Deconstruct Media Messages
Different forms of media tend to have varying effectiveness, trustworthiness and authoritativeness and have been tailor-made for different forms of messages. There has been a gradual improvement of these media. The paper considers how the history and development of each form of media can impact the media message, examines the purpose of each form of media by describing its target audience and its strengths, weaknesses, uses and misuses, evaluate media messages for the presence of bias by determining the source, audience, and intent of the message, among other things.
The first form of social media is a blog. It is a regularly updated website or webpage, which a small group or an individual runs, and it is written in a conversational or informal style. Starting with the history of blogging, during the early years, different blogging platforms came up. In 1999, there were only 23 blogs on the internet. Political blogs were some of the most popular early blogs. In-depth topic blogs also started becoming popular during this time. In addition, there were some interests in blogging that cropped up guides and related articles. Some popular blogs started in the early 2000s, including Gawker, Gizmodo, and Dooce (Devereux, 2013). Currently, blogs have become only one portion of an individual’s online persona. There are some changes in the sense that podcasts and Vlogs have taken on a bigger role in the blogosphere, with many bloggers opting to use multimedia content.
Blog target audience is a specific group of people the blogger intends to reach. A blogger often writes for a specific group of people who are most likely to engage with the published or posted content. Simply put, the target audience is a group of readers who stand to benefit from the content posted. Blogs are based on well-researched topics, or verifiable facts. The purpose is to educate and inform the audience on specific topic of interest.
Blog is widely read and thus very influential in shaping opinions. Blogs use both visual and text to communicate. Use content that is relatable to what the target audience care about. The blog can be trustworthy and authoritative given that it is well researched and based on verifiable facts. However, one misreading story causes the audience to lose trust in that particular blog. The creative techniques used to attract the attention of the audience include the use of some pictures and photographs of the key stakeholders and the use of bullets in summarizing some of the main points. The question-answer method was used strategically to enable the audience to quickly capture what they would like to get from the blog. The values being propagated in the blog include corporate social responsibility. The message is tailored towards informing.
The next media is a radio segment. The radio waves are said to have been first identified by a German physicist called Heinrich Hertz in the year 1886. The radio transmitters and receivers were developed around 1895 to 1896, and radio started to be used commercially in 1900 (Flew, 2008). The period between 1930 to 1955 is called the golden age of radio, whereby frequently used expressions from popular programs became part of vernacular, and people arranged their schedules around their favorite programs (Fiske, 2016). It was used initially to listen to music. Before becoming a household item, radio served as a communication means for law enforcement, truck drivers, pilots and ship captains. Other developments include golden age of programming, the creation of the radio networks, the development of AM and FM radio (Fiske, 2016). It revolutionized and transformed how the world communicated (2007). With an emphasis on professional journalism, trustworthiness and authority are guaranteed. The target audiences are the listeners conversant with the language and stakeholders who are involved in environmental matters.
To grab attention of listeners, radio presenters use creative techniques such as powerful words, uses easy-to-understand language and catchy jingles. Radio program or ad often ends with a call to action to encourage listeners to take next steps. Telling a relevant and engaging narrative helps capture listeners’ attention. There is wide reach and timely message delivery. A radio is widely accepted as major news source. A radio set is portable and affordable. Radios have a wide coverage in that they are everywhere, in homes, stores, vehicles, and restaurants. The localized nature of radios makes them a popular line of communication. However, radios lack visual element to capture the attention of listeners. They also lack audience fragmentation (Devereux, 2013). It is also local meaning it lacks mass reach. People listening are often engaged in other activities such as driving.
The creator of the program “Science Friday” is not clear, but the guest was Jonathan D. Newman, who was also a cardiologist and an assistant professor. The creativity that ought to have been incorporated includes playing thematic music in the background. However, this was a pure talk show. The message is clear, and therefore there is very little room for bias (Anderson, 2013). The message is for informing and persuading the audience that as much as exercises are important, they must be done in a clean environment, i.e., pure air. The talk is based on verifiable facts as the guest speaker is a professional, and the media can be said to be a valid and reliable source.
