Blog Post 7

Do you think people today use the mass media differently compared with how people used media 10 or 20 years ago?

Because of the technology we have today and the sheer amount of media entertainment available to us, it’s inevitable that we use mass media differently. I think that because of the internet, there are more people who are unafraid of having opinions that vary from “the norm”. In other words, television programs no longer represent a consensus of Americans opinions, because there is so much more variety. At the dawn of television, shows like Leave it to Beaver showed the ideal life – and most viewers believed they should strive for that status quo. Now there is content that caters to almost every genre and interest and content that caters to different ways of life. Before, there were only a few television channels and everyone with a TV watched them and likewise were influenced by them. Now, viewers can choose what they watch according to taste. Also, because of streaming, there are many consumers who don’t watch television at all and are separated from the influence of advertisements on TV. When there is a new program premiering, they have to find out about it differently and they are less likely to be convinced to watch just by the sheer amount of trailers they see. They’re more likely to look into reviews of a show and read descriptions before they decide to watch it.