Argumentative Essay

Argumentative essay.

THESIS: Mass communication positively transforming lives

PART A

To start with mass communication is a general academic term that means the study of various methods that are used to carry information to various people that may live within a region or in a distant region, this study involves a look at the various forms of relying information such as newspapers, radio, T V and any other audio or visual media.

This is my main points of interest, how these have evolved over time and how they have affected and changed the lives of people all over the world. Before the current adaptations on media and its affiliates came the world seemed a very big place and people would hardly communicate with others who fell beyond their local areas. However with time this kept changing and individuals started interacting via media initially it were the, written forms of communication, then the oral systems which included radios, then there came the visual systems which helped transmit images, and finally there is now the international network which now allows integration of all the three forms and at an amazing speed. (Vivian 1996).

Such an evolution is what interests me initially people lived in such a way that their values were intact, they had no foreign elements and was only altered when the subjects of these cultures found an urgent need to alter them. In this case it would take much deliberation by the eldest generation; besides this the change would only be as a result of positioning the people for tough times ahead thus the agent for these changes would mainly be natural phenomena. But an examination of the current world clearly illustrates change as the order of the day where individuals do not consult any more to effect changes, where cultures have become prone to influence from other different cultures and finally we talk of a world where we all seem to be moving towards the same culture. This same culture is made possible through adaptation of similar values, values that have been integrated in the ways of life of individual people who have

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in turn formed a culture identifiable by every person; simply it is movement to a singular world where every one understands the other.

This has not happened in thin air nor has it just dawned in fact it has been a process that has been in motion for centuries as our fore fathers struggled to unite their people. This they tried by using Medias of communication though at the time they greatly limited them, they no longer limit the current generation in fact they work towards improving the current generation. This great revolution of the communication world is the subject examining how it has come to change the world, influence culture and in an apparent way unite the world. (Mayer 2007).

The study of these tools of communication has developed with time as individuals have continued to make new inventions that have eased communication processes throughout the world. In ancient times the communication avenues were limited to specific areas as technology was limited and the equipments used would merely broadcast information to cover an entire country live alone coverage of a continent or entire globe such as is now possible.(Alexander 2008).

PART B

Revolution of communication

Communication revolution just as I may have indicted has taken place over a very long time dating about two centuries back, with the first mode of communication being a model telephone by Graham bell that being in the 90th century.

From then on inventions have followed rapidly with each day seeing an improvement from the

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prior position on the status of technology.

After the trial on telephones the next thing were the radios that really marked the beginning of mass communication t he best of these were developed I the early 1900’s with major improvements coming in the wake of the WW I.

Later years saw launch of satellites which helped broadcasting of live events and global communications through some designated broadcast cooperation’s such as CNN among others. Numerous other stations have come up and are able to broadcast their programs through out the world. (Vivian 1996).

This was later on followed by the international network which besides the two aspects that is the oral and visual added an aspect of speed. It is this that has really swept people off with exchange of information being so rapid and marginal to an extent that it is difficult to sustain a culture as there arises the need to have a better one gotten from constituting values of other cultures which have been brought so close to as.

To effectively evaluate the effects of media I will disintegrate it into various components that collectively form it. That is

– Economic culture

– Social culture

– Political culture

– Values

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Argumentative essay.

Economic culture

Economics is a study of market activities, that is an examination of the various services that are existent in the market and what factors affect them, on goods it involves determination of what affect their supply and demand. Most of these market activities are predictable to some extent and economists have with time come up with ways to explain the trends in the market place. These trends are used by most analysts from most economic sectors to modify their policies; it is these stipulated policies or methods of carrying out or even predicting economic behaviors that form part of the economic culture.

Thus economic culture is the way economists have handled their challenges that have mainly been dealing with the down turns and upward turns of the economy. These turns result to economic behavior which is regulated by the economic culture, and though it may not be referred to as so in the technical fields I wish to use it for purposes of this research. (Mayer 2007).

