1f25: The the media we want: Blog Entry 2

The Media We Want

Do we get the media we want or want the media we get? My answer to this question is that we get the media we want. We choose what we are interested in, we chose what we want to watch and listen to. We pick what appeals to us, what we like. The more we like something the more the people in charge of the media produce. For example the movies series of Fast and Furious. This movie has 5 sequels. The first movie came out in 2005 and the fifth movie came out in 2013. This movie is an action packed, thriller movie about cars in the fast lane. The movie was so well liked the first time around they made four more other movies because us, the audience, the consumers wanted it. If the produces didn't get the type of attention they thought the movie should have got, they wouldn't have spent more money to make movies that people wouldn't spend money on to watch.

We, the consumers are the deciding factors for what stays and for what goes. The media is like the survival of the fittest theory. In this theory the animals that are best suited for their surrounding stay and continue to produce and other animals that can’t adopt soon decease and become extinct. The same thing happens in the media. If the producers don't produce something that will attract the viewer’s long term attention they would "decease" on the other hand if the produce can make products that the consumers want they will "survive."

In the text, “Media and Society” under the heading ‘The media are owned, controlled, and created by certain groups who make sense of society on behalf of others’ it states “Those people who own, control, and create the media are the media producers. They are not totally separate social groups, since they are also part of the audience and of society as a whole, but they are a small, elite group, a complex group of people. (Page 37)”. Which means that people that are business owners and managers are still apart of the audience that makes the media just as much as the other people apart of the audience do. Those people bring creativity and interest that they feel will reach the people who are like them. The main media producers see how society reacts and from that, they determine what the people want. Another example is the need for popularity. “They have to win big audiences in order to be economically viable and survive (Page 37)”. This relates back to what I said about the survival of the fittest theory. The media knows that what they produced can get the “boot” if they don’t have enough of the society hooked on what they produced to keep it going. If what they are producing isn’t popular, isn’t reaching the audience’s needs, they would have to pull the plug because it won’t survive.

In conclusion we get the media we want because that is what we ask for. That is what we, as the audience consumer want. We control the media because we have the choice to control what stays and goes. And if there wasn't a demand form the consumers the producers wouldn't have anything to produce. It an on-going cycle that keeps everyone happy.