As a journalist, media theorist, and author of Everything Bad Is Good for You, Steven Johnson is a formidable activist for the most revolutionary technological achievement to date; the internet. In “Dawn of the digital natives,” an article in the Guardian, Johnson urges readers to look at the positive impact of the new electronic media age and critically at the National Endowment for the Arts study “To Read or Not to Read” that provoked a panic about the decline of reading. However, Nicholas Carr, a 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist, shares his testimony of how his internet usage of more than a decade has eroded his capacity to concentrate and contemplate. Although the two articles were published in 2008, before the explosion of smartphone sales in 2012, the presence of social media, YouTube, and smartphones increased sensitivity to the issue. Consequently, this sensitivity might make readers more receptive to opinions about these new technologies. While both Johnson and Carr both implement an impressive combination of the three modes of persuasion, Johnson fails to follow through with an adequate balance of
It’s evident that humanity has achieved seemingly impossible feats through technology and inventions; yet, it’s equally clear that technology can be a mindless distraction from unavoidable life issues that individuals try to escape. Though technology was intended for good, something people can benefit from, it’s become a quick escape for people so that they may easily sit and drool before a colored screen instead of applying themselves to something meaningful. Television and social media has hindered humanity because of its uselessness. It is an unnecessary addition to people’s daily routine that ultimately allows people to pretend to be involved in society, but in reality it creates a means to evade responsibility and endeavors.
The movie, The American President, depicts several reliable roles that the president performs, as well as, some of the aspects of our political system. It is a romantic comedy that takes place in the White House, during primary season. The president, Andrew Shepperd, is a widower, with a daughter, who is hoping to be reelected and pass two bills. One related to gun control and the other on fuel restrictions.
The author, Robert Epstein, has a background in psychology and behavioral research. He is the author of 15 books and the former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today. In this article he ha taken the stance that the Internet can and is being used to manipulate people in their thoughts, feelings, and actions. The author provides research to prove his point that the Internet is causing a change in our society. He talks about how the internet can influence us on how we vote in this upcoming election and how it can be taken and used to “spy” on what we are doing in our day to day life. The rhetorical devices that he has used in his article really help to build credibility and trust among the readers. He uses some of these devices to instill fear of the unknown to gain more interest. The rhetorical devices that he uses the most are Appeal to Fear, Allusion, Appeal to Authority, and Logical Reasoning. These four main devices thrust forward his point in the manipulation that the Internet can cause.
Nicholas Carr, What the Internet is doing to Our Brains The Shallows (2010) asserts that, “The price we pay to assume technology’s power is alienation.” He supports this assertion by saying, “They both ultimately achieve their mental and behavioral effects by shaping the synaptic organization of the brain.” Also by, “ We long to keep it activated.” The writer concludes in order for people to improve their thoughts, they will have to cope with the new technology and how they think.
Establishing government is one of the most important inventions develop human beings. As a system to control a state or community, government serves for citizens and put them first. In Homeric Age, the regime of Athens is citizens can go into politics directly, just like governor who wield the supreme power, this kind of regime called Direct Democracy. Be developed in ancient Greece, Direct Democracy helped ancient Greece make tons of achievements in different fields; also laid the fundamental of western political system of modern time. This essay will focus on the reasons of why government is necessary in our society and why Direct Democracy is not fit for modern United States of America, although brought a splendid time for ancient Greece.
One hundred years ago nobody heard about the news or current events from Facebook or the newest tweet. Until fairly recently the most up to date news had to be heard through the grapevine or read in a newspaper. Since the creation of the internet and the mass media that comes with it, information can now be spread all the way across the world in the time it takes to hit the enter button on a computer or phone and upload it to the internet. Some people think that this is a bad thing because so many things that are uploaded can be either false information or simply information that is misleading and could teach individuals the wrong thing. However, if mass media is used in the right way it can be beneficial to the accessibility of valuable information,
Modern media comes in many different formats, including newspapers, magazines, television, social media, etc. The main media’s used are social media and television which are the main focus of chapter 9. Shirky’s article “Why I Just Asked My Students To Put Their Laptops Away” begins to talk about a way that people investigate and draw conclusions about the intersection of technology and everyday life. While Elavia writes about how reality shows are viewer driven rather producer or network driven. One thing social media and television have in common is how much of an impact they have on today. Everywhere you look there are ‘perfect’ images being displayed representing unrealistic goals.
