Effects of Mass Media

Effects of Mass Media

Michael Fouse

HUM/186

January 25, 2016

Scymentress Williams

Effects of Mass Media

Over the last century, there have been many major developments in mass media.  Just over 100 years ago, the world was introduced to the radio in a large scale making it an incredible advancement in the world of mass media.  In the 50’s we were introduced to the television, then mass internet in the 1990’s and in the early 2000’s, the mobile phone became the latest megastar of mass media.  Each of these have had major influences on American culture that continue to develop and change and continue to play major roles in our everyday life.

Over the past 100 years we have been introduced to major advancements in the world of mass media.  In the 50’s we were introduced to television.  Television was a remarkable media that took the audio portion that radio had already given us and added some new elements to it.  Movies were already prevalent by this point in time, but being able to take this medium and shrink it down to a home version was a remarkable achievement.  Television made it possible for an entire country to see the same things without print.  In a short period of time, television became a medium that was capable of influencing public opinion.  It would remain atop the mass media advancements for the next 40 years until internet surfaced in the early 1990’s.  The internet first came about in the early 1980’s but did not become readily available until the 90’s.  Access to the internet meant that you were able to connect with the whole world at the touch of a few buttons, and a phone line.  This increased the availability of information by leaps and bounds, though not always credible information.  The internet has grown exponentially since then.  It has become a way to communicate, play games, retrieve information, and interact with friends all over the world and so much more.  It has given the everyday person the ability to look up information that was once only available in books at a library, right in their home.  It makes information readily available at the very moment it is happening, with blogs, twitter, facebook and a multitude of others.  It has given us the ability to speak and see friends in another location with a few clicks of a mouse.  You are able to shop for just about anything, anywhere in the world from the comfort of your bedroom or office.  The internet has almost single handedly brought an end to newspapers, due to the availability of instant information, as opposed to waiting for the paper to come in the morning.  The next major advancement in mass media was the cell phone.  Although the first cell phone was introduced in the 1970’s, they would not have a major influence on mass media until the 2000’s.  Around the year 2000, we were introduced to a new type of cell phone called, the smart phone.  With the release of smart phones commercially, we were able to tie the internet into our phones that we carried with us 24/7.  This made the release of information even speedier because now there wasn’t the issue of having to go home and get on our computers.  Suddenly our phones were capable of not only making phone calls, but text messaging, emails, online banking and so on.  Smart phones are instant receivers of information.  A celebrity is able to go on twitter and type a message out in 140 characters or less, and the minute he/she hits send, it is viewable to millions around the world.  This is an incredible advancement in communication for the world and has brought everything from music, movies, television, radio, and the internet all to the palms of our hand, and accessible at almost any time.