Question

How have newer media changed the way we study media effects?

Answer 1

media have the power to disseminate information throughout the world. Therefore, it can exert its opinion and influence communities. The rise of digital and electronic technology, which rapidly increased during the modern age, has shown that mass media’s influence can inspire change or promote negative behaviors in particular demographics. During the developmental stages of life, we search for identity and the images in mass media can significantly influence us by shaping our ideals of the society as a whole. In a positive, these effects could lead us to become a better person or a better change to society. In other instances, itcan confuse reality with media representation and result in negative or impulse behaviors. On theother side of the spectrum, celebrities use mass media as a promotional tool. This practice sends out a different message and changes to an overall tone of mass media’s traditional purpose. Celebrities are treated as role models, which can greatly impact people who follow them. In society parents, teachers and other adult authorities were role models, but mass media have changed the scope of the traditional role model showcasing celebrities as the new role model. This new practice has had a behavioral effect on society. The marriage of technology and mass media is in a constant stage of evolution, but it is heading in the wrong direction, which could change and corrupt society.No matter what channel is broadcasting or printed media source there is always a portion where it promotes the celebrity lifestyles. The mass media focus more on celebrities as role models, which gauge behaviors and social attitudes. Unfortunately, because of television many young adults consider celebrities as role models because of the behavior that the celebrities portray. The mass media spends million of dollars advertising, which includes celebrities. They promote products, but it includes images of celebrities trying to change the behavior of young viewer for example, celebrity’s main goal is to encourage young viewers to buy the product and follow in their footsteps, which includes behavior and attitude. The widespread usage of Internet and technological innovation was not very common until the mid to late 1990’s. Children age 2 and 22 in the 1990’s were labeled as “Net-Generation” because they experienced learning through a computer (Roberts, 2004). As technologies became more common, children acted differently because they were able to connectwith different people from different parts of the world. The community behaved as if technology was the only way to communicate, which leaves face-to-face communication in the dark. On the other hand, technological innovation occurred throughout history, but it was not until the 1990’s when it became more developed (Roberts, 2004). In addition, these changes were helping people become more efficient, making life easier and faster, and save time .