Mass Media

After the lectures and discussions we’ve had in class I have come to terms that mass media has a different connotation to any given culture or group of people and therefore the word just like a language, always has a different meaning. In black and white on paper the definition of “mass media” is the means of communication that reach and influence large numbers of people, especially newspapers, popular magazines, radio and television.

Despite the fact that the denotation for the word “mass media” reflects it as mediums or means of communication that effect large numbers of people, the connotation of the word media is always different form culture to culture or person to person. As a youth the mass media would typically be the internet and everyday information that they would get from websites and newsfeeds. Where for someone who is middle-aged mass media for their age group is radio or newspapers.
In the novel Ways of Seeing by John Berger it has been made clear that in ancient history paintings were the dominating medium or ‘Mass Media ‘that had the greatest influence ont he way many viewed their government and environment:
‘No other kind of relic or text form the past can offer such a direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are more precise and richer than literature.’

The uniqueness of “mass media” is that even if one medium, for example the internet had the greatest influence on the adolescents it is affected that every other given medium. Every medium, whether it’s internet or a newspaper has an effect or influence on the other, like us as individuals, we are responsible for all our actions and inactions that have an effect on each other than in time effects each and every one of us. Even when I found the definition of “Mass Media” on a website there is no straight generic meaning of the words ‘Mass Media’ and could have different meaning in a dictionary, encyclopaedia or in the connotation of a ‘newspaper’. Therefore there is no exact mass media yet until every government in the world perhaps puts telescreens into every persons home.

Works Cited
-Lloyd Sauza, Francis "Definition of Mass Media." Definition of Mass Media. 9 Jul. 2008. EzineArticles.com. 12 Oct 2009 .
-Berger, John. "Ways of Seeing". 3rd ed. Toronto, Ontario: Penguin Books Ltd, 2008. Print.