Media and Society have a very unique and complicated relationship with each other. A good metaphor for the two would be a couple, so interdependent on one another that neither one of the two can "go on living" without the other and that life without their special someone is more or less empty. Media, specifically Mass Media, and society share this relationship because both essentially feed off each other by media attaining the ideas and codes of society (what makes society tick) and society receiving this information, translating it into something that most of the populace relate to, and finally providing media with a stable source of revenue to repeat the cycle over and over and over again.
After watching and analyzing the documentary "Merchants of Cool" this past week, one comes to realize that this little economic cycle that the two share falls in between the lines of some sort of sick yet unbelievably intellectual idea. Think of it, media responds to their consumers' ever changing demands by not thinking of their own original ideas for their TV shows and movies, but by using society's ideas on society itself. All the popular TV shows nowadays such as Gossip Girl or 90210 emphasize this fact. Every single one of us wants the fame, every single one of us wants the money and the girls that come along with it. Moreover, almost every one of us want some sort of drama in our lives, that little extra spice that makes life all the more exciting and would provide us some escape from the same old doldrums that we call life. Every single one of these factors is in these TV shows, which is why we respond so positively to them. The funny thing is, we are so blinded by the glamor and entertainment value of these shows that we are not able to come up with the conclusion that what the media is presenting us is a reflection of our own lives, of what we want our lives to be. Here, it is simply the media, tapping into our inadequacy with life, converting that into a TV show featuring a blonde bombshell and a 6 foot bad boy, and raking in the cash that comes along with it.
Yes, I am sounding that I'm against this, but the truth is I'm not. I am just amused with how the mass media-society cycle is structured in such a way. In all honesty, I am amazed with how people in the media industry are in someway geniuses in their own right. The MTV special on Spring Break, for example. Hell, let's be honest, if I was flipping through my TV and came across that show, I'd turn up the volume, make myself a tub of popcorn, cozy on up to the couch, and intently watch that show. Why? Because it's entertaining! And if the same channel brought about 10 rednecks jumping into a pool of human excrement, heck, I'd do the same thing minus the big tub of popcorn. Why? Because it's even more entertaining! And through all of these TV shows directed to the teenage population, it's scary to think that the teenagers have a vice-like choke hold on the media.
In this day and age, we are beginning to see 20-something-year-old billionaires come out of the woodwork just because of a tiny social-networking site called Facebook. Oh, what fun it would be if in 10 years or so, teenagers would have a complete monopoly over the mass media.
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