Mass MediaMay 7, 1987Copyright © 1997 Property of Deborah K. Fletcher. All rights reserved.
With the growth of the media, the world is becoming the global village which was proposed by Marshall McLuhan. Within moments, the entire free world can be informed of scores of events. Unlike the presidential election of 1798, modern elections are broadcast worldwide as they occur. Similarly, the choosing of a Pope, or the succession of royalty can be, and usually is, broadcast live to an eagerly waiting world. National and international disasters, such as volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, and flooding are witnessed by the world, side-by-side with appeals for social and financial assistance for the victims. The minute-to-minute details of wars, battles, rebellions, and takeovers are witnessed by the entire free world, and by the less-than-free world if its leaders feel it is appropriate. Hostage crises, rescue attempts, and peace talks are similarly broadcast. All of this tends to make the world community treat major world events as everyday events, to be dealt with or ignored as is convenient. It makes people tend to forget how large the world is, or how many diverse peoples live in the world. It makes one more bombing, or one more hostage, or one more rebellion of oppressed peasants and mercenary soldiers seem insignificant. Occassionally, a name, place, or event will register in the mind, but only those events which touch an individual or his close acquaintances mean anything to that individual. The state of the world is changing constantly, and camera, recorders, pencils, and paper are tagging along to catch the news as it happens. Still, word-of-mouth news about local events tends to keep the interest of the public. The world knows what the world is doing, but each tiny community within the world village cares more about the personal or social activities of, and news about, its own John Smiths and Mary Joneses than about those previously earth-shattering events which tend to be tuned out of the mental noise as "just-one-more-whatever-wherever-again." Death, destruction, royalty, and religion - what has happened to our concern for our world? Perhaps the rush of media has made it all so commonplace that we really don't care as much anymore, or perhaps we are suffering from the "just one more" syndrome, and don't notice what happens in the world, or don't recognize its importance to the world. Please View and Sign My Guestbook © 1998-2000 Debbie Fletcher, joiya@tcia.net
|
