The author, W. James Potter, warns us that if we are not self-aware, the mass media will herd us into audiences for their most profitable messages. What steps can you take to make sure this does not happen to you?
MEDIA LITERACY
Tenth Edition
MEDIA LITERACY
Tenth Edition
W. James Potter
University of California
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Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Potter, W. James, author.
Title: Media literacy / W. James Potter, University of California.
Description: Tenth edition. | Los Angeles: SAGE, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020040323 | ISBN 9781071814451 (paperback) | ISBN 9781071814482
(epub) | ISBN 9781071814499 (epub) | ISBN 9781071814475 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Media literacy.
Classification: LCC P96.M4 P68 2020 | DDC 302.23072/1—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020040323
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
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BRIEF CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
PART I • INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 • Why Increase Media Literacy?
Chapter 2 • Media Literacy Approach
PART II • EFFECTS
Chapter 3 • Broadening Our Perspective on Media Effects
Chapter 4 • How Does the Media Effects Process Work?
PART III • INDUSTRY
Chapter 5 • Development of the Mass Media Industries
Chapter 6 • Economic Perspective
PART IV • AUDIENCE
Chapter 7 • Audience: Industry Perspective
Chapter 8 • Audience: Individual Perspective
PART V • CONTENT
Chapter 9 • Entertainment
Chapter 10 • Advertising
Chapter 11 • News
Chapter 12 • Competitive Experiences
Chapter 13 • Social Networking Experiences
Chapter 14 • Acquisition Experiences
PART VI • SPRINGBOARD
Chapter 15 • Helping Yourself and Others to Increase
Media Literacy
INTRODUCTION TO THE ISSUES CHAPTERS
Issue 1 • Ownership of Mass Media Businesses
Issue 2 • Sports
Issue 3 • Media Violence
Issue 4 • Privacy
Glossary
References
Index
DETAILED CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
PART I • INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 • Why Increase Media Literacy?
The Information Problem
Growth Is Accelerating
High Degree of Exposure
Keeping Up
Dealing with the Information Problem
Our Mental Hardware
Our Mental Software
Automatic Routines
Advantages and Disadvantages
The Big Question
Summary
Further Reading
Keeping Up to Date
Chapter 2 • Media Literacy Approach
What Is Media Literacy?
The Three Building Blocks of Media Literacy
Skills
Knowledge Structures
Personal Locus
The Definition of Media Literacy
Media Literacy Is Multidimensional
Media Literacy Is a Continuum, Not a Category
The Development of Media Literacy
Advantages of Developing a Higher Degree of Media
Literacy
Appetite for Wider Variety of Media Messages
More Self-Programming of Mental Codes
More Control over Media
Summary
Further Reading
Exercise
PART II • EFFECTS
Chapter 3 • Broadening Our Perspective on Media Effects
Four-Dimensional Analytical Tool
Timing of Effects
Valence of Effects
Consumer Perspective
Media Business Perspective
Intentionality of Effects
Consumer Perspective
Media Business Perspective
Type of Effects
Cognitive-Type Effect
Belief-Type Effect
Attitudinal-Type Effect
Physiological-Type Effect
Emotional-Type Effect
Behavioral-Type Effect
Macro-Type Effects
Using the Four-Dimensional Analytic Tool
The Example of Addiction
The Analysis
Becoming More Media Literate
Summary
Further Reading
Exercises
Chapter 4 • How Does the Media Effects Process Work?
