Tarjei Bryn SOCI 101 2009-05-05
Jacob Martinsson
1
How are we affected culturally by the mass media?
The social aspect of the mass media
The mass media is a big part of our daily life and people are regularly interacting with the
mass media in various ways, sometimes unconsciously. The average Americans is exposed
to over 3,000 advertisements per day and watches more than 3 years of TV commercials in
a life time “whose messages work their way inside our intimate relationships, our homes,
our hearts and our heads” (Jean Kilbourne). Advertisements in the U.S. is a growing
business, i.e. the magazine advertising revenue in the U.S. has increased from less than 1
billions of dollar in 1960 to more than 21 billions of dollars in 2004 (Magazine Publishers
of America). The mass media is a part of society and how people perceive reality, but what
exactly is the mass media? The mass media are television, radio, print, and other ways of
communication. The word “mass” means to reach many people, and the word “media”
means that communication technology transmits messages from senders to receivers. The
audience, the group of receivers of the mass media, does not have much power to control
the mass media. Instead, they have to acknowledge that the communication is a one waystreet
where they can choose to tune in or out, which may not be easy to choose.
The dangers that mass media transmit on culture can be stressed by the
concentration of the ownership of the mass media, where fewer corporations control the
mass media’s activities today. A majority of the U.S. media in 1983 was controlled by 50
corporations compared to 6 conglomerates today, who also operate in several other
industries at the same time (Sociology: Your Compass for a New World). The extreme
concentration of media ownership has resulted in fewer corporations with more influence,
Tarjei Bryn SOCI 101 2009-05-05
Jacob Martinsson
2
who also have the power to carry out messages in...