Effects Of Media On People Essay, Research Paper

I. Introduction

Media nowadays is considered a window for learning and is also considered to be

our main window to the world. Media has evolved from simple text in papers, to voices in

radios, to voices with pictures in television and movies, to the very broad and information

packed Internet. But as we all know, media has changed and evolved since then.

Media then was primarily used to deliver news across the town and to beef up the

people with the information they need for their everyday life. Then, newspaper was the

only form of media until radio came into the picture. When radio came it became the most

popular form of media. Then when television was born, it replaced radios and people turn

to television for sources of information. But before the end of the millennium, Internet was

born. Internet is now the most popular form of media not only to youngsters but also to

adults because of its diversity and usefulness.

As kinds of media evolve, contents also evolve. From recorded news to live news

via a satellite. From simple text to attractive graphics. From variety shows to teen

oriented programs. Media has changed a lot since it started.

II. Kinds of Media

Television

The fossils found in American garbage dumps clearly show the evolution of the

radio into the television set. Layers of fossil garbage from the WWI era (10 million

years ago) contain fragments of radios that use vacuum tubes. The first televisions

appear in the WWII layer (8 million years ago) that lies immediately above the WWI

layer. The components in these early television sets are nearly identical with those in

the WWI radios, so the radio clearly evolved into the television. Both the radio and

television show signs of further evolution, with transistors replacing tubes in later

models.

Radios evolved into televisions through a process of random mutations and

natural selection. All radios are built on an assembly line according to plans. When

completed, the radios are tested to make sure they work. Occasionally, a radio is

assembled incorrectly. In most cases, assembly errors cause the radio to work poorly,

or not work at all. These errors are detected in the testing phase, and the faulty radios

are destroyed.

In very rare instances, however, an assembly error actually causes the radio to

work better than normal. When this is detected in the testing phase, the radio is studied

to find out what the difference is. The plans are modified to incorporate the beneficial

error, and all subsequent radios are built this way.

Over a period of 2 million years, the radio gradually evolved into a television

set. Although the transitional forms have never been discovered, we know how this

happened. One day, on a whim, a worker decided to add a picture tube to the radio.

The picture tube didn’t actually do anything, because there weren’t any horizontal or

vertical deflection circuits yet, but the little white dot in the center of the screen

impressed the inspector so much that he changed the plans so that all future radios

would have picture tubes. Some years later, another worker added deflection circuitry

to make the little dot move across the screen from left to right and top to bottom. Since

this was much more fun to look at, it was incorporated into the plans. Of course it cost

more to build radios this way, but for some reason the moving light spot added some

survival benefit in the electronics market. Since consumers would not buy a radio

without a moving dot, all competing radios were built this way.

At exactly the same time, somebody at a radio station decided to hook a camera

up to the transmitter, instead of a microphone, just to see what would happen. The

image was broadcast from the radio station to the television set, and the broadcast

industry was born. Of course this is ridiculous. But is it any more ridiculous than the

evolutionists’ story of the development of the eye? Is it any more ridiculous than the

evolutionists’ fable about how wasps and figs had to have evolved at the same time so

they could allow each other to reproduce? We don’t think so.

Certainly television did evolve from radio, in a particular sense of the word. It did

not, and could not, evolve by random mutation and natural selection. Radio and television

components definitely are similar. That doesn’t prove that an early television was once a

radio, or that television and radio shared a common ancestor that has not been discovered

yet. It is simply evidence that common component building blocks can be assembled to

create different products. Radio and television are both products of human intelligence.

Their similarity is evidence of a common designer, not random chance. Phillip Johnson

explains it this way: Tim Berra is a professor of zoology at Ohio State University. He

wrote a book that was published by the Stanford University Press with the title Evolution

and the Myth of Creationism: A Basic Guide to the Facts in the Evolution Debate. Berra’s

book has much the same purpose as this book [Defeating Darwinism]. It aims to explain,

for nonscientists, how good thinkers should view the conflict between evolution and

creation. Here is Berra’s explanation of “evolution,” which comes illustrated with

photographs of automobiles in the middle of the book: Everything evolves, in the sense of

“descent with modification,” whether it be government policy, religion, sports cars, or

organisms. The revolutionary fiberglass Corvette evolved from more mundane automotive

ancestors in 1953. Other high points in the Corvette’s evolutionary refinement included the

1962 model, in which the original 102-inch was shortened to 98 inches and the new

closed-coupe Stingray model was introduced; ? [a long list of changes deleted] ?The

point is that the Corvette evolved through a selection process on variations that resulted in

a series of transitional forms and an endpoint rather distinct from the starting point. A

similar process shapes the evolution of organisms.

Of course, every one of those Corvettes was designed by engineers. The

Corvette sequence–like the sequence of Beethoven’s symphonies or the opinions of the

United States Supreme Court–does not illustrate naturalistic evolution at all. ? I have

encountered this mistake so often in public debates that I have given it a nickname:

“Berra’s Blunder.”