Media Effects Are Constantly Occurring
Manifested Effects and Process Effects
Baseline Effects and Fluctuation Effects
Factors Influencing Media Effects
Baseline Factors
Demographics
Developmental Maturities
Cognitive Abilities
Personal Locus
Knowledge Structures
Sociological Factors
Media Exposure Habits
Fluctuation Factors
Content of the Messages
Context of Portrayals
Cognitive Complexity of Content
Motivations
States
Degree of Identification
Process of Influence
Thinking about Blame
Becoming More Media Literate
Summary
Further Reading
Keeping Up to Date
Exercises
PART III • INDUSTRY
Chapter 5 • Development of the Mass Media Industries
The Evolution Pattern
Stages of Evolution
Innovation Stage
Penetration Stage
Peak Stage
Decline Stage
Adaptation Stage
Comparisons across Mass Media
Revolution Pattern of Development
The Analog Media
Channel
Decision Making
Messages
The Digital Media
Channel
Decision Making
Messages
Range of Experiences
Convergence
Profile of Mass Media Workforce
Summary
Further Reading
Keeping Up to Date
Exercises
Chapter 6 • Economic Perspective
The Media Game of Economics
The Players
The Goal
Characteristics of the Game
Nature of Competition
Complex Interdependency among Players
Importance of Valuing Resources Well
Digital Convergence
Media Industry Strategies
Maximizing Profits
Increasing Revenue
Minimizing Expenses
Constructing Audiences
Attracting People to Niche Audiences
Conditioning Audiences
Reducing Risk
Consumers’ Strategies
Default Strategy
Media Literacy Strategy
Summary
Further Reading
Keeping Up to Date
Exercises
PART IV • AUDIENCE
Chapter 7 • Audience: Industry Perspective
The Shift from Mass to Niche Perspective on Audience
What Is a Mass Audience?
Rejection of the Idea of a Mass Audience
The Idea of Niche Audiences
Identifying Niches
Geographic Segmentation
Demographic Segmentation
Social Class Segmentation
Geodemographic Segmentation
Psychographic Segmentation
Twelve American Lifestyles
VALS Typology
Attracting Audiences
Appeal to Existing Needs and Interests
Cross-Media and Cross-Vehicle Promotion
Conditioning Audiences
Summary
Further Reading
Exercises
Chapter 8 • Audience: Individual Perspective
Information Processing
Filtering
Meaning Matching
Meaning Construction
Analyzing the Idea of Exposure to Media Messages
Exposure and Attention
Physical Exposure
Perceptual Exposure
Psychological Exposure
Attention
Exposure States
Automatic State
Attentional State
Transported State
Self-Reflexive State
Information-Processing Traits
Cognitive Traits
Field Independency
Crystalline Intelligence
Fluid Intelligence
Conceptual Differentiation
Emotional Traits
Emotional Intelligence
Tolerance for Ambiguity
Non-impulsiveness
The Media Literacy Approach
Processing Information
Tools
Summary
Further Reading
Exercises
PART V • CONTENT
Chapter 9 • Entertainment
What Is Entertainment?
Audience’s Perspective
Programmers’ Perspective
Patterns
Content Analysis Method
Character Patterns
Controversial Elements
Health
Body Image
Telling Stories as a Business
Story Formulas
General Story Formula
Genres
Comedy
Drama
Romance
Challenges
Different Media
Changing Public Taste
Dealing with Risk
Becoming Media Literate with Entertainment Messages
Appreciate the Blend of Reality and Fantasy
Appreciate Story Formulas
Summary
Further Reading
Keeping Up to Date
Exercises
Chapter 10 • Advertising
Advertising Is Pervasive
Advertising Strategies
Traditional Strategy
Digital Strategies
Tools of Advertising
Tools for Identifying Audiences
Tools for Persuading Audiences
Search Engine Optimization
Recommender Systems
Ratings Services
Buying Funnel
Becoming More Media Literate with Advertising
Analyze Your Personal Needs
Analyze Ads
Look for Differences
Evaluate the Ads
Summary
Further Reading
Keeping Up to Date
Exercises
Chapter 11 • News
Dynamic Nature of News
Rise and Fall of “Big News”
Shift to Online Sources of News
Changes in the Need for News
Changes in News Content
More Immediate
More Local
Shorter News Stories
Multimedia Stories
Different Perspectives on News
Political Philosophy Perspective
Professional Journalism Perspective
Economic Perspective
Marketing Perspective
Standards for Evaluating News
By Type of Producer
By News Criteria
By Accuracy
By News Perspective
How Can We Become More Media Literate with News?
