We always complain about how we hear a lot about celebrity gossip and how it ends up on the news, but I think we are a bit to blame. No matter how many times we deny being interested in the life of Hollywood, ultimately we are. If we weren’t interested, the media wouldn’t be focusing so much time on them because no one would care. Gossip magazines sell because we keep buying them. The media is just giving us what we want. The media is a business and we are the customers. They have to give us what we want or they won’t make any money. “It could be argued that audiences influence, if not control, media output through their choices of what media products to consume”. We also use the media as a tool for information. We know how we want to use the media and we take advantage of it. We use it for the latest information about anything. We can be in control if we want to be. “For most people today the media are the main source of their knowledge and entertainment and are part of the very structure of their lives”.

                The reason I gave two answers is because I think there is two sides to the media. There is the controlling side that tells people what to think and then there’s the side that lets us control it. We get bombarded with mass media and we get persuaded into ways of thinking but we have the power to choose what kind of media we want and we have the power to think for ourselves.

O'Shaughnessy, Michael, and Jane Megan. Stadler. Media and Society. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. Print. Pg. 8 and Pg. 38.