The evolution of television from black & white to color was very difficult because

of the need for “backward compatibility”. The number of American television sets grew

from 137,000 in 1947 to more than 7 million in 1957. Broadcasters had to figure out how

to transmit color signals that could be displayed on the existing 7 million black & white

TVs. TV manufacturers had to figure out how to build color TV sets that could also display

older B&W programs. It didn’t just happen by chance.

Now there are 200 to 300 million analog TV sets in America, none of which are

compatible with the new digital HDTV signals. The “evolution” from analog TV to digital

TV required a federal law making it illegal to broadcast analog TV signals after 2006.

(The government seems to be backing away from that date now.) The change from analog to

digital can’t happen naturally.

But what are these changes compared to a land-dwelling cow-like mammal turning

into a whale? or a dinosaur turning into a bird? The evolution of TV or the Corvette is not

evidence for evolution of new critters from old critters. TVs and Corvettes aren’t changed

at random to make the design better. That approach doesn’t work, even with a highly

intelligent selection process. Random changes will never turn a radio into a television.

There has to be an intelligent purpose coordinating many design changes at once.

Radio

Since the sign-on of the first commercial radio station, KDKA Pittsburgh, in 1920,

the radio industry has enjoyed tremendous popularity, provided listeners with endless

hours of entertainment and information, and played a valuable role in the making of history.

Radio’s ubiquitousness and immediacy made it the place most people heard about such

historical events as the crash of the Hindenburg zeppelin at Lakehurst, N.J., the Japanese

attack on Pearl Harbor, the landing of Allied troops at Normandy during World War II,

and, more recently, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and the space shuttle Challenger

disaster.

Although Billboard has covered radio since the medium’s infancy, it was not until

the late ’20s that radio became one of the magazine’s regularly covered businesses. A Jan.

4, 1930, headline tells the story of the potential for the still-fledgling industry: “Radio Seen

As One Of The Biggest Branches Of The Show Business.”

That article reported on radio’s growing influence as an entertainment medium.

“Against its wishes, in some respects, the amusement industry is being forced, more and

more, to recognize the radio field as one of its most important and powerful branches,”

Billboard reported. “Five years ago a hybrid form of entertainment and frowned on by

show business in general, the radio infant has grown within record time to the point where

today it is second only to motion pictures as a gigantic industry in the entertainment

business. And it is growing bigger all the time.”

Not only was radio initially disapproved of, the vaudeville community actually

ordered its acts to stay off the air under penalty of contract cancellation. Musical, concert,

and operatic managers also shunned radio fearing that “songs plugged too strongly over the

air would lose their sales value,” Billboard reported on March 1, 1930.

Eventually, however, both vaudeville and the rest of the industry came to recognize

radio as a way of stimulating sales. By 1930, Billboard was reporting that “sheet music

and record dealers now consider radio a boon to their business, rather than a detriment.”

The magazine’s initial radio coverage, a one-eighth-page section called Radio Entertainers

that first appeared in 1928, focused on famous stage performers’ radio appearances, such

as Maurice Chevalier’s radio debut on the Columbia Broadcasting System. That column

was tucked in between other, more significant sections of the magazine, including Parks,

Piers & Beaches, Circus & Side Show, Magic & Magicians, and Feminine Frills (a

shopping service).

By 1930, the now full-page Radio Entertainers section joined the front-cover list of

Billboard’s regularly covered entertainment businesses, which also included burlesque,

skating rinks, rodeos, and, of course, popular songs. In those days, the magazine known as

The Billboard was billed as “The Theatrical Digest And Show World Review.”

About that same time, stations’ regular on-air personalities began to make news in

Billboard, not just the visiting entertainers. A lighthearted story from the Jan. 11, 1930,

issue, for example, told of how WMCA New York announcer A.L. Alexander was the

recipient of a plum pudding from a mysterious admirer in Surrey, England, every

Christmas.

By 1975, the once-popular nostalgia format was fading, drama radio had been dead

for more than a decade, and the disco format was “being studied based on the records

played in the growing number of discotheques throughout the nation,” Billboard reported

on Jan. 4. The disco format really took off in 1979 when WABC New York lost its 17-year

hold at the top of the market’s ratings to what was called “disco upstart” WKTU.

Also popular in the late ’70s were top 40, country, and MOR (middle of the road), and

progressive rock stations also had gained a foothold since their inception in the late ’60s.

The FCC forced more FM programming diversity in 1976 when it ruled that duplication of

AM programming on the FM band was to be limited to 25% if either station is licensed to a

city with a population of more than 100,000, and 50% in smaller cities.