Aziz Ansari said “...change doesn't come from presidents. Change comes from large groups of angry people” however I think he is wrong, but he is also right. To create change we need both. Presidents, a lot of the time do what the people want, especially if they're angry, however, they don't have to. The large groups of angry people can't change the law, but the president can. So the large groups need to scare the president enough that he will change what they want, or the president needs to agree with the people and make the change.
your mind being bombarded with ads every moment of your life, and a world of people connected to the internet, constantly being fed a stream of games, shows, and chats into their brain through a system called the Feed. This imaginary culture is reflective of what the world is like today, and the Feed is symbolic of how distracted the world has become to media. Media is not only a distraction, but it is also a destructive force because it unfocuses people’s thoughts from the real world. The Feed is symbolic of media and also relates to the theme of media and advertisement.
For years people have played the “blame game” with media and its effects on society. It has been questioned whether the media helps or hurts more in its overall impacts. The media consists of magazines, advertisements, TV shows, and social pages such as Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter, and Facebook, all in which society seems to be addicted to. The real question is, is having all of these sources of media positively or negatively affecting society? Some people blame the media for harming society by causing eating disorders and a low self esteem. On the other hand, many others believe that it helps society in ways such as keeping people physically fit and boosting self confidence by posting selfies. While society has its opinions on whether the media helps them or hurts them, it contributes both positive and negative impacts on body image and self esteem.
According to Baran (2012) mass communication can be defined as “the process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences.” This essay aims to discuss the degree to which we are shaped by our interaction with the media. In order to achieve the aforementioned aim of this essay I will focus on the following: limited-effects theory, two-step flow theory, attitude change theory and agenda setting.
Media are platforms of mass communication that can be categorized as either new of traditional media, with new media being forms of communication that make use of technologies such as the Internet, and traditional media being more conventional forms of media such as newspapers. Media, primarily new media, is getting more popular and influential, especially in today’s day and age since we are exposed to it a lot more than in the past and also since media is more easily accessible now. The media can shape our behaviours, perceptions and opinions, and it is important to know how people are influenced and impacted by it. The media can influence someone’s perception of social reality, or perceptions of beauty or even influence people’s behaviours and habits and therefore, the media does shape who we are.
As what was mentioned on the three paragraphs above, researches have shown that television changes people’s behavior and how it able to propagandized the society through advertisements. Just like the television, the social media poses negative threats to the society such as cyber-bulling and how it shapes ones idea to have suicidal thoughts and making them believe that suicide is the only way to resolve problems. The radio also plays an important role in shaping the people’s idea. As radios don’t have visual contents, it all depends on how attentive the people are towards the radio as the lack of attentiveness may lead to the wrong information and audience may have different views or ideas about certain things. The researches given in this essay are evidence to show that mass media plays an important role in people’s life and how it able shapes the people’s idea. More research needs to be done to show that there are other factors other than what was mentioned above that could shape ones idea. However, other people may have different opinions about it. I would conclude that even though mass media can influent people’s idea, it all depends on how an individual uses these mediums to shape their
The theory explains “how individuals use mass communication to gratify their needs” (Burgeon, Hunsaker and Dawson, 1994, cited in Udende and Azeez, 2010, p. 34). The theory holds that “people influence the effects that mass media have on them” (Anaeto et al, 2008 cited in Edegoh, Asemah and Nwammuo, 2013, p. 23). The assumption of the theory is that people are not just passive receivers of media messages; rather, they actively influence the message effects. Media audience selectively choose, attend to, perceive and retain media offerings on the basis of their needs, beliefs, etc., thus, “there are as many reasons for using the media as there are media users” (Anaeto et al, 2008, p. 71).