An All -Powerful Media.......

For all the ills in Society we have one whipping boy "THE MEDIA".

If violence is increasing in the world around you, it is the Media that is making it happen.

If politicians don't see eye-to-eye it is the Media that is responsible for the sad state.

If crimes rates are rising it's because the Media brings into our homes, enough action which keeps our adrenaline flowing and raises our ability to watch violence of all kinds on the small screen.

If families are breaking up because the Media creates a picture of 'reality' which may be difficult for men-women to attain in 'life'- it creates a 'visually appealing picture of life'(thru serials, ads etc) and raise frustration levels. this list can go on and on.

BUT is the Media or the Medium as much of an evil as we make them out to be?

The Media isn't as bad as it is made out to be, provided Man learns how to cope with it and does not allow it to lead you by the nose. 'Media dependence' is our own creation, and the result of other factors like the politics, economics and the manner in which different social groups use the Media.

A few points on "how" and "what" we have to be alerted to when use the Media/Medium.

Print Media-suited for the literate person.From the movable blocks to the printing of multiple copies of the same thing (beginning with the BIBLE), we see printing and publishing coming as an industry. Later you have Newspapers......(more later)

Technology alters the manner in which the Media serves us.

The Radio -- breaks the literacy barrier and b'comes a genuine 'Mass Medium' where technology helps transfer of the same 'message' from one "SOURCE" to many receivers through a "MEDIUM" to many "RECEIVERS". It became popular in the early 20th Century. (Hitler is supposed to have used the Radio to the maximum as a part of his Nazi propaganda machinery!)

The Television went a step further and brought the visual and the sound combination to our drawing rooms.

And now we have Satellite aided methods, the Internet making Communication a totaly different experience with multiple ways of using it.

I)The Media tells us 'look here' and often when our attention is turned there, we are in the 'dark' or 'kept in the dark'by the Media. B'cos we also learn to 'TRUST' the Printed Word and then start accepting that a powerful visual is more communicative than a 'thousand words'.

II)There is a constant race between 'Technology'(Media)and 'Reality'- opened up by the former leads to "mediated" representations. The Media begins to 'shape the reality' and in that manner earns the sobriquet of 'mindbenders', one 'selling lifestyles'etc.

III) As we see it now the Media is also an 'Advertiser's Medium'. Newspapers and Channels become a 'marketplace of different types of wares' and that is why sometimes it is called the "Advertiser's Medium".

If "NEWS" is what we got from the Media in the early years, now we are told "News is what appears between Advertisements".

The presence of the Media is something we cannot ignore. It has arrived. And, is here to stay.