Mass Media

When I hear the words “mass media” what comes to mind are the words I decorated the banner at the top of this blog with. I think of the millions of ways messages, opinions and thoughts are able to be made to seen. From the obvious like the internet, books and newspapers to video games and cell phones. (Yes, I do consider the cell phone a form of mass media). To me media is a way of communicating a message and even an art form. It mat not be as obvious as, say, a painting but it is still art in my eyes. But as Marshal McLuhan said, “Effective study of the media deals not only with the content of the media but with the media themselves and the total cultural environment within which the media function.”

Mass media isn’t just the television shows, websites or photographs; mass media is the people behind the message, the audience and, in summary, the world. I agree with McLuhan, media is an extension of our senses; “an amplification of an organ, sense or function.” Media allows people to communicate things they otherwise wouldn’t be able to and Mass Media allows these things to be communication to a wide variety of people, not just a few. “The medium is the message”. I agree completely with a lot of what Marshal McLuhan has said about media.

We are living in a technology and media filled world; from the cell phone in my pocket to the computers around me. Billions of people have access to billions of messages created by every day people. We can do all our shopping, reading and television watching from a computer or even our cell phones. I see people with cell phones that never leave their person it surprises me that the thing hasn’t been implanted into their hand yet. In my opinion media is a beautiful thing because it creates mass media. It opens a this giant window of opportunity for every day people to get their voice heard by twenty or even twenty million people.

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Works Cited

Playboy. “The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan.” Playboy Magazine Mar. 1969. Playboy. Playboy Magazine, 1994. Web. 7 Oct. 2009.