Technology Changes the Radio Industry

I believe technology greatly influenced the radio industry in the 1920s, great thanks to men like Guglielmo Marconi and David Sarnoff.

Technology is vital in the development of all different aspects of our society, like the radio industry. Technology has provided society with so many ways to communicate to the public audience. It provides jobs in the music, advertising, and radio industries by enabling art to be widespread. It developed the radio.

The force of technology affected the evolution of the United States radio system in the 1920s, and was aided by Marconi and Sarnoff. Marconi, an Italian inventor, developed a “wireless telegraph” in 1896. This telegraphing system sent Morse code messages through the radio, which came into great use during the disaster of the Titanic. The ship had a Marconi radio on board, and used it to send distress signals as the ship started to sink. Marconi’s invention was also used to relay the news of the Titanic to the public. Sarnoff claims he was the one who relayed the news of the Titanic. He helped further the technological advances of the radio industry, writing that the radio was a music box and envisioned a mass audience for it.

http://www.modestoradiomuseum.org/images/marconi%201.gif

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/5700000/RMS-Titanic-leaving-Southampton-rms-titanic-5709381-2167-1776.jpg

The Cultivation Theory

The cultivation theory plays a great role in today’s media. This is the theory that consistent messages over time create images for the audience of what reality should look like. These messages through the media have long-term effects on the audience in their outlook on society and life. Take, for example, Ralf Lauren’s advertisement that I’ve embedded below.

I believe the cultivation theory helps me understand the impacts of fashion images, such as this Ralf Lauren advertisement, on women in today’s society. This advertisement is one of three that I know of where the company has taken a photo of a female model and digitally altered it, slimy down her already extremely thin figure. Advertisement like this plays into the cultivation theory and has long-term effects. Women of all ages have body issues, especially young women. Young women in today’s society grow up seeing images like these and think they have to be as skinny as models (even skinnier-than-humanly-possible models) in order to be accepted in society. This mindset leads to all sorts of problems like eating disorders.

                As Jean Kilbourne of Killing us Softly said, “advertising tells us who we are and who we should be.”

http://forum.santabanta.com/showthread.htm?t=160943

Hegemony and Media Framing

    Hegemony and media framing have a great impact in the world we live in today. We see them everywhere we go, in all different situations and environments. Hegemony is the ideological and cultural authority one group of society has over the others (obtained socially, not forcibly). Hegemony is commonly used through the media, targeting those groups presided over. Media framing is a way of influences how the minds of the audience think and perceive.       
    The concepts of hegemony and media framing help me understand this advertisement from McDonald’s and how the company influences what the children of our society want to eat. McDonald's is an enormous company, expanding all over the world. They are a prime example of hegemony and media framing is littered all over their advertisement
    In this advertisement, Ronald McDonald is playing the guitar and singing as his children companions follow along, happily singing with him. Children see this advertisement and get the sense that if they eat the same food Ronald McDonald eats, then they too can be as utterly happy as the kids in the picture. Ergo, they’ll ask their parents to take them to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal. McDonald’s uses media framing and its hegemony in advertising to lead children and their families to their restaurants so they can continue to make millions.
http://francisanderson.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/ronald-mcdonalds.jpg