Consumption and Effects of Media Content - Essay Example

?Consumption and Effects of Media Content According to the hypodermic theory, the media influences people and affects how they react when using any type of media. There is need to delve deeper into understanding how people interact with the content and the influence the content elicits among the audience. Some of the questions necessary to consider would be the type of audience that choose to consume the media content, the manner in which such audience receives and consumes it and the influence that the media content has on the audience. In consumption of the content, the audience is either active or passive with this inactivity or lack of it largely determining the effects that such content will have. In other words, any media content may result in negative or positive effects depending on the mode of reception and the influence it has in a specific audience. Therefore, there is need to investigate the way the ‘work’ concept of an audience manifests itself in a mass communication environment. To understand these effects, the paper examines issue of tolerance for boredom and inactivity and possible misconceptions of physical and social events in relation to media consumption. Mediated experience results from consumption of media products and mass communication culture and relates to experiencing temporally and spatially distant events with great variation in it applicability to self (Wattanasuwan and Elliott 1998, p.19). The social situation of an individual will vary greatly depending on whether the individual has more value in lived experience with little or no mediated experience, and whether they value mediated experience as having a central role in defining the self. Mediated experience in mass communication has shown rapid growth towards influencing consumer culture in defining the self. Misconceptions of physical and social events Media consumption has led to varied misconceptions about the roles and importance of certain media channels and how they influence consumers and actors. For example, Facebook is currently approaching the 500 million users, a record high number that is much more than Google traffic. However, people have continued to develop various misconceptions about the social media, meaning that social media fans are fed with content that they do not wish to consume. Paul Carroll and Mui in a research conducted in the investment forum observed that companies are losing in long-term opportunities due to continued misconceptions about the actual role of social media (Mui, 2011). Many people continue to use social sites such as Facebook and others as broadcasting forums, though they fail to realize their goals in that social media is about creating social events that facilitate talking to each other. Therefore, any social media event has to contribute towards leading people to talk to one another and motivating conversations and not broadcasting. The gap between first-hand experience and the mediated version is clear comparing the effectiveness of broadcasting in non-mediated media and social media sites. The inadequacy of the way broadcasters frame reality especially in media coverage disconnects consumers from the broadcasters (Mui, 2011). Broadcasters will experience more responsiveness in physical media such as in print media where people are hooked to leading newspapers than presenting the same information in social sites. In media reporting, there are many instances of misconceptions between mediated and non-mediated media. However, in tandem with effect theory, consumers are dragged along such content and cannot escape from the media dragnet. Mass media reporting involves numerous cases of misconceptions where consumers are fed with inadequate or untrue information that influences their perception regarding a particular issue. Media houses sometimes have non-objective reports in their coverage (Shoemaker and Reese 1996, p.2).These reports vary from broadcasting false information to exaggerating issues for political or social expediency. Such reports greatly influence the thinking, beliefs and consumers’ decision making among consumers. There are many questions as to the degree in which mass media reports and represents reality to consumers in helping them make informed decisions. Lack of objectivity or truth in reporting makes the media to create misconceptions among consumers. Observing a first-hand event unravels and following it on a TV may sometimes lead to different versions of the same story; the media are gatekeepers in creating reality for consumption. Therefore, the mediated media is to blame for misconceptions and non-objective stories that highly influence the minds and beliefs of consumers. Though it is difficult to measure qualitative attributes of any media, there is need to concentrate more on the qualitative aspects than the quantitative aspects. This approach is more revealing on the extent of misconceptions that influence consumers’ thinking and beliefs, and which diverge from objectivity (Shoemaker and Reese 1996, p.4). Consumers do carry symbolic meanings either unconsciously or consciously and usually will act according to the symbolic meanings impacted by the media. For instance, in advertising, the consumer may opt to go by a particular brand of an item with regard to the brand name and usefulness as constructed by the mediated media, which may not conform to reality. Tolerance for boredom or inactivity In the modern media, the new form of audience is defined by how they attend to media contents. Any media event requires the audience to attend