Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Technology and Media Changing Throughout the Years

          Technology has been rapidly changing throughout the years. Companies like CBS  started out using media such as the radio during the 1920s and started using other forms of technology when times were changing . By the 1950s the television was invented and CBS created a television channel to reach an audience. However as people start stating their opinions through news pieces and create television shows with different type of storylines, people loose their sense of sense. In other words they don't follow the bear of their own drum and agree with everyone else within that point of view. Neil Postman is an American author, media theorist and culture critic who believes that technologies such as television discourage critical thinking. By using the concept called technological determinism, Postman believes that technology itself is an inate characteristic, which is the driving force for social change.
          Jason Gross is a freelance web designer, who is focused on creating clean and user friendly websites. He posts articles about tehnology and media in SMASHING Magazine. SMASHING Magazine is a website and blog offers resources and advice to web developers and web designers. On July 4, 2011 Gross posted an article called The Medium is the Message.  The aricle starts off by mentioning about how we communicate with one another and how it defines who we actually are, which makes us unique individuals in our culture. This is shown through a wide variety of channels that has evolved media over the century from print to radio to television to the Internet. Each one of these channels or medias has its own unique charactistics, just like the people who use them.
        Just like Neil Postman, Marshall McLuhan ws a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar. Before he died, McLuhan was a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist. McLuhan's work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory, in addition to being one of the practical applications in the advertising and television industries. As McLuhan introduced a number of observations about the impact of news forms of media and technology. An expression McLuhan came up with "the medium is the messge" has an impact in mass media. The phrase sums up a much deeper communication theory, which means that the medium we choose to communicate with has as much, if not more, the value of the messahe itself.
        I agree with both Neil Postman's point of view as well as Marshall McLuhan's point of view because both men believe that media has drastically changed over the years. They both state that people use these types of media not only to entertain themselves but makes their opinions change as well. While we in a socially use media to communicate on a social level, people also use media to persuade peoples opinions, which make them unable to make their own decisions. It may not be fair, but the fact is media is present in our society and it's not going away any time soon. So we might as well get use to it!

Wanna read Jason Gross' article?

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