Culture and communication

Culture and Communication

            Most of the news people receive everyday comes from secondhand sources that report on events that the people in contact with these sources themselves did not experience. The media shapes a large amount of knowledge that the society they are communicating to has about other outside societies. What information people are exposed to is influenced by the government, whose tool they use to spread this information is the media, which can have both positive and negative results. The US, being a democratic country, allows freedom of speech and press, but the capitalist society is what prevents people from having access to different sources of information because the media is run by corporations that are very selective with the information they choose to share with the public and how much exposure it receives. An important, but negative example of the corporate control of the media is the process of gatekeeping, which has contributed to the success of so many mainstream artists such as Lady Gaga because of exposure and marketing. Other musicians who are rejected or choose not to sign with a major label recording company go unnoticed because they do not receive the same media exposure. A positive outcome of media control is that it allows for specialization of interests. In their efforts to reach all audiences, even the ones who have no interests in mainstream media, different sources produce media that is relevant to people even on the outskirts of the mass culture. An example of this are magazines, especially music magazines, some of which mainly write about mainstream artists such as Rolling Stone magazine and other music magazines that focus more on specific genres. The mass media brings the news to society in its own way, but finding other sources of information other than the major newspapers and magazines is not always easy and takes some searching.