Exposure Matters
Quality Matters
Be Analytical
Evaluate Facts
Evaluate the News Story
Be Skeptical
Summary
Further Reading
Keeping Up to Date
Exercises
Chapter 12 • Competitive Experiences
Attraction to Digital Games
Who Are the Players?
Why the Attraction?
The Game-Playing Experience
Creating Digital Game Platforms
Designing Digital Games
Marketing Digital Games
Types of Games
Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games
(MMORPGs)
Digital Games as Sport
Addiction to Digital Games
Addiction Defined
The Addiction Progression
Displacement
Dependence
Addiction
Media Literacy
Personal Implications
Broader Concerns
Summary
Further Reading
Keeping Up to Date
Exercise
Chapter 13 • Social Networking Experiences
Friendship
History
Attraction
Effects
Negative Effects
Dating
Both Negative and Positive Effects
Attraction
Dangers
Living
Second Life
Farmville
The Sims
Attraction to Virtual Worlds
Opinion Sharing
Blogs
Attraction
Media Literacy with Social Networking
Summary
Further Reading
Keeping Up to Date
Exercise
Chapter 14 • Acquisition Experiences
Information
Music
Video
Shopping
Acquisition Issues
Shopping Addiction
Piracy
The Economy
Media Literacy with Acquisition Platforms
Summary
Further Reading
Keeping Up to Date
Exercises
PART VI • SPRINGBOARD
Chapter 15 • Helping Yourself and Others to Increase
Media Literacy
Helping Yourself
Ten Guidelines
1. Strengthen Your Personal Locus
2. Develop an Accurate Awareness of Your
Exposure Patterns
3. Acquire a Broad Base of Useful Knowledge
4. Think About the Reality–Fantasy
Continuum
5. Examine Your Mental Codes
6. Examine Your Opinions
7. Change Behaviors
8. Become More Skilled at Designing
Messages
9. Do Not Take Privacy for Granted
10. Take Personal Responsibility
Illustrations of Milestones
Cognitive Ladder
Emotional Ladder
Moral Ladder
Aesthetic Appreciation Ladder
Examples of Levels of Literacy
Helping Others
Interpersonal Techniques
Interventions
Public Education
Current Situation
Barriers
What Can You Do?
Societal Techniques
Summary
Keeping Up to Date
Exercises
INTRODUCTION TO THE ISSUES CHAPTERS
Issue 1 • Ownership of Mass Media Businesses
Delineating the Issue
Arguments against Concentration of Ownership of
Media Companies
Arguments for Concentration of Ownership of Media
Companies
Evidence of Concentration
Trend toward Concentration
Factors Driving the Trend
Efficiencies
Regulation
Deregulation
Evidence for Harm
Increased Barriers to Entry
Reduced Level of Competition
Reduced Number of Public Voices
Changes in Content
Your Own Informed Opinion
Expand Your Perspective
Analyze the Evidence
Ownership and Control
Harm
Recognize Your Values
Localism
Efficiency
Conclusion
Further Reading
Keeping Up to Date
Applying Media Literacy Skills
Issue 2 • Sports
Delineating the Issue
The Money Cycle
Players
Owners and Leagues
Television Networks
Advertisers
The Public
Olympics
Video Gaming
The Big Picture
Your Own Informed Opinion
Cost–Benefit Analysis
Implications
Extend Your Knowledge
Further Reading
Keeping Up to Date
Applying Media Literacy Skills
Issue 3 • Media Violence
Delineating the Issue
Public’s Perspective
Limiting the Scope of Harmful Effects
Equating Violence with Graphicness
Focusing on Frequency over Context
Producers’ Faulty Beliefs
Violence Is Necessary to Storytelling
Blame Others, Not Producers
Your Own Informed Opinion
Implications for Individuals
Implications for Producers
Moving Beyond Faulty Thinking
Further Reading
Applying Media Literacy Skills
Issue 4 • Privacy
Delineating the Issue
Criminal Threats to Your Privacy
Stealing Private Information
Direct Theft
Indirect Theft
Economic Purposes
Political Purposes
Hijacking Computers
Destroying Information
Noncriminal Threats to Your Privacy
Monitoring Activity
Collecting and Selling Information
Spamming
Controlling
Public Opinion and Regulations
Public Opinion
Regulations
Your Own Informed Opinion
Map Your Expectation of Privacy
Information Assessment
Threat Assessment
Privacy Strategy
Remove Private Information
Correct Inaccuracies
Subvert Invasion of Privacy Practices
Limit Cookies
Download Software to Protect Your Computer from
Threats to Your Privacy
Continually Monitor Threats
Further Reading
Keeping Up to Date
Applying Media Literacy Skills
Glossary
