1F25 Post 2: The Media We Want.

Do we get the media we want or the media we get?

     The media reflect different views and values depending on which market they are aiming to please but I generally believe that, with the exception of perhaps some geographic locations (i.e. communist countries like China and Laos), we get the media we want. The media focuses on getting a message across from one person or one group or one part of the world to another person, group, or part of the world.

     Whether we are reading about the crisis in Syria via a magazine, an online journal, or watching the news coverage of it on our televisions, we “are not seeing reality; we are seeing representations.” (p. 58). Somewhere between what is happening in Syria, the reporters out on the field getting a live-action idea of what’s happening there, and the viewer watching at home, there is someone whose job it is to determine whether or not the representations of these occurrences are newsworthy and whether or not to pursue them any further.

     What is newsworthiness and why does it matter? In the textbook O’Shaughnessy and Stadler defined newsworthiness as “a set of values and priorities that have come to be accepted by journalists as common sense in what is regarded as important to be reported.” (p.28) The media make their money and are able to continue thriving when the people, the viewers, are watching and partaking. Television shows like “The Simpson’s” are still on the air, in the case of “The Simpson’s” even after 25 years, because people like the shows and watch them, that gives the networks the ratings they need to see in order to keep a show on the air. This allows me to argue that the viewers “determine which media products succeed.” (p. 38). This goes for the news, too. If the 9 o’clock news reports stuff I don’t care about, stuff that most people don’t care about, their ratings will drop and they will no longer be receiving the money they require to continue reporting on these issues.

     Some forms of media do market research in order to figure out what their targeted demographic are interested in. Why? Because they want their audiences to eat up every little bit of it in order to make it profitable for them. The example of The Viral Factory was used in the textbook. The Viral Factory, an Advertising Agency in the United Kingdom, does market research in order to determine what is new and cool among youth. They do this research with the intent to “harness the aura of cool and create an association between it and a particular brand.” (p.13)

     I believe that it all boils down to consumerism and giving the consumer what they want. We are the consumers of mass media.  There is a quote from the textbook that perfectly encapsulates my whole point: “the audiences influence, if not control, media output through their choices of what media products to consume.” (p. 38).

O'Shaughnessy, M., & Stadler, J. (2012).Media and Society (Fifth Edition ed.). Australia: Oxford University Press.