Radio and the People

The 1920’s and 1930’s were molded by radio as we are by internet today. People craved this new and exciting alternative reality they got to experience several times a day. The reason the radio was so popular was due to the demand for it. When the audience you are trying to please is crawling at your feet begging you for more the last thing you want to do is disappoint. Regardless of technology or sponsors, without an audience demand, the radio, or anything for that matter, would crumble. Therefore, let’s dive into how and why the American public became zombies struck by the wave of the Radio Age.
As more and more of the public began to become “in tune” with the new means for entertainment, households started to demand more radio boxes and programs because so many family members and friends wanted to be a part of the action. The radio broadcasters realized they would have to appeal to all people based on gender, age, class, etc. This was also a great way for broadcasters to improve their ratings. More shows began to develop for different types of societies. So, when mom had her soap operas and Tiny Timmy had his superhero shows and dad listened to the news conflict began and people wanted more radio boxes and more shows. If the demand is increasing the supply must follow.
The demand, therefore, led to the evolution of more shows branching from just the wireless music. Also, as more people began to watch new technology had to be developed to keep up with the increasingly large numbers of listeners. As we saw in the film Radio Days, the entire family had programs they were interested in and followed daily. When many people were tuning in to action segments they realized adding more action segments would generate more money and please the majority as well. Now instead of one superhero you had a plethora to choose from and mimic his dangerous stunts.
The radio captivated the audiences all over the U.S. but more importantly to audience captivated the radio shows and made its success. Without consumers, in this case the listeners, if you are a supplier you will not make it. Therefore, I believe it is safe to say the audience demand is the most influential part of the Radio Era.

The In's and Out's of the Cultivation Theory

The media has different effects on different people. Not only does it affect people differently, but there are many theories in discovering how exactly it does so. If it is direct, gradually over time, through subliminal interpretation, etc. One method that caught me off guard and required my direct attention was a theory known as the Cultivation Theory. What is the cultivation theory you ask? Well, it is a proposal that blindly states that people take in what the media euphemistically puts out and turns it into reality.
The cultivation theory, in my opinion, is said to have some of the most detrimental effects on society as opposed to any other. Long, permanent damage can be done due to an over intake of the medias dominant approach to violence, crime, sexual assault, and all things fearful. However, this doesn’t just happen overnight. Messages relayed over time and persistently reappearing on majority of media outlets make it difficult for you to escape and not become a victim.
For example, we all have heard of the, blown out of proportion, terrors of going into high school and being bombarded with embarrassment of the upper classmen. Many kids are highly affected by this idea that society through the media has cultivated to be a norm. Fear is instilled in the minds of the “fresh meat” on campus that they are going to get picked on, stuffed in lockers, dumped in the trash can, or perhaps be taunted by the hot shot quarterback saying, “hey, four eyes, where did you get those clothes? Wal-Mart!” as his friends stare and echo with laughter. This is a perfect example of the cultivation theory how terror is accumulated over time and turned into reality through the media, because we all know in high school those stereotypical hazing procedures didn’t make it into reality, no one cared enough.
The name says it all, cultivation. An idea cultivates in your mind over time and is reassured to make you more and more afraid of what is really out there in the world. Life is not as bad as it seems. The media are just evil villains who like to poke at the negative and frightening parts of society when really they are considered infinitismal to how they are portrayed.

Hegemony: A Subliminal Attack

In decoding the media and how it functions there are many extensive concepts to understand. Not only do you need to understand them, but also see how they are used and how they affect the subject. Some would say the main, and most trivial, concept of our deceiving source of news and entertainment is hegemony. Hegemony is something we come into contact with daily, hourly, and practically every second of our lives. In order to help you understand, and share my recent understanding of what this oh so powerful word means, we will look at definitions and examples of how it creeps into your mind and thoughts altering many of your infinitesimal and life changing decisions.
Hegemony takes a specific idea and through the media makes it appear as something that you, the consumer, would depict as common sense. Therefore, the idea they are exploiting seems as if it were second nature to you and a reassurance of what you already know. Why is this bad you ask? IT’S A SUBLIMINAL ATTACK! I don’t know about you but I am most certainly not thrilled to know messages are being sent into my mind through my subconscious. This idea of hegemony makes you question, what is part of the natural world or the social world? If something appears to you as common sense you would think it was a natural concept and it may never occur to you that someone somewhere may have made it all up.
A perfect example of this concept comes from a passage in James Lull’s “Hegemony.” He expresses that the media has circulated the idea, through hegemony, of a homeless person turning a shopping cart into a means for self, movable storage. This is not a common concept but through social, media, and interpretive tendencies it becomes a societal norm and stereotypes every homeless person with this quality. This example struck my attention out of majority of others because especially living in the area we do, this is something seen almost daily in an urban, city environment.
Hegemony is something most people don’t realize is happening when it is at its strongest. I bet you never would have thought of the homeless man and his shopping cart as something the media interpreted into common sense. We must think critically about the messages behind the media and the ideas they are interpreting, in or out of proportion, to their advantage into the minds of our society.