RTF 305: 4th Blog Radio and Audience Demand

             Radio would not exist today without some driving force behind its invention. In my opinion, audience demand is a huge factor for the explosion of radio in the 1920's because with the first radio on the market, society started to catch on to the invention that is the radio, and eventually everyone wanted one inside of their homes.
             Audience demand is vital in any aspect of the media or technology. In order for companies like Apple and Microsoft to make a profit, they have to makes their products marketable and even more importantly, practical for the average person of today's society. Once there is a demand for a product, such as the radio in the 1920's, the industry for that specific product instantly starts booming, and most everyone will have heard about the newest "it" gadget, like the iPod in today's world.
            One example of a force that affected the U.S. radio system was the sinking of the Titantic. Radio was used to save passengers and report news about the disaster before and after the sinking. Once America discovered what a vital use the radio could have, audiences started to tune in to stations after AT&T created the first radio network for private audiences. Thus, the radio industry was created, and people from around the country began to listen to their favorite programs habitually, and networks reaped up profit.

RTF 305: 3rd Blog Cultivation Theory

      Throughout our society, violence is bursting through television screens in such an exaggerated form that viewers have a magnified view of the actual amount present in our world, which is an example of cultivation theory.
      Cultivation theory states that "mass media exposure cultivates a view of the world that is consistent with mediated "reality," or in other words, the media of today convey a certain message or idea over and over and over until finally people start to take it as fact, as the truth, and as reality. A prime example of this is violence in the media. As shown in the video below, many acts of violence committed in our country are so prevalent in the news that TV viewers begin to believe that all these acts of heartless violence are consistent everyday occurrences, and they start to accept them as "normal." The fact is crime rates have been steadily dropping over the past decade, but many television viewers believe the exact opposite because of the vast amount of cruel acts portrayed on news shows. This leads people think that they are vulnerable and in danger of being attacked by a violent criminal like they see on news shows such as Nancy Grace or Dateline's "To Catch a Predator." Leaving people in a state of fear is the ultimate goal of the media, which will keep viewers coming back for more.

RTF 305: Blog Post Ideology

      Most every girl will see ads like these throughout their lifetime. The idea of ideology which is "a system of meaning that helps define and explain the world and that makes value judgments about that world" helps one to understand the meaning of these degrading photos pictured above. Everyday, girls are bombarded with magazine ads, commercials, and billboards that relentlessly convey that to be accepted and beautiful, you must be fragile, inferior, stick-thin, tan, tall, toned, and sexy. If you aren't one of those things, the advertisers want you to fix it, most often with their product which will then benefit their profit and do next-to-nothing for desperate teenage girl simply trying to fit in.

      Advertisers try to brainwash society and more specifically the youth of the world with their idea of what is "normal" and "politically correct." These pictures are indirectly supposed to "mean" that in order to be accepted, young women must exude sex, and be completely recessive. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and many young girls are resorting to eating disorders that give them a false sense of accomplishment and acceptance in a material world that is basically a house of cards. 

RTF 305: First Blog Post

         
My name is Alexandra Nicole Klima. Alex for short. I'm just a small girl living in a lonely world, and RTF 307 is one of the many classes I will take on my journey of growing up to become that "beautiful person." Social situations and visual aspects of the world intrigue me endlessly, so Intro to Media Studies will help me strengthen the grasp I already have on those subjects. I love the fact that the combination of media and technology results in the modern, fresh culture that we as a society experience each and every day. I hope to get a very good feel for what the media actually does and the power it exudes over society in this class. I also hope to transfer to the school of communication with a major in Advertising.