Mass Media Distortions of Reality

McLuhan's famous statement about TV that the medium is the message is the theoretical cornerstone of studying mass-media effects on individuals and culture. The basic idea is that the electronic medium in which messages are delivered has an effectiveness that has more to do with the medium than with the content of its messages. If that was true in the 1960s, when the power of television was far less technically sophisticated than it was by the 1990s, how much more it appears to be true today. What has not changed, however, is that commercial interests govern much of the content of television. Media-involved institutions rely on the special training or expertise of educated or technocratic individuals who make up the media elite, and they seek as their personnel those who can serve the profit motive. To put it another way, money is a factor of any analysis of television. In that regard, Viser asserts that commercialism and advertising in television are themselves a culture because of the

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Turkish harem helped cure her high blood pressure. ("Healing or hooey?" the ads wink.) Trash TV? The term could describe much of what passes for syndicated reality, from Hard Copy spin-offs to crime shows that feature actual police raids, complete with suspects (still presumed innocent) being rounded up and led away (Goldstein 45). In the same vein, Gamson (4-5) cites the adoption by mainstream news organizations of the presentational strategies and techniques, as well as story content, of tabloid news sensationalism in an effort to acquire the same demographic audience as daytime talk. Just because there are critics of the methods that TV uses to gain and keep an audience does not mean that such methods do not create or influence reality. Indeed, the tabloid-TV phenomenon shows the effort of media outlets to portray sensationalistic situations as representative reality. Lull makes the point that people use television and radio as an accompaniment to other activities all the time. He says that TV can be a "companion" for someone who is doing everyday chores, as well as an educational tool. However, TV also becomes a social modeler, according to Lull, who ways it makes people "learn acceptable (social) role behavior" (37). The t
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1750
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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