A situation that can be examined both at a micro and macro level, but that general refers to the fact that the media are becoming increasingly subservient to the advertisers’ desires to alter the awareness, attitudes, and behaviors of consumers in the media marketplace. A process in which big business works with media outlets to figure out increasing ways to push consumable products in the programming to such a degree that it becomes difficult to determine where the actual line is between the original media product and the commercial messages.
Published in Chapter:
Communication and Media: Types, Functions, and Key Concepts
Bradley Freeman (American University in Dubai, UAE)
Copyright: © 2018
|Pages: 16
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-4059-5.ch002
Abstract
The field of communication is large and varied. There are different types and levels of communication. Mass communication allows for mass media: books, newspapers, magazines, recorded sound/music, film, radio, television, video games, and the internet. Scholars have identified a handful of common functions of the media. The chief function of media is that of entertainment – providing diversion. Though it varies from country to country, people are spending much more time with the media than at any time in history, often spending more time with media than sleeping. This chapter discusses a number of concepts and terms related to contemporary mass media: globalization, digitalization, convergence, consolidation, fragmentation, personalization, and (hyper) commercialization.