Monetizing the Media

Although most mediums were created as a ways to relay information better, they almost always stray from this path down the path of commercialism. Most new media are manipulated to make money in our day and age. The worst part is that as humans in our current time period, we do not even realize that this is happening. In layman's terms, my argument here is that there most definitely was a change in media from the intended use of communication to the new use of making money and that that change is no longer noticeable by the average consumer. This is demonstrated in one of the arguments of Nicholas Carr in the "Is Google Making Us Stupid" article. In the article, Carr refers to the fact that media changes the way that we as humans think. Our thought processes become altered to include the medium in them. In this respect, I believe that the constant bombardment of advertising through media has in essence made humans immune to the point that they do not even realize that they are being sold something.

Each time a new medium has been created, the first use was not advertising. Lets take radio as an example. When radio was first created, it's purpose was to entertain. However, as time went on and the popularity of radio grew, large corporations began to purchase these radio stations and use them to advertise and ultimately create a profit. What started out as a innocent utopian idea evolved slowly but surely into a capitalizing monster. The exact same situation occurred with television and with television, it was even worse. Once television became popular, advertising moved in just as it did with radio. However, instead of limiting advertising to commercials between programs, television took it to the next level. Product placement in regular programming became standard and before long, people didn't even realize that they were being sold to while they were enjoying themselves. The perfect example of this would be "The Price is Right" show that we touched on in class. The show was basically devoted to teaching people about different products and how to buy them. This ties into the argument of Carr in the Google article that over time, media shapes the way we think. In this case, it eliminated our ability to sense when we are advertised to.

As far as traditional media theories go, the Economic or Capitalist Ideology theories explain this phenomenon perfectly. These theories basically argue that media is driven by the capability to make a profit. In essence, how media work and what they present is based solely on monetizing. This is a pretty straightforward theory and it's also pretty short. It's just a pity that these great advances in technology are all based upon advertising and making a profit. It's hard to go anywhere nowadays without seeing an advertisement for something, and the worst part is that we do not even notice it anymore. It's just too bad...but it's a part of life.