The Positive Benefits Of Mass Communication To

Societysociety Essay, Research Paper

Marc Wallin Wallin #

Mass Comm. 110

3/28/2000

Assignment #2

Professor Papageorge

The Positive Benefits of Mass Communications to Humanity

Mass communications, like anything for humans, has its advantages and disadvantages, but mass media has far more advantages to offer the world. From taking you to a far off land to teaching you about the intricacies of the life inside a colony of ants, to surfing the Internet for a new chat group to join, we learn and experience things and events that no humans ever before in history have experienced through this miracle we call mass media. In the next few pages we will explore the multifaceted and unique areas of the public.s perception of mass media, the educational value of the media, and the Internet as a new mass medium.

The public has always had an interesting relationship with mass media because it is the public that is breaths life into this organism called the mass media machine. From the earliest time periods in human history mass media was communicated through .word of mouth,. and it was that very relationship that spawned small town gossip in the middle ages , where information like what the local lord was doing and if he was hanging anyone that week for insubordination. Word of mouth continued until the invention of the printing press in 1436 when the news of the town could be told and recorded forever. A present-day survey taken about what the public.s view on the media is from the article, .Who Do You Trust and Why.,. by Joe Saltzman says that .… the public.s use and view of its media, shows that word of mouth is less trusted than CNN, public television news, local television news, and prime-time TV news magazines. News anchors American.s see on television are considered more reliable as sources of accurate information than personal acquaintances. (par 3). This article shows that after the advent of the press people find that a recognized news source rather than a personal contact is trusted more. People feel that

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they can trust someone as long as he stays credible and they feel positive because of that fact. Another positive benefit that modern people have as opposed to their ancient counterparts is that citizens who get their information from trusted sources as CNN, local news casts, public television news, and TV news magazines usually end up better informed and more accurately informed than those ancient immigrants and peasants from their word of mouth reporting (Saltzman, par 11).

Still connected to the public.s feelings on mass media today we come to a recent survey of young adults which is also a very quickly informed and Internet savvy group. The survey, .Survey Asks Young Adults About Media Use,. of 22 to 34 year olds by BBDO New York in a periodical called,The Quill , tells about some positive ways that media affect people. In one quote describing the Internet’s impact it says, .The young adults used the Internet for escape and mental stimulation and to obtain specific information on travel, business and health issues. Users were perceived positively as young career-oriented adults. The Internet produced feelings of innovation, intelligence, creativity, power and accomplishment. (par 2). It goes on to say that, .Reading magazines gave respondents feeling of sexiness, self-esteem, luxury and creativity. (par 3), .Television gave respondents feeling of happiness, comfort and fun. (par 4), .Radio listening provided a feeling of peacefulness, relaxation, inner harmony and youthfulness. (par 5), and lastly .Newspapers gave respondents feelings of tradition, stability, security, maturity, respect and intelligence. (par 6). This shows that with all mediums there are many benefits of informing, comforting, and reaching your full potential and self-fulfillment.

Leading into a much undiscussed area of the media: education through media. This

is often times not mentioned as one of the most fulfilling and life rewarding part of media. All to often this is swept under the rug of positive areas to note because, lets just face it, our culture is an entertainment oriented lifestyle, so education through media doesn.t get the admiration and respect it ultimately deserves. From the article, .Media Education. by Marjorie Hogan we find that if the public is media-literate in how to break-down the content of the media and read what messages each presentation and advertisement is telling us,

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rather than taking something at its .face value., then the public will be able to make better choices and educate their children about the messages of all media, and thereby control their children.s exposure to potentially harmful media (Hogan, par 7).

Other effects of educational programming such as, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon, and for older kids documentaries from public TV, channels like A&E, The History Channel, and The Discovery Channel have been shown by an article by Aletha C. Huston and John C. Wright, called .Television and the Informational and Educational Needs of Children,. showed that the television medium has a positive effect on children.s education process. In 1990 the article says that the Children.s Television Act was passed requiring all broadcast stations to provide programing that, .meets the educational and informational needs of children and yout