The Effects of Mass Media

Alicia Myrick

HUM/186

07/22/2013

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The Effects of Mass Media

Within the last century, there have been several divergent and major developments in the evolution of mass media, and each of these advances brought a seemingly large effect on to the American culture. In the beginning of the century, the media only had newspapers, books, and magazines to work with, and then a short time later radio and television communications were added to the mix. We still use all of these media platforms in today's world, however, we have added in internet media which consists of blogs, podcasts, webinars, video sharing, and other types of social media like Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter.

According to Lule, (2012) mass media specifically refers to a means of communication that is designed to reach a wide audience, and culture generally refers to the shared values, attitudes, beliefs, and practices that characterize a social group, organization, or institution.

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(Chapter 1) Before the 1920's, the only means for mass media were newspapers, books, and magazines. Radio was the first non-print media outlet and became very popular. It was essentially easier to obtain and vastly more inexpensive than traditional newspapers, not to mention that the media were able to reach an immense number of people at the same exact time. Around the 1940's and after the Great Depression and the post-World War II era, a new sensation hit the American culture; Television. It was a force to be reckoned with and the newspapers, magazines, and radio stations had to find ways to keep up. With television came the nationwide spread of cable television in the 1980's and 90's, giving the American population more...