The next media post is a tweet about the causes of smog. Twitter was created by a group of people, i.e., Biz Stone and Noah Glass, in 2006. By 2016, over 330 million users were posting 340 million tweets every day (Straubhaar, LaRose & Davenport, 2015). The original twitter was meant to serve as a medium to exchange daily status updates with acquaintances and friends. In 2009 twitter introduced retweeting feature and added hyperlinks to hashtags, enabling users to stay in the know of current trends and share stories (Murphy, 2019). In 2012 tweet linked images and videos thereby increasing visual user experience. The introduction of animated GIF in 2014 increased engagement. But now it has developed into a PR-infused media platform for sharing stories and news headlines in real time (Murphy, 2019). Twitter connects people and allows them to share their thoughts with a bigger audience. Instant updates have made twitter a popular platform for many people. The use of hashtag to index topics and keywords make it easy to find subjects of interest to follow. Hashtags can mobilize people for a social cause or to address injustices.
Many message posted on twitter tend to truthful and reliable but the platform is equally employed to unintentionally spread misinformation. In addition, Twitter authority is still developing but twitter postings are can prove if the user is credible and reliable authority (Jelen, & McCallister, 2014). Nevertheless, in addition, twitter has become a popular communication channel owing to how quickly and easily information is relayed. It is possible to reach a large number of people quickly through tweets and retweets, and it makes it possible to follow the works of other experts in certain fields.
There is no doubt that Twitter is a popular source for news. Its news-promoting features, trends element and concise word limit make it a popular choice for audience who wish to be in the know. News are more visible to users. Breaking news tweets are put at the top of user timelines so as to increase user engagement. The displaying of live news next to the timeline and inclusion of current news stories on the Trend feature increases engagement. The image used also reinforces the message and makes it have a visual appeal. While twitter transmits timely breaking news to the public and media quickly, it is prone to spreading misinformation. False news and rumors spread faster than true news because they are tailored to elicit strong emotions. The weakness of this form of media includes spamming and the addictive power of social networking sites.
Tweeter uses creative such as texts, GIFs, images or videos to attract attention. Users are invited to participate by way of retweeting, commenting and sharing stories. This makes users very involved and part of. Use of clips and short videos appeal to senses. The target audience ranges from individuals to governments, famous celebrities, businesses and marketers. The values propagated here also entail corporate social responsibility (Devereux, 2013). Since this is an ordinary tweet, it may be a mere opinion, and the reliability and validity of the source are subject to verification.
Newspaper is another form of media considered. Ancient romans are credited for publishing the first newspaper call Acta Diurna. Lack of press to produce in large volumes limited the distribution of these newspapers. The invention of a movable-type press in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg allowed reproduction of printed newspapers in large volumes. This caused the price of printing to decrease. This gave rise to modern-day journalism. Government prosecution and censured meant that the newspapers never covered local events. Early newspapers followed either German-style pamphlet or the Dutch-style corantos. The first English Corontos appeared in London in 1621 (Devereux, 2013). The news book had taken the form of a newspaper by 1640. Newspapers begun to appear in colonial America in 1669. Earlier successful newspapers printed by penny press included The Sun and New York Morning Herald. The fall in the price of printing dropped, access to information improved. Newspaper began to appear more frequently. They also changed from monthly broadsheets to frequently issued almanacs. Today, several editions are issued per day. Original newspapers had small text size and crammed due to high cost of ink, paper and printing. Today, the text size of newspapers is larger and given enough space. In addition, nowadays digital newspapers exist churning out podcasts, news updates, videos, and listicles.
