Blog #1: Media in Everyday Life (EXTRA)

Terms Defined within the article provided as evidence for the author’s perception of “Mass Media:”Mass Media:

Propaganda which functions as a tool of cultural imperialism by politically unifying societies as well as their neighboring nations, as well as a means for society to define proper judgments and determine social roles.
Public Sphere: Ideally a space, a physical space, social setting, or media arena, in which citizens come together to debate and discuss the pressing issues of their society; where private persons can discuss common matters of the public, allowing the formation of public opinion.
Convergence: The collaboration of multiple forms of media into one broadcast in order to reach multiple societies and produce more effective messages.
Critique: Analyzing a form of media, or political issues presented and interpreted through mediums of media, and emphasizing areas of improvement and flaws, as well as successful aspects.

Since the advent of Mass Media, digital culture has become thoroughly integrated with our society’s daily routines. Multiple aspects of our lives are driven, influenced, and interrupted by digital media. For instance, clocks help drive our sense of time, cell phones and the internet provide means of social communication, and digital advertisements such as commercials are practically impossible to evade. Digital culture is taking away from physical human interaction and consequentially human dependency. Society has transitioned from rural lifestyles to more digitally dependent, urbanized ones. Mass media is now connecting all these urbanized societies through large broadcasts, and consequentially conforming such societies under the same rules, as determined by transitional media corporations and the government. In other words, our media paradigm has been infiltrated since the advent of Mass Media, and has transformed from being simply entertaining and informative, into a brainwashing dependency. Culture is no longer being formed and created by society, but is being manipulated by the government under the influence of successful media companies.