I have learned many media concepts from The Media and Society book. It made me understand media better. It is interesting to see how the media work from a different prospective and most importantly when compared to media in the Middle East where many of these concepts don’t exist.
Studying the author usage of movies, TV shows and images to explain the media and society around us, I realized that these visual media have a great impact on our life and was able to change our world in the past years regardless of where we live.
When comparing this book to the Shallows, or in another word :What do media do to us vs. what the internet is doing to our brain? I reached a conclusion that a new media is introduced. Both confirmed to me that the internet and the visual media forms are the new books and the new media.
In addition, I realized that many mass communication issues become global. The difficulty in reading books, defining media role and meeting the audience expectation are international phenomenons. However, the audience basic needs is the same: an interesting and compelling story. Mastering a storytelling technique and choose the right narrative is all what it take regardless of what new forms of media we have.
Finally, as we are now living in this global village with a collective identity, that McLuhan has predicted in the 60s, we have to act locally and think globally. Now I strongly believe the new media is our new form of communication that makes our life better.
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