The 20th century sparked my interested yesterday about how media has changed drastically over the last couple of centuries. Much of this post is thoughts and readings from the book "Amusing Ourselves To Death" by Neil Postman.
The forms of media has change by and through technological advances and through innovations. Also media has changed largely on how and why we use it.
Back in the 1700's media was in the form of newspapers and books--printed material. It was devoted to education, to reason for understanding. They tried to encompass all forms of education through the printed works. They believed that "to read law exclusively will damage the mind." (book) They believed in a well rounded education and learning, to dive into books and read everything they could.
Advertisements began in the late 1700's. They began as just written words that told readers the product or job plainly and simply. There was no catchy terms, nothing to suck you in. It wasn't until the 1800's that slogans and photographs/illustrations even became a part of advertisements and media. Also interestingly, they were to appeal to understanding, not to emotions or passions.
Does this sound like today? Well of course not. Media had morphed into a whole new giant. Instead of understanding through reading It is now seeing, not reading that has become the basis for believing. You know the quote "a picture is worth 100 words?" well its true. We can see, depict what's going on, and even feel what is being portrayed in the photograph.
Media didn't stop with photographs but continued on to television. Television as well as radio began as a means for news and governmental issues, this still takes place in 3rd world counties. They rely on talking heads which the government has a large influence on.
Television in our society is the means of understanding. How horrible! "The understanding of any subjects is slapped by the biases of television." (book) Are we believing the biases of media? The majority of television is not serious or realistic. Are we living in a made up world???
As we talked about in class, media can create a paradigm shift in the society and population. It can influence us without us even knowing it. Furthermore, the group spoke of how media began to start feeing off of us. Our likes, passions, what riles us up. Even education has been influenced by media.
I would like to pose a question, has education turned into an entertainment field? There are shows constantly on Tv that try to educate children and adults. Teachers are said to be better if they are more entertaining. It has went as far as virtual reality within some school systems.
What do you think? I see major benefits but I'm sure it has its downfalls.
To conclude, media has shaped us, groomed us whether we like it or not, to be more of the mind set that believing is seeing. We are influenced by its biases and without further research and study on our own, will we know the real truth.
How can we change the television culture of today?
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