Its all and Overdose… is it?!!
Saturation point is long past. Too much of Media, media studies, critics, cynics, everyone and everything that is vocal and global! Television, newspapers, radio, books, magazines, videos, tik-toks, vlogs and blogs, you name it,we all have it! Surfing the internet is almost like putting dishes in the dishwasher, expensive for soul but cannot do without it as well. Media hold over our mind and action is so widespread that they in a way rule our daily life. Desktop publishing, writing and internet content have increased their production manyfold. They are creating heavy control over media that is way cheaper and more effective as medium of money and power generation than Hollywood, Bollywood and other production(hoods in the woods)! We have power to create our own meaning, watch what we like, for howlong we like, have our very own likes and dislikes and emotions. We then become self-ruled, independent yet dependent consumers of others’ media and critics. This beomes the eventual crux of media studies.
What is media? It is actually a mediator. The news that we receive is now a raw product, infact, It passes through various channels, coated in various, words, gestures, songs, pictures, writings etc. Then it is communicated further. It is passed through the space and time through as many people as possible. We already agree that media has obviously high reachability. It is developed throught the usage of advanced technology. The content is mainly given by few centric companies however the receiver is diverse public. Although there is hardly any direct communication between source (media houses, companies etc.) and the receiver( consumer, audience, public).
Even though the media is all about communication, but it is mostly single-sided and there is a threat to turn communication in a big monetary business and propaganda of certain ideas and ideologies. Still it is important to study media because it is one of the best ways to understand ourselves. We spend most of our life either watching tv, films , videos or surfing internet. Infact our ability ot speak, think, comprehend and establish relationships are extremely affected by it. Or identity is identified most of the time because of the influence of media. Thus studying the media is infact studying the humans as social beings.
Some critics say that media studies is hyped. It does not give any thing exclusive and is infact shallow and disposable. It is not a subject to be taken seriously as a discipline. However to counter answer the blame, we can support it by saying that its openness and wideness as-well-as its interdisciplinary nature many times, scares and angers or irritates the critics. It moreover has more indept knowledge of contemporary and current life and world and the happenings around. Hence what we eneed to do is filter the information that is relevant and true. We need to have the discretion of what to choose when, how to and why. This will automatically make us learn media studies in a very organic manner. Everything today is interrelated. To understand one aspect we have to study something totally different as wellbecause there is most of the time some connection between them at certain level. The written part is just one aspect. Media tells all in various perspectives. The policts, art, culture, society, everything else and beyond is told by media in one way or the other. They need to be studied very systematically. In fact, BBC even recommended it to be started at primary level for kids. Thus targeting kids through marketing strategies catering specifically to them, even though they really may be far away from what is projected. So at one point it may seem to be quite overwhelming, but the need to understand and mould our behaiviour is so deep that we need to dive deeper then we already are at the moment. Let us watch what the next turn will be and see where the tide take us!