In 1982, black-oriented stations across the U.S. were taking on the urban

contemporary format, described in Billboard on Jan. 9 as “an outgrowth of disco which

blends contemporary black music with rock- and pop-oriented product which often (though

not exclusively) carries a rhythmic base.” Some programmers of black stations resented

that, contending, “it is a means by which black music can be diluted to make stations more

palatable to non-blacks.” During the ’80s radio was transformed into big business. As

stations began trading for unprecedented dollar figures, top programmers and talent began

earning equally unprecedented sums, full-time satellite programming networks came into

being, and radio took on a much more businesslike, professional tenor than had previously

been associated with it.

Today, there are nearly 12,000 radio stations in the United States programming

approximately 80 distinct formats. FM is now the dominant entertainment medium, although

AM continues to be a primary outlet for news and information.

Internet

The Internet has had a relatively brief, but explosive history so far. It grew out of an

experiment begun in the 1960’s by the U.S. Department of Defense. The DoD wanted to

create a computer network that would continue to function in the event of a disaster, such as

a nuclear war. If part of the network were damaged or destroyed, the rest of the system still

had to work. That network was ARPANET, which linked U.S. scientific and academic

researchers. It was the forerunner of today’s Internet.

In 1985, (NSF) created NSFNET, a series of networks for research and education

communication. Based on ARPANET protocols, the NSFNET created a national backbone

service, provided free to any U.S. research and educational institution. At the same time,

regional networks were created to link individual institutions with the national backbone

service.

NSFNET grew rapidly as people discovered its potential, and as new software

applications were created to make access easier. Corporations such as Sprint and MCI

began to build their own networks, which they linked to NSFNET. As commercial firms

and other regional network providers have taken over the operation of the major Internet

arteries, NSF has withdrawn from the backbone business.

NSF also coordinated a service called InterNIC, which registered all addresses

on the Internet so that data could be routed to the right system. This service has now been

taken over, in cooperation with NSF.

III. Effects of Media

Good Effects

Media has brought a lot of good effects. One of its good effects is the information

students like me get from the Internet. We can easily get the information we need through

the Internet just by a click of a mouse, unlike in those old times where we really have to

spend lots of time in the library to just find the book we need to get the information we

need. Also television has helped us in the entertainment part. Television makes us happy

and relieves our stress. When we go home at night, usually watching TV is our best way

of relaxing. Also, radios has helped us in feeding us with the information on what?s

happening around us. When we have nothing to do, we usually turn on the radio and listen

to some music.

Media has also helped in developing the minds of the younger generation. The

Discovery Channel for instance. This channel provides the young generation with a good

documentation of animal and plant activities. It explains why plants do this or why animals

do that. Also, the news networks around the globe. They feed us with the information we

need to know in far away countries. For instance, you want to know what?s happening in

Canada but you?re in China, just log on to the Internet and go to CNN?s website and look

for it there, or if you don?t have access to the Internet, just open your TV and watch CNN.

These are some of the good effects that media has brought into our daily lives.

Bad Effects

Media has also brought some bad effects. One example is the easy access of

minors to pornographic materials in the Internet. Even though there have been a lot of

actions being done to prevent minors from getting into these kinds of materials, there is no

success in doing so. The effect of these is a rise in rape cases not only here in the

Philippines but also in other countries. Also the Internet has been said to be the cause why

students now don?t learn much because the students today don?t have to read cause they

only have to log on to the Internet, click the mouse a few times and there you are, they have

a project.

Also, the programs that are being played in local television networks can be said to

be not appropriate. In our country for instance, the kids are so into anime, what is anime

you ask. This is a kind of Japanese program that show super heroes fighting each other.

For example last year a very well-watched anime took the Philippines by storm.

Ghostfighter, it shows the heroes fighting with the bad guys by killing them. The main point

here is, the kids are seeing these kinds of activities and they might think that these activities

are right. Maybe you?ve heard about the news that a young boy killed his cousin because

his cousin turned off the television while watching his favorite anime program.

These are some of the bad effects media has brought to our daily lives.

IV. Conclusion

It can be then said that although media has brought a lot of good things into our

daily lives, it also brought a lot of bad things to us. It has brought a lot of new things to us

like easy way of communicating with other people, even if they are across the world and

in an economical way at that. It gave us easy access to information that students could

really benefit. Much better entertainment that really relaxes us when we?re so stressed out.

But as good things comes, there?s always some bad things included. Some are the rise in

rape cases, the lest intelligent students, the rise in killings done by minors, and some other

things. By this we could infer that although media has made our lives much easier and

much better it brought new and much bigger problems to us.

Maybe a better policy on media content can be enforced so that we could really

benefit for what media could offer from us.

Jones, While. Evolution of Television.

October, 1997.

Johnson, Phillip. Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds.

Pages 62-63.

1997.

Associated Press. Digital TV Makes Its Debut.

Daily Independent, page 1.

April 4, 1997.

Stark, Phyllis. A History of Radio Broadcasting.

Billboard.

November 1, 1994.

Learner, Michael. Birth of the Net.

Learn the Net.

1999.