Tune In.

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The presence and reliance of the radio in American households during the 1920’s rapidly increased by the audience’s demand for entertainment, news and music.Without audience demand the radio would have no reason to stay in business. If there is no demand, there is essentially no purpose for radio, so the radio stations must work to satisfy the audiences needs and desires. As the demand for radio increased, more rules and regulations as well as technological advances were needed to keep things running smoothly. Without a demand for radio all the other forces would be more or less useless because without an audience there is really no need to improve radio standards.The 1920s was an era when technology was starting to change and society was becoming more and more advanced. Before the radio, Americans had to rely on newspaper or word of mouth to find out the latest happenings, or listen to music live or on records for entertainment. Once the radio became popular people were able to listen to radio shows, music, and news all from the comfort of their homes. People were so impressed with the convenience of the household radio they didn’t even mind listening to the frequent ads which were necessary to get the stations funded. The audience’s interest in radio is what paved the way for television and other media sources down the road. 

Scandalous.

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The cultivation theory further explains why promiscuous television shows lead young adults to have false views of sexual relations and recreational activities. The cultivation theory suggests that exposure to TV, as well as other media sources, overtime will gradually begin to create the audiences perception of reality. The problem with this is viewers begin to believe that TV showcases common everyday experiences that make up “reality”. In actuality, such occurrences are often rare. It doesn’t help that when people witness this supposed “reality” they see on TV, they are even more willing to believe its true. Consider Gossip Girl, a show on CW that follows the lives of privileged high school and college kids in New York, which is centered on scandalous subject matter and promiscuous behavior. The viewers of this show are constantly being exposed to teenagers engaging in sexual behavior, underage drinking and generally immoral activities. Due to the cultivation theory, the viewers have a tendency to think this is how the average teenager acts and therefore thinks they should do the same. It makes them more willing to try things that were taboo in society at one point and time, and it doesn’t help when one of their peers is having sex, or binge drinking, or dating an older man, because what they already believed was true is confirmed, which leads them to an even more distorted view of reality. 

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Just Beat It

Agenda setting is commonly used in media to select what issues in society people should focus on and often leads to the over-coverage of undeserving events . By choosing to put greater emphasis on certain issues all aspects of media are telling the public what to think about and therefore are setting the agenda. If news stations are reporting stories with a conservative bias they are attempting to get their audience to think like a republican. The headlines of newspapers and magazines are typically the topics talked about around the water cooler, and because of agenda setting the topics talked about are not always the most important. For example, Michael Jackson was the headline of every magazine, newspaper and newscast for weeks after his death. I’m not saying that the loss didn’t deserve some coverage but so much focus was out put on the “King of Pop’s”  death that people forgot about the dying soldiers in the war, the dying health care debate, the dying of our environmental sustainability, and death of our nations priorities. Agenda setting would work if every topic, viewpoint, and problem was fairly represented but in today’s media dominated culture that is not the case.