Media

"If one morning I walked on top of the
water across the Potomac River, the
headline that afternoon would read:
'President Can't Swim.'"
-Lyndon B. Johnson (1908 –1973)

Social Media Revolution: Step Two
Sunday, March 11, 2012, 8:22 PM

Keeping in mind that information dissemination eventually became ‘media’, it makes one wonder. If media was meant as a way of spreading information around, how did it (or at least part of it) become the manipulative, 'propagandesque' mass of data it is now?


As how my generation puts it – because someone found out they could!

Troll Face: Because I can =D

After seeing how communication came about, the next important thing to go through is how these messages started influencing the views of the masses.


The Bobo Doll experiment by Albert Bandura (1977) says we learn through watching others. The introduction of cinema in the 1890s allowed the world to see various facets of life they never would have the chance to see otherwise. And they learned.

The Bobo Doll Experiment

These new films depicted real-life scenarios over the next decade, until someone realized that stories could be told through films. These films were shaped by the dreams and imagination like those by Georges Melies introduced in the 1900s.


Snow White (1937) was then made an animated film, igniting a frenzy of similarly fantasy films to be supplied to the public. These fantastical films were well-received, and society started to demand entertainment instead of education. People wanted to see happy endings and uplifting stories instead of the doom and gloom of the Great Depression.


The sudden boom of these feel-good movies may be due in part to the media industry wanting to cash in on the demand for a diversion, by the public from the severe economic crisis that they were facing. The media used these movies to plant notions of happiness into people’s mind. In short, the Agenda Setting Theory, where the media portrays what is important to the masses. (McComb, Shaw, & Weaver, 1997).

Cinderella's happy ending - Brings tears to my eyes T.T


Due to the changing mindsets of the masses during the post-war era in 1950s, more and more ideas were accepted socially and fed into peoples’ minds. Plots involving racism, gore, etc; all became possible basis for films and songs to be made and churned out to the public.


And so, the media influence continues.



More examples of iconic movies or even songs reflective of their times:
Beatles (1964) – The counterculture movement of the 1960s, era of 'free love'. People were becoming more accepting and open minded.


Grease – Musical (1971) Movie (1978) – Grease – Represents the working-class youth subculture known as the greasers, usually working class ethnics.


Pretty In Pink (1986) – Preppy Culture – Represents shallow and transparent group primarily concerned with extrinsic things


Spice Girls – Wannabe(1996) – Represented the ‘Girl Power’



References:

1. Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. General Learning Press.
2. Mccombs, M, Shaw, D.L., Weaver, D (1997). Communication and democracy: exploring the intellectual frontiers in agenda-setting theory. Mahwah, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. p. 29.ISBN 9780805825558