CPCF 1F25 BLOG ENTRY 2: THE MEDIA WE WANT?

I believe that we get the media we want. I feel this way because the media is a business and the only way to maintain a successful business is to provide consumers with what they want. On page thirty seven of the Media and Society textbook O’Shaughnessy and Stadler state, “If people do not like a product, they will look elsewhere for one, so the media must satisfy their popular audience…” (2012). The media is constantly updating their products, providing people with new apps, TV channels, and social media sites. Consumers want new products to fulfill their everyday needs and if the media can no longer satisfy these needs people will look elsewhere for entertainment, causing the media to lose money and business. Teenagers can be considered a popular audience because they fill their lives with different forms of social media. They are constantly in communication with their friends, family, and colleges through social media sites such as facebook and twitter. The media wants to ensure that these sites maintain their ability to entertain and please their audience.  Different apps such as snap chat and vine have become very popular allowing us to send pictures and videos to our friends. The media needs to keep its consumers entertained so it can continue to make money therefore providing people with the media they want.

The audience has a huge impact over what happens in the media. According to O’Shaughnessy & Stadler  on page ninety eight of the Media and Society textbook, “The media try to perfect techniques for measuring the nature of audience response, which they then use as a guide to improving their products” (2012). If a show or advertisement is no longer getting good ratings there will either be a major change such as re casting or a plot twist in attempt to gain higher ratings. If it cannot be improved the show or advertisement will be taken down all together. The media wants to maintain high ratings because if people do not react well to something the media is no longer making money. When watching the news I always notice that the stories you hear about are always big life changing events. This is because the media wants to keep people entertained to maintain ratings therefore providing people with the media they want. Very rarely do you hear a story about twenty dollars that was stolen from a convenience store because people generally do not care.

 I believe that if you asked a wide variety of people of all different ages if they were provided with the media they want I would think they would answer yes. If you turn on your TV you can get a wide range of channels from kid cartoons to movies that were created in the sixties to also provide older audiences with entertainment. The media has such a broad audience to cater to that it must meet all of its consumers’ needs therefore providing everyone with the media they want.  

In conclusion, I feel that we get the media that we want rather than the media we get because the media is a business that wants to make a profit. To do this it will have to provide consumers with the media they want to maintain ratings. The media wants to make money so it is going to give consumers the media they want to do that.