I Can't Wait for the Next Twilight Movie!

     This is Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest and it has taught me more about bananas, barrels and the evilness of crocodile men than anything else in all of my years. As one of many video games of my youth, it certainly had a hand in shaping my personal life. Yet, it certainly impacted many other lives and quite a few segments of society. Here we arrive at the conclusion that this game and all video games are a part of mass media. Where is the only place to go when one needs a video clip of cats, game-play or random strangers brushing their hair? Yes, Youtube and the Internet where it lives are also forms of mass media. From the newspapers Wall Street executives read to the radio broadcasts sports fans tune in to and to the episodes of iCarly I watch on dvd every night, media can take almost any form. It can be a bit overwhelming to think of just how far-reaching the field of mass media studies can be. It has been with us since ancient times too. Elements of today's comic books "can be found in eighteenth-century prints, which are in turn and adaptation of" even earlier works (Briggs, and Burke). What does it all mean? How does media shape us? Does it control us, entertain us, improve us, harm us or some combination of all of these things and more? My hope is that this course can shed light on these questions and fill the void left by a total lack of media education in any previous level of education. It is shocking that we fail to teach our young people about something we will "spend one third of our lives immersed in", while making sure they are fully aware of all the intricacies of kickball (Sardar, Van, and Appignanesi).
     Many scholars argue that society is slowly headed toward ruin and that media has a large role to play in the downfall. I find it hard to disagree with this school of thought every time I am faced with the latest abomination in the Transformers film franchise or the newest novel written by a moronic reality television star. Plus, without any hint of exaggeration, Twitter, Facebook and social networking of all types will eventually kill all intelligence left on the planet and spit on its grave. However, there is another side to this story. As Hollywood found a formula for successful movies "variation became limited", the whole process became industrialized and profits became more than the GDP of most small countries (Sardar, Van, and Appignanesi). Who can blame them for wanting to make boat loads of currency? Besides, new forms of media and technological advances have made it easier for innovation in movies, books, television and radio to flourish. For every terrible pop song that rots our brains there is a democratic revolution against oppressive regimes organized via new forms of mass media. When viewed from such angles, it is clear that "the implication that trends have moved in a single direction must be rejected" (Briggs, and Burke).
     Personally, I consume far more media than I produce. In the future, the thought of this production vs. consumption comparison will be even more fascinating. Of course, technology will only increase the ability of all people to produce greater amounts of media in all forms, but, in just one instance of consumption, advertising companies will find even more ingenious places to cram their ads and shell their products. Soon, we won't have to answer these and other pressing questions on mass media alone. There will be no need to ponder: are "the consequences of literacy, or television, more or less the same in every society", because we are an increasingly global society (Briggs, and Burke). I can now read a newspaper printed in Moscow. A girl in Finland can listen to here favorite Beastie Boys song on the Internet and be impacted by it. In the year 2218, Donkey Kong Country 127: The Curse of Frank Kong will be an example of media that touches every man, woman and child on the planet.

Works Cited:

Briggs, Asa, and Peter Burke. Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet. Polity Pr,
     2009. Print.

Sardar, Ziauddin, Borin Van, and Richard Appignanesi. Introducing Media Studies. Totem Books, 2006.
     Print.