Rage Against the Machine

Afternoon fellow travelers on the road to awe. I'm the new kid on the blog, so I'll accompany you along with Sebastian and Michael into the world as WE see it.

Mass media has a profound impact on our modern world. The media is in a constant state of change, which, according to “Mediamaking”, “make[s] the world even as the world makes the media” (Grossberg etal, 2005). The model for the mass media communications states that mass media processes, selects, constructs and interprets events, information and topics for their audience. Is this mass media communication process beneficial to our society as a whole? Mass media facilitates social change when it uses its words as a tool, but mass media hinders social change when it uses words and images as a weapon, ultimately depending upon it’s message.

The mass media have always had a profound impact on the history of our world. “The meaning, impact and effects of media cannot be separated from a broader discussion of culture, history and changing relations of power,” (Grossberg et al, 2005). Mass communication has shown itself in many forms, from cave drawings, to hieroglyphics, to newspapers, to television, to the increasing popularity of the World Wide Web. The message sent could be that of love, often preached though beautifully choreographed music by the Beatles. The message sent could be that of hate, spoken in a chilling tone by Adolf Hitler. The same institution spread both messages, and continues to facilitate messages on both ends of the spectrum in the modern world today.

It is much easier for a society to categorize people than to see them as individuals. Mass media often use a means of re-presentation, which is, “to take an original, mediate it, and play it back” (Grossberg et al, 2005). Stereotypes are a convenient way for mass media to convey it’s ideological power, which claims to make an attempt to define reality in particular ways. The mass media is a megaphone beaming “My Sweet 16” across the globe. Every image or soundbite may be absorbed into our everyday lives, whether it is representative of the whole or not.

The mass media has the potential to cover many sides of a particular piece of information, event, or topic. It has the capacity to do a greater good, but too often practitioners fall into the trap of laziness or sometimes flat out ignorance. Fallible human beings run the mass media institutions, therefore the media fall prey to human errors. There is also the issue of motivation when dealing with human beings, throwing an extra wrinkle into the equation. Modern media practitioners are motivated by ”money,” a concept that has become its own brand of evil, and quite a controversial topic. According to the Society of Professional Journalists, the ideal Journalist, “should be free of obligation to any interest other than the public's right to know.” (SPJ, 2009). Too often journalists are thrown into a dilemma, whether to put out a product that is worthy of consideration by the public or to half-ass something so their editors can make the extra buck, just putting them over budget, so they can make a new and improved budget.

An alarming trend in the modern world is the theory of temporary-ism. Microwaves, fast food, and instant technologies like the internet have brought about widespread change to the political, social, and economic backgrounds. It makes the world seem like everything is just a phase, which will be over soon, and we can move on to the next big thing. Whether it be pop culture, the latest car wreck, the latest fashion trend, it keeps going like a revolving cycle of “keeping up with the Jones’.” We as Americans are stuck in a cycle, perpetuated by the mass media, which is in turn pressured by the public to keep pumping them with the latest and greatest hoop-la. When does this vicious cycle end? When the people decide to educate themselves.

The media can and does educate the public on certain issues that may be detrimental to society, and supplies the public with a forum for possible social change. This happened with the Civil Rights movement, the women’s liberation movement, and the horrors of slavery and of the Nazi Regime. When the mass media acts as a mediator and observer, and not as an opinionated divider of peoples, it serves the public for the good.

Culture in our society is spread to a wide audience through the many arms of mass media. When the people (fallible humans) who run these institutions run them with a different level of integrity, these institutions will serve the public good to a much greater degree. Until then, the mediamaking and re-presentations will continue to dominate the airwaves, feeding new generations.

“I understand why they say High School never ends. “ -Incubus
“To resist is to piss in the wind, anyone who does will end up smelling.” -Incubus