The media we want?

It may be easy to say that as consumers we have the final say in all decisions in what we consume. How would it be possible that the media, a series of industries, can have any effect on what consumers do? Surely they are only there in response to consumer’s wants and desires. In essence Consumers get the media they want, but no it might not always seem this way. Media has a far greater influence in consumer decisions than can been seen at first glance. Consumers actually want the media they get.

A little clarification might be in order here; there is a subtle change in language but a profound change in meaning when you change the “get” to a “want”. If the consumer wants what they get, than that means that the consumer desires what is given to them. But how can it be that industries meant to serve the consumer don’t just give the consumer what they want? It is to do with the fact that they are consumers, they are raised to desire things; those things are given to them by the media. Though the media doesn’t just give, it also forms the ideas and the desires of the consumer. How can they give you something if you don’t want it? This idea is formed because media products do not show or present the real world; they construct and represent reality (Media and Society pp 36). Since media represents reality, they have incredible influence over what and how we see and think about what is presented to us. In Media and society it is said that “They take on an interpretive role, teaching people how to make sense of the world and other people, and of ourselves (pp35).” Since media is designed to create understanding in society, they have incredible influence over what society will want, since they themselves represent and present what society should want.

Media then in turn portrays and conveys the dominant ideology, and since the dominant ideology is on of consumerism and desiring, that is how people think.  If you relate this idea to television, a show may be successful because millions of people watch it and they want more shows like it. But the show itself is a product of media, and is reinforced by the dominant ideology as well as reinforces it. So then why do millions of people watch it? Is it because the viewers wanted the show, or because the show reinforced these media representations of life? It is because they believe that what is being presented to them is what they want.

In the end consumers want what they get, because they desire what media gives them and what media can give them. The basis of understanding the world and what is needed and desired is formed by this ideological implementation that is in the media. Since we live in such a mass mediated society, our thoughts and desires are shown to us through media representation. Consumers may get what they want, as the original argument said, but what they want is based around what the media represents as what they need. Since these representations are what they believe than it would be a logical conclusion to say that we as consumers want what we get. 

Work Cited

O'Shaughnessy, M., Satdler, J. (2012). Media and Society. 5th Ed. South Melbourne, Oxford \University Press