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Mass media and culture

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May, 18 2014

Virginia Conger

The Interrelationship between Culture and Visual Entertainment Media

Visual entertainment media has gone from being about families to being about everything. Visual entertainment media explains the meaning in the name, “entertainment”. The media today shows what society has come to tolerate over the years when it comes to movies and television shows. Before television and even radio, we read the news in the newspaper or heard it from someone else that heard it from someone else. Besides the newspaper the only other entertainment was plays and listening to the church choir sings. This all changed when the radio was introduced. People could now hear the news and other entertainment like plays and radio shows, which was a good thing for the people that could not read. With the radio came music other than gospel, which society came to tolerate, so there was more made. Introducing the television, the first ones were huge, black and white, and very expensive for most families to buy. The shows from the radio where now being acted out on the television so people could see what was going on instead of using their imaginations. The television became so popular that color was added to enhance viewing and drive up sales. The small skit shows turned into longer shows with a running plot that was on every week. The longer shows soon turned into movies that people could go to drive-ins and watch in their vehicles. Movies were an even bigger hit than television, because now people could watch color movies about things they could only imagine. As all these changes are developing so are the tolerances about what is proper to be heard and seen. At first there were mostly church sermon, the news, and gospel music, but then more popular music was being made with suggestive wording. It was frowned upon at first but eventually society came to tolerate it. The same goes for television, at first it was the small skit shows from the radio and news, then longer shows with running plots that addressed all sorts of topics, and then the movies, where swear words were being used and nudity was unleashing itself. All of these things were frowned upon at first but as time went on people became more tolerating or just did not listen or watch the things that bothered them. I think the influences of visual entertainment media is a positive for our society. Evolving from where we began to the visual media of today has given us as a society experiences we may have never had. Visual entertainment media has also become like a time capsule for generations to come. They can go back and watch a movie from our time and see what it was really like and how visual entertainment media has shaped the American culture.

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http://www.opinion-maker.org/2011/01/mass-media-and-its-influence-on-society/

References: Ask.com Google.com http://www.opinion-maker.org/2011/01/mass-media-and-its-influence-on-society/

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