Audience demand, or rather the unguided power of the audience to determine what it will abide, allowed radio, and later other forms of mass media, to incorporate excessive advertising as a normal part of its system.
While the producers of media content of course have the direct control of the architecture of the media, they must be obedient and attentive to the tolerance of the audience to succeed economically. If the majority of the audience finds a feature of the media to be offensive, they will avoid it, and the media producer suffers. Therefore, the direct control of the producer is in reality secondary to the indirect control of the audience.
If the early radio audience of the 1920s were more careful and discriminate, there might be higher standards today to which advertisers would be required to conform to. Instead, the 1920s audience, in its haste to embrace the new medium, accepted the high percentage of airtime dedicated to selling products. This strengthened the American status of being a consumer nation.
I don't know if the teacher or TA's check these comments but my computer crashed. I know that this is the third post that's been submitted late, but I swear this time it was because of issues with my Mac. I promise this is the last time this will happen, malfunctions or not, and while I'll understand if I still lose the point, I'd hope that all this would at least be considered.
ReplyDeleteSorry again,
Matt Stryker