References
Index
PREFACE
Most of us think we are fairly media literate. We know how to access
all kinds of media to find the music, games, information, and
entertainment we want. We recognize the faces of many celebrities
and know many facts about their lives. We recognize a range of
musical styles and have developed strong preferences for what we
like. We can easily create messages through photos, videos, and
text and then upload them to various sites on the internet. Clearly,
we know how to expose ourselves to the media, we know how to
absorb information from them, we know how to be entertained by
them, and we know how to use them to create our own messages
and share them with others.
Are we media literate? Yes, of course. We have acquired a great
deal of information and have developed remarkable skills. The
abilities to speak a language, read, understand photographs, and
follow narratives are significant achievements, although we often
take them for granted.
While we should not overlook what we have accomplished, it is also
important to acknowledge that we all can be much more media
literate. In many ways, your overall level of media literacy now is
probably about the same as it was when you were a teenager. Since
that time, your information base has grown enormously about some
types of media messages, such as popular songs, internet sites, and
video clips. However, your information base may not have grown
much in other areas—who controls the mass media, how decisions
are made about the production of content, and how that constant
flow of content affects you and society in all sorts of subtle as well as
powerful ways. Thus, your current level of media literacy allows you
to do many things with the media, but you could be exercising much
more control and getting more out of your media exposures if you
grew your knowledge in additional areas.
The more you are aware of how the mass media operate and how
they affect you, the more you gain control over those effects, and the
more you will distinguish yourself from typical media users who have
turned over a great deal of their lives to the mass media without
realizing it. By “turning over a great deal of their lives to the mass
media,” I mean more than time and money, although both of those
are considerable. I also mean that most people have allowed the
mass media to program them in ways that they are unaware of. And
because they are unaware of these ways, they cannot control the
media’s influence or shape the way the media are affecting them.
The purpose of this book is to show you how the media have been
shaping your beliefs and behavioral patterns. Until you become
aware of how much your beliefs have been formed by media
influence and how the media have accomplished all this shaping,
you will continue to float along in a flood of media messages,
oblivious to their constant, subtle influence. However, once you
begin to see things from a media literacy perspective, you can see
how this process of influence works, and this understanding will help
you to gain control over this shaping process.
HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF THIS
BOOK
As you read through this book, think beyond the many details and
focus on the frameworks it provides as reminders of what is most
important. Frameworks are maps. When you have a map to guide
your reading journey, you’ll always know where you are and where
you have to go next. To help you perceive the most important
frameworks, each chapter begins with a key idea followed by an
outline of the topics covered. When you keep these frameworks in
the front of your mind, you will be able to both read faster and get
more out of your reading.
As you read each chapter, be strategic. Use the frameworks to ask
questions, then actively look for the answers to those questions as
you read. By actively, I mean don’t just scan the words and
sentences; instead, start with an agenda of questions, then as you
read through each section, look specifically for answers to your
questions. After you have finished a chapter, close the book and see
how much you can recall. Can you remember only a random
assortment of facts or can you envision a structure of knowledge that
is organized by your questions?