To grab attention, newspapers use newspapers use attention-grabbing headlines, and pictures to look more relatable. They also tend to be geographically targetable. Newspapers have a reputation as the most reliable and trustworthy source of information. They trust newspapers to provide timely and accurate news or information. Newspapers or print material are on decline due to competition from digital form. In addition, newspapers have a short shelf-life and tend to be as up-to-date as their media allow. Newspapers are not appropriate for reaching affluent audience due to decline in readership; especially younger generations who are digitally savvy. They do not illicit emotions among readers
In the age of misinformation, newspapers are trusted the most as reliable resource to deliver accurate, unbiased and fair reporting. They remain the most trustworthy source. The audience is general since pollution is said to affect the cognitive abilities of anyone. The strength of this media form is that it can be stored for future reference as more research is done to improve knowledge in this field. The weakness is that it may require some expert knowledge to comprehend it fully. The message has been created in the New York Times, although it is not clear on the person that created the message. Therefore, it is a professional article and calls for less creative techniques other than the research methodologies used. The message is tailored towards informing, and it is reliable, valid and contains facts that can be verified through research.
Finally, televisions have existed for less than 100 years, given that in the 1940s; only a few households had televisions (Straubhaar, LaRose & Davenport, 2015). Televisions have changed over time by becoming digital, smaller and convenient for many people. The effectiveness of the message delivered can be guaranteed because of both the auditory and visual appeal. The target audience for the message is the entire public. The message was created by PBS NewsHour. It is a call to action instilling a sense of responsibility to avoid the negative impacts on public health. The message is sent to inform, and it is based on real-life events. It is therefore reliable and contains verifiable facts. TV provides information and presents news stories that inform the citizens. News anchors are supposed to report news stories accurately and fairly without favorism. TV promotes cultural and scientific curiosity. It does this by competing with human interactions in helping children develop values and by stereotyping race, class, and gender. It also promotes understanding of social issues. TV can also contribute to increased consumerism and materialism
Based on the aforementioned discussion, the order of most useful to least useful forms of media is as follows Television> Newspaper> Radio>Blog >Twitter. TV is the most useful as it is the most trusted source of information, reaches mass audience and offers greatest creative opportunity, including visual, sound and emotional tough that appeal to potential audience. Twitter and blog can never replace TV as the main source of news stories (Sullivan, 2006). Newspapers also provide more reliable information, have authority and provide timely information. Lack of visuals and short-shelf life makes newspaper less effective than TV. Radio is trustworthy and involves local community but it has some limitations that make radios less effective. Blogs and Twitter can reach a broader audience and deliver news and current stories instantly (Straubhaar, LaRose & Davenport, 2015). They also have greater engagement in addition to greater creative opportunities. However, they are less trusted as reliable source of information and its authority is still developing. Both twitter and blog can be used to complement TV, newspapers or radio.
In conclusion, Most of the above media forms have a history that can be traced from decades ago or centuries. The strong emergence of a professional code of conduct has regulated media forms, thus imparting a good level of trustworthiness and authoritativeness. This includes media forms such as television and radios. The changes affecting the media forms have been gradual and positive. The media messages were tailored towards informing, and most of them have been tailor-made for this purpose.
References
Anderson, A. (2013). Media, culture and the environment. Routledge.
Devereux, E. (2013). Understanding the media. Sage.
Fiske, J. (2016). Media matters. New York: Routledge.
Flew, T. (2008). New media: An introduction. Oxford University Press.
Gugliotta, G. (2007). How Radio Changed Everything. Discover. https://www.discovermagazine.com/technology/how-radio-changed-everything
Jelen, C., & McCallister, M. (2014). Build your author platform the new rules: A literary agent’s guide to growing your audience in 14 steps. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books.
Murphy, C. (2019). Twitter Twist: The evolution of twitter. Boston Digital. https://www.bostondigital.com/insights/tweet-twist-evolution-twitter
Straubhaar, J., LaRose, R., & Davenport, L. (2015). Media now: Understanding media, culture, and technology. Cengage Learning.
Sullivan, P. (2006). “As the Internet Grows Up, the News Industry Is Forever Changed,” Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/13/AR2006061300929.html.
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