Thus economic culture is composed of those prior policies and mechanisms explained by prior economists, these have since been changed or modified thanks to the now rapid and marginalized communication channels which in a representational word are mass communication.

When these policies are passed it becomes necessary for the formulators to communicate them to the stake holders to gunner support for the same, the only way to do this is through the various mediums of communication which are collectively studied under the mass communication bracket. The whole process is aimed at ensuring that the behavior of the individuals who are subject to these policies is altered in a certain way favorable to the policies or experts’ opinion is incorporated to come up with better and efficient policies. (Vivian 1996).

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An example of such a case is when policy makers were pushing for better policies in the sight of the cash crunch, they took their campaigns to major media houses, had their suggestions and opinions printed in major daily papers as well as various economic journals or available in the international networks. This helped individuals in realizing the eminent effects of the global crunch as most of the people remained ignorant of the recession. Once these people read the articles they became aware of the pending effects of the credit crunch through this they changed their spending habits. Such is the impact of the media bringing in changes that would have otherwise not been accomplished. Educating the citizenry of a country on the underlying problems means of resolving these problems and how to cushion one from the damaging effects of these economic situations that is what in my words is real and effective revolution of the community.

Political culture

Politics is a way through which people make decisions either on solitary bases or in a block to mean several people. The main drive in politics is the ideologies represented by a particular political group or person, the other thing is that it is no good to the people who have these ideologies just coming up with them and not communicating them to the people they want political support from. On the other hand political culture is the way past regimes have formed these ideologies and how they have communicated them, simply the behavior of power seekers.

The political system in a country is held by individuals who are either in power or ones aspiring to be in power these two groups of people are always in constant opposition as either tries to outdo the other and power chances being scarce these individuals have to constantly come up with ways to out do the other. This necessitates formulation of ideologies that are appealing to the people, addressing the major issues affecting these people. (Vivian 1996).

A good example is the past general election where different political parties rode on different ideologies and each addressed issues affecting the American public, these issues included healthcare, environmental concerns, energy crisis etc but the degree of communication and the vigor of the campaign determined the people’s political inclination.

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The other point to cement the proposition of mass communication transforming culture is observable from the trend of political support that the presidential campaigners got after the public debates. These were broadcasted through out the country and individuals who listened to them altered their political support dependent on the strength of each of the candidates this change of political stands favored the Democratic party’s candidate who went ahead to capture the presidential race.(Keefe 2006).

Social behavior

This is the most observable of the components of culture as is demonstrated by individuals relate to each other and is illustrated from the very basic level of t he family. Unlike in the cases of political and economic cultures that may require an in formed mind to decipher the actual influence this is much easier.

The indicators of this kind of transformation is observable from such aspects as the dressing of individuals, the eating habits of a particular people, courtship behaviors and many other traits that describe the social orientations of a given society.

In earlier days when individual’s interactions were limited to physical extents the level of behavior for these people was only determined by those they lived with and was founded on the social values for the particular community or region. This however has changed with time as communication has brought down the physical boundaries and individuals now freely communicate and exchange values from other parts of the world. This has seen most social values altered to fit some others which may be looked at as favorable or preferable by certain individuals. This has also led to modified cultural behaviors to strike a common ground between various cultures around the world such as American culture being altered to accommodate some of Chinese culture which maybe seen to have some favorable aspects as far as business is concerned.

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All this is as a result of communication which has provided the link between cultures and has come in as an analysis board for various cultures leading to modification of culture and alteration of values. This alteration and modification of values is the bases of cultural transformations which are the subject of this paper. (Alexander 2008).

Values

These are the strong and deeply held pointers of action or behavior found within the members of a common society.

