Mass Media

According to the most common definition, mass media is a system designed to reach a large number of people. These include prints such as newspapers and magazines. However, types of mass media such as books and manuscripts have been around for centuries. I think the specific form of media that has transformed societies into what McLuhan calls the "global village" is the public media. Public media is the total of public mass distributors of news and entertainment across media such as newspapers, television, radio and broadcasting. Mass Media includes internet media such as blogs, message boards, podcasts and video sharing. The communications audience has been viewed by some commentators as forming a mass society. This means any society that possess a mass culture and large scaled impersonal institutions.

My opinion on the mass media is similar to McLuhan's point of view. He once quoted, "There are no passengers on spaceship earth, we are all crew."(McLuhan) As i sat there fascinated by this quote, I thought to myself that we all work together as a team to influence ourselves. We created the mass media, and in turn, the media has influenced us. As we are constantly swayed, we are doomed as passengers . Passengers symbolize individuality, where as crew workers exist only for the spaceship and not themselves. Crew workers also look and dress the same. The medium has taken control of our lives to the extent where it is almost like we have lost out distinctiveness as passengers. This is because when one tries to emulate his or her role models (which are presented through the mass media) of the glamour industry, is that person thoughtful to distinguish between right and wrong? Can that person differentiate between who he or she is and who he or she wants to be? In the end we all become the same. We balance the effects back and forth from one person to another. For example, on Facebook, individuals describe themselves only the way they want to be perceived and not  who they usually are. Are they doing this  for themselves or for the world around them to see? The whole reason is, they want to become good citizens of the global village. This may be because we subconsciously need to please each other. In other words, work for each other. Are we shaped based on how our friends are shaped? Maybe so. Or are we shaped based on the way media moulds us? That is another possibility. Since most of us want to feel, look and act the same (which we do), we are not passengers but the crew of "spaceship earth". Personally, I agree that mass media has shaped us into crew members.

Works Cited

McLuhan, Marshall. "Marshall McLuhan Quotes". Brainy Quotes. 2nd October 2009. Web.

Coleman, Brenna. "Media Literacy". suite101.com - The genuine article. Literally. 5th October 2009. Web.