How media consumption patterns shape audience beliefs and behavior

Media

Processes of Consumption in Audiences

Media consumption typical of the fairly complex patterns characterized…does not happen in a vacuum distinct from other social behaviors or everyday behaviors. We have, in contemporary society, come to integrate many forms of mass media into our everyday lives without even thinking about how we navigate such pathways. This development has extremely compelling results we should consider…we readily adopt forms of media into our daily lives [which] means that we generally also engage the content of those media without serious consideration. (Chapter 1 -- Introduction to the Study of Media Effects, 4)

The text of focus for the purposes of this assignment is Chapter 1 -- Introduction to the Study of Media Effects. This was a sound introduction. The writing was concise and informative. It was also clear that the author's intended audience was for undergraduate or graduate students, born in the 1980s and 1990s. This is somewhat rare for a textbook. Many textbooks are intended for undergraduates, yet not many of them make a point to directly address or call out that this book is for people of a certain generation. The book provides context for those who were not yet born during some of the periods in history that are mentioned. The chapter does a solid job of explaining what media effects are and providing background upon the various areas within the topic are ripe for study.

The first major point of the chapter is that media effects people. The author makes a point to state that media effects exist and these effects are measurable. The text describes a range of what the effects could be. The second major point of the text is to make readers aware that patterns in media consumption exist. The text argues that the majority of media content is narrow in its representations of types of people. With repeated consumption and established patterns of consumption, consumers gradually adopt the beliefs of the media they consume. In other words, what people watch on television, for example, over time makes them believe that what they have seen holds true for all the kinds of people represented in the programming. Consumers then act upon the beliefs that their media has influenced within them, altering their behaviors as well. This is a longer way to say that media effects people's behavior. Richness and diversity with regard to media representations has great potential to effect the lived social context of consumers. Media can change peoples' attitudes for the better or for the worse; nonetheless, the power is there and is being exercised.

The context of this chapter reminds me of a field that I recently learned of called Media Psychology. Something that I find funny about all these ideas in this chapter and in the media psychology textbooks I have come across is that, two decades or so ago, if someone proclaimed that media effects consumers, that person would have been called crazy, or would be accused of overreacting. That person would also likely be dared to prove those effects to a less than open-minded audience. In the 21st century, when a person contends that media effects consumers, such a person is encouraged to perform research and write upon his/her findings. This kind of information holds significance for distributors of media as well, with the advent and importance of such fields as data visualization and data or predictive analytics. Consumers' patterns of media consumption -- those are highly coveted and useful statistics that are used by film studios, social media/networking, television networks, and just about every media outlet that exists.

The changes and developments in media as well as the changes in the thinking regarding media's effects bring us to the next point of the text. The next major point of the text is that media evolves. Media exists within a landscape, and that landscape has seen major evolution in recent decades. The forms of media and the methods of consumption have proliferated. As a result of these and other changes, the definition of mass media has changed. There are definitions, such as media and mass media, and when the media landscape changes or the media forms change, the definitions must change along with them in order to retain accuracy and utility. This is a theme throughout the text.

Yet another important section in this chapter is the stressing of the importance of knowing or studying media conglomerates and the homogenization of media objects. This section called to mind the famous piece by Walter Benjamin of the Frankfurt School called "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Both this text and that text discuss the possibility of diminishing the work of art or the authenticity of the artistic process with the advent of technologies that make mass production possible. This issue is important for media theorists or researchers insofar as research into conglomerates and homogenization tracks the interplay between content and effects as well as tracking the spectrum of representation. This topic is important to media artists because conglomerates mean lack of content and message diversity in media in addition to limited economic opportunities for media producers who conform.