This book is composed of 15 instructional chapters followed by four
issues chapters. The purpose of the 15 core chapters is to provide
you with a set of key ideas to help you organize your knowledge
structures in four areas: knowledge about media effects, knowledge
about media audiences, knowledge about the media industries, and
knowledge about media content. To navigate through the detail
presented in each chapter, use the outline at the beginning of that
chapter as a map. When you have finished reading a chapter, try
doing the exercises. These exercises will help you use and elaborate
on the information presented in the chapter. If you want to continue
elaborating your knowledge beyond what is present in each chapter,
look at the sections on further reading that recommend particular
books, articles, and websites; I have selected these as particularly
interesting extensions of what I have presented in the chapter. Also,
because things change so fast these days with the media, I have
provided several sources of information—typically websites—where
you can access the most current information available.
You will get more out of each of the core instructional chapters if you
try to incorporate the information you are learning into your own
experience. This book has a self-help tone as it presents guidance
and practical exercises to guide you in your journey toward achieving
higher levels of media literacy. Do not get caught in the trap of
thinking that it is sufficient to memorize the facts in each chapter and
then stop thinking about the material. Simply memorizing facts will
not help you increase your media literacy much. Instead, you need to
internalize the information by drawing it into your own experiences.
Continually ask yourself, “How does this new information fit in with
what I already know?” “Can I find an example of this in my own life?”
and “How can I apply this when I deal with the media?” The
exercises at the end of each chapter will help you get started with
this. The more you work through the exercises in your everyday life,
the more you will internalize the information, thus making it a more
natural part of the way you think.
After you have finished with the instructional chapters and building
your initial set of knowledge structures, you will be ready to dig
deeper into the controversies within media studies. The four issues
chapters give you a chance to use your knowledge structures and
increase the strength of your skills as you take apart these
controversies, appreciate the beauty of their complexity, and
construct your own informed opinion on each of these issues. The
first issue unpacks the controversy about whether or not the
ownership of the mass media has become too concentrated; some
critics argue that there are now too few owners of media businesses.
The topic of sports is treated in Issue 2 by examining possible
answers to the following question: Is there too much money being
spent on sports? Issue 3 tackles the persistent controversy over
whether there is too much violence in the media and whether the
prevalence of violence in media content is harming individuals and
society. This section concludes with Issue 4, which examines the
growing concern about privacy and how the new media environment
is making it much more difficult for you to exercise control over who
gets access to your private information.
If you engage these issues on a superficial level, then you will likely
be frustrated by what seem to be unsolvable problems. But if you dig
deeper and apply your developing skills of media literacy, you will
begin to see how the complexities of these issues may be causing
problems in your own life. When you recognize these problems, you
will be able to use your greater level of media literacy to develop
strategies to reduce their influence. Thus, you will be taking more
control over issues that you previously thought were too big, too
complicated, and the fault of other people.
TO CONCLUDE
It is my hope that this book will stimulate you to think more deeply
about your media habits and become motivated to increase your
control over the process of influence from the media. The information
presented in these chapters will get you started in this direction. Will
the book provide you with all the information you need to complete
this task fully? No. That would require too much information to fit into
one book. You will need to continue reading. At the end of most
chapters, I suggest several books for further reading on the topic of
that chapter. Although some of those books are fairly technical, most
of them are easy to read and very interesting.
This book is an introduction. It is designed to show you the big
picture so you can get started on increasing your own media literacy
efficiently. It is important to get started now and to begin exercising
the power that you did not know you had.
I hope you will have fun reading this book. I hope it will expose you
to new perspectives from which you can perceive much more about
the media. If it does, you will be gaining new insights about your old
habits and interpretations. If this happens, I hope you will share your
new insights and “war stories” with me. Much of this book has been
written to reflect some of the problems and insights my students
have had in the media literacy courses I have taught. I have learned
much from them. I’d like to learn even more from you. So, let me
know what you think and send me a message at
[email protected].
