People Love Radio!

I believe that audience demand was probably the most influential in shaping the radio industry in the 1920’s. If a new product comes out and no one is interested in it, it's demolished soon after. Radio was a universal interest in the 1920's. If it wasn't for its popularity with the people, radio would not have been as successful as it is today.

There are new technological inventions begin created all the time. The radio helps the public stay up to date. Whether people are listening to news, music, or soap operas, they are still listening. In order for any product to be successful the public has to enjoy it. The radio played a crucial role in saving passengers and reporting news on the titanic disaster. This incident immediately attracted attention to the growing forms of technology, so much that the Radio Act of 1912 was created. According to our textbook Media Now, the Radio Act of 1912 began the regulation of airwaves and was the first licensed radio transmitters.

We have learned in previous chapters that media companies compete with each other to attract and capture their audiences.  Radio offered advertisers direct access to the homes of the public. As displayed in Radio Days, the family tunes in to the radio all day every day to listen to their favorite ads, shows, music, and news. To increase the size of the audience, advertisers now tend to turn stations toward entertaining programs. In the 1920’s advertisers were worried there was too much news and not enough entertainment taking place on the air, but because the radio was so new and popular with the people, they were enthusiastic about anything the radio industry aired.

This video gives a little more background on the history of radio. It gives evidence of the audience’s effects on radio by sharing that the first commercial radio station was not open until 1920, and 3 million radio sets were already purchased in America by 1922.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VroOv5FHwlk 

PRIMING

My last post was about agenda setting and how the media gets to choose what the audience sees, which means they have a major say in telling the public what to think about. Priming intertwines with agenda setting because they both have a major effect on the media’s audience. Under aged kids watching rated R movies is an example of the priming theory.

The priming theory infers that media images stimulate related thoughts in the minds of audience members. People are not usually aware that the priming is taking place because it is understood to occur outside the awareness of our conscious. Priming is different from memory that straightforwardly retrieves information because direct retrieval relies on explicit memory, and priming uses implicit memory. The effects of priming are proven through research and little examples in everyday life like kids watching rated R movies.

A study took place in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs that found that youngsters who watch rated R movies are much more prone to drinking than those who don’t. The doctors who took on this study believe that when a child sees adult content in movies it actually changes the adolescent’s personality, and sadly it is becoming more and more common for kids to watch rated R movies.  A commenter posted their thoughts about the study that I found interesting. “I think that’s true. The first R rated movie I saw was Color Purple and I was only 7. I can still remember asking my mother for a shot of tequila after watching that.” Pondering this comment makes me think back to the days of my childhood when my parents wouldn’t allow me to watch BRING IT ON. I was so angry at the time, but now when I hear my nine year old little cousin singing along to Kesha’s famous single Tick Tock, which speaks of brushing teeth with a bottle of jack; it makes me realize how times have changed, how the media has changed, and how kids have changed because of this media.  

This video of Beyonce's Single Ladies compared to the video of a group of 7 year old girls in a dance competition is a prime example of how the media has effected the girls and an example of the priming theory in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m1EFMoRFvY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir8BO4-7DkM

sources:

Cherry, Kendra. “What is Priming?” September 19. 2010. www.psychology.about.com. Web.

Franich, Darren. R-rated movies can cause early drinking, says Science; “Pop Watch.” April 26. 2010 www.popwatch.ew.com. Web.

AGENDA SETTING

Agenda setting can be described as the process in which mass media determines what the public thinks about. The Coverage of a Tsunami vs. an Earthquake in the German TV news helps me to understand the effects of agenda setting by looking at the drastic results after the media chose what to share with the public.



The media sets the agenda, the topic that’s discussed and shown to the world. By being able to choose what the public sees, the media affects the opinions of the public. More specifically, gatekeepers can either decide to cover a story or let it fade away until no one remembers its existence. My example of agenda setting compares a tsunami that hit South-East Asia in December 2004 to an equally disastrous earthquake that hit Pakistan in October 2005. The gatekeepers covered both natural disasters, but one definitely dominated the other.


The difference between the coverage of the tsunami and the earthquake was very noticeable. Because the tsunami received far more publicity in both printed media and television, the public was more aware of the disaster and donated more funds. In comparison, the earthquake received very little funds because the coverage was microscopic compared to that of the tsunami. For example, just in Germany, the tsunami received 666 reports in the three tv channels, resulting in $USD178 million, while the earthquake received 66 reports that contributed to donations of only $USD8 million.

This video is an example of how much media coverage the Asia tsunami received. It was number 6 in the 2004 Tsunami Top Ten News Stories Of The Decade. I believe these facts represent that the media is able to mentally prioritize our world through agenda setting.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr5JLBwoewk


Source: Agenda Setting Theory, http://www.agendasetting.com/res_theory.php. Web