7

Media Use 

People as consumers of media everyday have certain expectations on how media should be used by others and ourselves. We have taken advantage of the technology we are provided to create mass media and let our voices be heard verbally, non-verbally, visually and much more. An example would be in Taiwan, before an election. Leaders are now starting to become very involved in social media so that they can get the youth involved in politics. Reasearch shows that social media greatly persuades votes and gains a lot more attention compared to another without social media. (Wang & Yue 232)

Of course, media is used for much more than politics.  We use it, view it, or do what we want with it and we are the ones that pay for it! Media generates good money everywhere because a lot of people use it as entertainment as well. In 2008, Disney wrapped up $37.8 billion dollars in revenue and the numbers keep climbing. (Campbell, et al, 1)

Media Distribution 

Media has taken such a huge step forward that it’s not so special to see a good piece of media these days. The internet has created “rapidly transmitted” content to people’s faces through phones, computers, tablets and many more ways. (Pavlik & Mclntosh 25) For the first time ever, we are enabled to follow real world issues, cultures and simple trends faster than ever. An example is the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake used as a case studies. 2,000 people were surveyed on how they heard or viewed the terrible accident and almost all of them heard from some sort of mass media. Television being the most popular. Because distribution is so fast, people can get involved in these problems before it gets worse and perceive world events however they interpret it (Pergamon).

Media Audience 

With so many different types of media, comes many different types of audiences. Media teachers have taken notice that the ones enjoying creating media are younger generations, like kids and young adults. This is because younger kids and adults are good at this! For the first time ever in the digital age, kids are smarter than adults when confronting new technologies. Therefore, adults are the main viewers of print media, visual media and more face-to-face medias and younger generations are more focused on the technological media (Spilsbury 89).

Media Profession

With the addition of new media like social media it opens up new jobs for others like public relations and social media marketing. But for others who aren’t used to social media then they would have to learn the skills of social media. Another example of a new upcoming job in the profession of media would be citizen journalism. This profession gives the option to viewers of television news channels such as CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, etc to ask the journalist some questions and opinions on news stories. “More newsrooms expect reporters to use video and audio to tell stories. Professionals will still have to understand the fundamental principles and ethics of each profession” (Pavlik & McIntosh 27).

Attitudes and Values

When it comes to advertising and selling items online, reputation and trust is a huge objective. If someone is buying an item on Amazon or eBay, the sellers reputation is super important. If the seller has 1 star then it’s a sketchy deal but if another seller has 4-5 stars then seller can be trusted for buying. This situation also involves trust with the seller that the item description is clear and that you don’t receive anything broken. “Managing an online reputation is serious business for companies as well as for individuals. Reputation and transparency rely on digital relationships founded on trust and respect” (Pavlik & McIntosh 28).

Privacy is a huge part to digital media especially with social media. To this day there are some many different types of social media. The most popular ones being: Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, etc. All these social media platforms have high security protection and privacy. But for some companies, privacy laws can be an issue. “The convergence of digital media has led to confusion over privacy laws, with both individual people and companies. There have been some times where privacy laws have been violated but there was a sense of confusion” (Pavlik 28). Some examples of an invasion of privacy would be behavioral targeting and cookies.

Works Cited

Campbell, Richard, Martin R. Christopher, & Fabos Bettina. Media & Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, 2011.

Dapeng, Wan and Yue Chunying. “Research on the Usage of Social Media in Taiwan Region’s Political Campaigns and Elections.” Intercultural Communication Studies, vol. 25, no. 3, Dec. 2016, pp. 232-247.

Pavlik, John V. and Shawn Mclntosh. Converging Media: Introduction to Mass Media Communication. Oxford University Press, 2017.

Pergamon. “Cultivation Effects of Mass and Social Media on Perceptions and Behavioral Intentions in Post-Disaster Recovery – The Case of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.” Telematics and Informatics, 10 Dec. 2015, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S073658531530112X.

Spilsbury, Deborah. “Active Audiences: Lessons on Media Agency and Control.” Screen Education, no. 86, July 2017, pp. 88-93.