People all over the globe love to consume media in just about any form that it can be consumed in. Media can anything from books to music and radio to video games. Millions of people consume media everyday no matter where they are, they can be at school, doctor’s office or even getting their oil changed. There are many platforms that one can consume media and the amount of people available to consume to use and consume media make Mass media so lucrative. Mass media is exactly as it sounds, media that can be consumed by as many people as possible on all platforms. With so many people having smartphones and tablets, the amount of people connecting to and viewing media has increased astronomically. With this rise, companies have expanded to the multiple platforms so they can increase their viewership and broadcast to more people.
Mass media is considered a generic term as it can contain others forms of mass media. Mass media can contain pretty much anything that gets news or entertainment to a mass amount of people. The most popular mass media types are Internet, TV broadcast and Radio. Media can be consumed by the masses in books and magazines also but they are not as popular as the top three. The internet is by far the most popular but is the relative new comer. The masses view the news from smartphones and internet enabled computers or tablets. Viewing the news on the internet allows the user to become more interactive with the media. A user may be able to view a wide arrange of pictures that relates to the media they are viewing. An example of this would be say that the president is visiting and giving a speech, an internet user can view better videos or videos from different vantage points. A viewer watching from a TV may not be able to see these videos. Another form of media may be video games, some video games are so popular that they outsell many other forms of media and make more money too. Form of mass media can be as big as global newspapers to something small and niche such as a podcast about selling on a website.
People love to consume news and information. When events happen that are historically important or are informative then the mass media will report that so people can view it. The purpose of mass media is to bring information about anything to people who are willing to consume it. Mass media is not used only for news as it can be used for a lot of other things. Mass marketing is also in the category of mass media. Mass marketing try’s to get its message out to as many people as possible so they reach out to the internet, broadcast and magazines among others. Another type of mass media is entertainment, this can be TV shows, music and video games. Another purpose of mass media is to inform, people create podcasts and videos to show people how to do something. Another common form of mass media is marketing. Companies want their products to be seen by as many people as possible so people can buy them. The more people that see the products the better chance of a purchase they have.
With millions of users consuming media every day, there is bound to be some people who criticize the content or the way that it is delivered. The most common form of criticism that occurs in mass media is that lack of local focus or lack of focus on important issues over others. An example is when there was a royal wedding a few years ago, that wedding took precedence over more important issues such as debt crisis issues and terrorism. Another major issue is the fact that with so many people viewing the news, a simple error could be disastrous. If a news anchor reports some bad information or an internet website becomes infected then that could affect millions of people. If the reporter or the anchor does not do the proper research then they can spread false information. We see al the time when we are at grocery stores in the checkout lanes, we see the celebrity gossip magazines with the covers saying this person is cheating or what not. These types of magazines publish these things to get readers to buy the magazine regardless of if it’s true or not. This is a prime example of spreading false information just to make some money.
Mass media in any form is here and making a big impact on the way we live our lives. It has its touch in every aspect of our lives from our entertainment to our social life. Millions of people consume months of media in a single day on computers, smartphones and broadcast TV. With the amount of people that media outlets can reach it’s no wonder why companies are scrambling to get in to it. There are millions of dollars to be made. When companies scramble to get information out to the masses, some mistakes will be made and false information will be spread out. This is an issue at times but with people following the proper procedures and not rushing, these mistakes can be fixed. As long as people connect and view media, companies will be around creating content for them.