the broadcasting, which implies that the audience has to be an active participant (Csigo 2008, p.1). Any event offered by the media has to be a collective ceremony in which many people have to participate. It is important to point out that the audience still maintains the right to pay attention and the extent of enthusiasm that they have to participate with. Moreover, in inviting people’s response, the effect is considerable enough to make the broadcaster adapt to the feedback of the audience (Csigo 2008, p.1). Interactivity in live performances is an example where the audience consumes content in a more active and enthusiast manner. The close relationship between spectators and actors results in power mobilization leading to great vibrancy in accordance with the reception theory. Therefore, the effects of theatrical performances cannot be just imposed in that they cannot be manifest without the spectators engaging selectively, which results in different experiences among the audience. For example, by entering a theatre hall, the spectator is involved in many selective acts (Csigo 2008, p.4). These acts start by asking their friends and other fans about the performance, choosing a particular event over others, choosing a play and even following advertisements about the time and venue of the particular event. These activities sum up the role of an active audience that is fully engaged in the entire performance; the fact that spectators do not leave the hall makes it possible for the actors to perform. The complexity of events in this case brings out a rich theatrical experience that makes consumers active in the performance, and facilitates formation of different meanings from the performance. Theatrical performances show that consumers like being involved in the content, which implies that they do not have any tolerance to boredom or inactivity. The vibrancy of live performances explains that consumers like active participation that caters for all their social needs in line with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and will keep away from inactive consumption. Similarly, the media though with many instances of mediated forums presents both inactive and active participations, which leads to vibrancy and boredom depending on a particular case (Epstein 2011, p.43). As Epstein assets, when an individual is bored, the world seems not to offer any promise, reality grows vague and shadowy and time tends to slow down drastically, all which translate to unpleasant experience. Boredom leads to the very problem of being and time in that a bored person feels out of place and feels time is moving rather slowly. Any dull presentation in the media that does not actively involve the psychological, physical or emotional aspects of a consumer will lead to boredom, but consumers in mediated media have away to reject and keep away from such boredom by shunning the boring programs. Though media presents a mix of both synthetic and real events and that people will sit for many hours watching TV, such synthetic events have proved engaging to the consumer’s interests and lead to a heightened state of excitement for a consumer to spend any dollar in purchasing or viewing such synthetic events (Epstein 2011, p.43). Similar to live performances that are a form of real excitement with great vibrancy that makes the audience active participants, the media through presenting synthetic experiences includes content that engages the consumer emotionally and psychologically in creating the required excitement. The growth of electronic media investments in the dazzle of such synthetic content is aimed at ensuring consumers are active and that they pay attention to the content despite the experiences being synthetic and unreal. The attempt made by media houses to improve perception including captivating programs that either facilitate the audience to contribute directly to discussions, or engages emotional and psychological instincts of consumers implies that consumers have low tolerance for inactivity. Mediated media has led to misconceptions on how the media feeds consumers with information. Though consumers continue to integrate mediated and non-mediated content in their lives, consumers are powerless due to the immense psychological and emotional power that mediated media use to influence them. The resulting misconceptions have a large effect on their daily lives in that they have to make decisions based on the content fed to them by media streams. On the other hand, consumers have shown to shun any media content that leads to boredom or that does not involve consumer participation. Consumers love enthusiasm and excitement; any media that does not promise the same does not enjoy the required interest from consumers. This explains the reason behind increased cases of misconception in mediated media, thought consumers still remain hooked to such media contents. References Csigo, P. 2008. “The Effect Seekers: A Case Study on Hungarian Audiences' Response to Excessively Partisan Media.” International Communication Association, pp. 1-27. Elliott, R. & Wattanasuwan, K. 1998. "Consumption and the Symbolic Project of the Self.” European Advances in Consumer Research, 3, pp. 17-20. Epstein, J. 2011. “Duh, Bor-ing: What’s so interesting about boredom?” Commentary, 131(6), pp. 43-47. Mui, C. 2011, November 1. Social Media Strategies: Misconceptions Mask Stumbling Points and Opportunities. Forbes. [online] Available at: [12 Aug. 2013] Shoemaker, J.P. 1996. Mediating the Message: Theories of Influences on Mass Media Content. White Plains, NY: Longman Publishing. Read More