In a less detailed analysis values can be discussed jointly with the social transformation as these are the finer elements that determine the social outlay. Values are mainly subject to change as members of a society integrate with other members of different societies this is made possible by mass communication. Individuals examine or have people examine the various values present with other societies and tend to adapt those that show desirable outcomes exhibited by behaviors of these people. It is the adaptation of these that is termed as transformation of the values for these communities or societies made possible by mass communication.

Opposing views

The view of positively transforming lives has not always been the case as there are individuals

who have looked at it differently. Despite the fact that they agree on the importance and great

strides that mass communication has taken they tend to disagree on the impact that the same

has brought in the society. Their views are mainly different from mine and to offer a balanced

examination it is just fair that I examine each of the topics I have addressed and offer their line

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of argument.

Economic culture

The economic culture per my discussion is as a result of wide consultations by the prior economists and change of the same or transformation as I may have used in my argument is made possible through mass communication. The opposers of this argue that this is not the case and actually these changes in economic policies are a result of the economic forces that keep changing as governance policies change and the ideologies of the people change. The crux of the argument is that they are bound to happen whether there is an agent in this case mass communication or not, thus they seek to prove that the transformation sin economic theories and policies are a result of factors not in any way related to mass communication.

I respect these views but then the quality of a policy is dependent on the level of information and the depth of the study carried out, thus alienating the policy with what helped gather the information for its formulation will be deviating from reality which is the bases of this argument.

Political culture

This is the way politics have been practiced over the ages, and besides my view of the same being transformed by the mass media the other argument against it seeks to explain that the revolution in the political fields is as a result of people’s reaction to the postulates of those in power. The other is that these individuals will only change the way they do politics when the people demand a higher level of service, require formation of better policies or simply require a complete change from the previous mode of governance. In their argument t hey identify these as the only reasons why politicians change the way they do politics. (Alexander 2008).

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I would say it is quite proper to argue as so but then an argument should be based on the available facts and should be aimed at proper and extensive evaluations not just scratching the surface as these proponents have done. The changes that these individuals demand are as a result of in formed positions that are either self generated or planted in the minds of these individuals. This is only done through a common medium which impacts the subjects of these governments with the required knowledge, to help them evaluate and weigh the ideologies and policies of these politicians. This is where mass communications comes in it is not proper to examine the result and not look at the cause thus mass communication is what triggers the actions exhibited by the people who in turn transform the actions of the politicians altering the political culture.

Social culture and values

Many argue that the mass media has helped degrade the moral levels as explicit information and messages are circulated around the world. They also argue that the broadcast of violent cultures and cases has played a big role in encouraging a violent culture. This maybe true to some extent but then the broadcast of such information is subject to regulation by the respective regulators and operators and is all dependent on the market or audience targeted. (Alexander 2008).

PART C

Conclusion

Communication has provided a channel for people to air their views to show case their culture and various talents which they posses, for scholars to discuss their subjects this has led to alteration and modification of values and behavior of people around the world.

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As is evident from my research mass communication has enabled considerable changes which have transformed the way people live and relate to each other, the way they do things and more fundamentally has changed the global set up to represent a community that is in close proximity and which individuals are constantly in touch with each other despite the great geographical extent of their locations.

The economic culture has been changed and now represents the views of many scholars and is much informed as opposed to the cases in the past. The political culture on the other hand has been revolutionalised and people are now able not only able to determine the ability of a leader but also to fully examine the ideas these leaders offer. The social set up together with the values held by people have also been fully integrated with others previously not known or studied but which are now acknowledged and form collective global values which are the yard stick for the entire world race.

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References

Alexander, A (2008).Mass media and Society: Taking sides- clashing views in mass media and society 10th edition.McGraw-Hill/Dushkin

Conners, J, Cohen Bell, L and Sheckles, T (2007).Perspectives on Political communication.

Allyn & Bacon.

Keefe, W (2006).Parties, Politics, and public policy in America 10th edition. CQ press.

Mayer, J (2007).American media Politics in Transition. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.

Vivian, J (1996).The media of mass communication 4th edition .Allyn & Bacon

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