See you on the journey!
TEACHING RESOURCES
This text includes an array of instructor teaching materials designed
to save you time and to help you keep students engaged. To learn
more, visit sagepub.com or contact your SAGE representative at
sagepub.com/findmyrep.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book project has traveled a very long distance from its initial
conceptualization in the mid-1990s. Since then, I have had the
privilege of using various versions of the book with several thousand
students at Florida State University, UCLA, Stanford University, and
the University of California at Santa Barbara. These students helped
me form the idea into a useful book for a broad range of
undergraduates and refine the material through nine subsequent
editions. I thank them for every question, every puzzled look, and
every smile of satisfaction from an insight gained. Over the years,
Media Literacy has been translated from English into seven other
languages, which makes it accessible to readers in many parts of the
world. Some of those readers have provided me with their reactions,
and I thank them.
I thank the many reviewers whom SAGE called on to critique the text
in each edition. Some contacted me directly; others chose to remain
anonymous. In all cases, their comments were valuable. The
reviewers included Kelly A. Berg, College of St. Benedict/St. John’s
University; Frank Nevius, Western Oregon University; Stanton H.
Hudson, Jr., State University of New York, Buffalo State; Doug
Tewksbury, Niagara University; Sara Drabik, Northern Kentucky
University; Phyllis Zrzavy, Franklin Pierce University; and Anthony
Jerome Stone Jr., University of Cincinnati.
I am grateful for the support of SAGE with its many highly skilled
staff members over the years. First, I need to thank Margaret
Seawell, who initially signed this project then shepherded it through
three editions; then Todd Armstrong, who took over for Margaret on
the fourth and fifth editions; then Matt Byrnie, who took over for Todd
and gave me considerable help with the sixth, seventh, and eighth
editions before turning it over to Terri Accomazzo for the ninth
edition; then to Lily Norton for this, the tenth edition. In the
production department, Astrid Virding skillfully took the first edition
from manuscript to bound book, as did Claudia Hoffman on the
second edition, Tracy Alpern on the third, and Astrid Virding again on
the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions and now Megha Negi with the
current edition. They made it look easy, though there must have
been days when it was anything but. I also want to thank Carmel
Withers in marketing and SAGE salespeople for their enthusiastic
support of the new edition. Finally, I must thank the many fine copy
editors SAGE has assigned to this project over the years, especially
Erin Livingston who continually impressed me with her detailed and
insightful editing of this tenth edition.
If you like this book, then I share the credit of success with all the
people I mentioned above. If you find a mistake, a shortcoming, or a
misinterpretation, then it is my fault for not fully assimilating all the
high-quality help I have been privileged to experience.
REVIEWER ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Kelly A. Berg, College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University
Frank Nevius, Western Oregon University
Stanton H. Hudson, Jr., State University of New York, Buffalo
State
Doug Tewksbury, Niagara University
Sara Drabik, Northern Kentucky University
Phyllis Zrzavy, Franklin Pierce University
Anthony Jerome Stone Jr., University of Cincinnati
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
W. James Potter,
professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, holds one
PhD in communication studies and another in instructional
technology. He has been teaching media courses for more than two
decades in the areas of effects on individuals and society, content
narratives, structure and economics of media industries, advertising,
and journalism. He has served as editor of the Journal of
Broadcasting & Electronic Media and is the author of many journal
articles and several dozen books, including 7 Skills of Media
Literacy; Introduction to Media Literacy, Digital Media Effects;
Analysis and Evaluation of the Major Theories of Media Effects; The
11 Myths of Media Violence; and Becoming a Strategic Thinker:
Developing Skills for Success.
PART I INTRODUCTION
1 WHY INCREASE MEDIA LITERACY?
Media literacy increases your ability to exercise control over the vast
array of messages you encounter through daily media exposure.
iStock.com/400tmax
Key Idea: To survive in our information-saturated culture, we
put our minds on “automatic pilot” in order to protect ourselves
from the flood of media messages we constantly encounter. The
danger with this automatic processing of messages is that it
allows the mass media to condition our thought processes.
The Information Problem
Growth Is Accelerating
High Degree of Exposure
Keeping Up
p g p
Dealing with the Information Problem
Our Mental Hardware
Our Mental Software
Automatic Routines
Advantages and Disadvantages
The Big Question
Summary
Further Reading
Keeping Up to Date
The first challenge we all face when confronting a new body of
information is motivation. We ask ourselves: Why should I expend all
the effort to learn this? How will learning this help me enough to
make all that effort worthwhile?
With media literacy, our initial answers to the above questions are
likely to make us feel that learning about media literacy is not worth
the effort because we feel that we already know a lot about the
media. We are familiar with a large number of websites, apps,
recording artists, and celebrities. We are already able to access a
wide range of entertainment and information, so why would we need
to learn a lot more about the media? This book will show you the
answer to that question by presenting you with some key insights
about the media. This information will expand your perspective into
new areas and increase your power to exercise control over your
media exposures so that you can get more value from those
messages. Let’s get started!
In this chapter, I will show you the big picture of our media
environment so that you can see how enormous the information
problem is. The strategy we use to deal with this problem typically
works well on a day-to-day basis because it is efficient; however,
over the long term, it is not very effective. That is, the advantages we
achieve in the short term when we focus only on efficiency grow into
disadvantages over the long term. To show you why this is the case,
let’s first analyze the information problem.
THE INFORMATION PROBLEM
Our culture is saturated with media messages—far more than you
may realize. Hollywood film studios release more than 700 hours of
feature films each year, which adds to its base of more than 100,000
hours of films they have already released in previous years.
Commercial television stations generate about 48 million hours of
video messages every year worldwide, and radio stations send out
65.5 million hours of original programming each year. We now have
more than 140 million book titles in existence, and another 5,000
new book titles are published throughout the world each day.
Then there is the World Wide Web, which has been estimated to
have almost two billion websites (Internet Live Stats, 2018) but is so
huge that no one knows how big it really is. Each of these websites
has the potential to deliver an unlimited amount of information. For
example, a video platform such as YouTube has more than five
billion videos available for viewing (YouTube, 2018), and users are
uploading more than 500 new hours of video every minute of every
day (Clement, 2019).
Growth Is Accelerating
Not only are we already saturated with media messages, the number
of messages available from the media continues to grow. More
information has been generated since you were born than the sum
total of all information throughout all recorded history up until the
time of your birth. In 2012, Silver estimated that the amount of
information was doubling every year. And the rate continues to
accelerate! This means that today, over half of all the information
that is available to you (in all the libraries, websites, recordings, etc.)
did not exist one year ago.
Why is so much information being produced? One reason is that
people are producing more information than ever before. Half of all
the scientists who have ever lived are alive today and producing
information. Also, the number of people in this country who identify
themselves as musicians has more than doubled in the last four
decades, the number of artists have tripled, and the number of
authors has increased fivefold (U. S. Bureau of the Census, 2017).
Social media is one of the fastest growing areas for media exposure,
being consumed mostly on smartphones and other mobile devices
and increasing in popularity among all age groups.
Bloomberg/Getty Images
Another reason is that the technology now exists to provide easy-touse platforms to share information. Thus, everyone can generate
and share information with large numbers of people every day. You
no longer need to be a musician to create songs; you can use
Garage Band or other computer synthesizers. You don’t need to be
signed to a recording contract by a record company to distribute your
songs. You can also be a journalist, a fiction writer, a photographer, a
filmmaker, or even a video game designer as a hobby and make
your messages easily available to millions of people, just like
professional artists. Or you could generate and share smaller forms
of information such as emails and tweets. There are now 4.5 billion
regular users of the internet worldwide, and they send and receive