The advent of popular media

The enlargement of printing press and the globalization of new agencies had a huge impact on the worldwide newspaper agency. In fact, it has been used to emphasize the advances in printing technology, meaning that even the newspaper written in a Non-European language can be printed and distributed, to figure out many aspects such as nationalism, media cultures and advertising.

            The end of nineteenth century was marked by a huge expansion of print media. Indeed, by 1870 more than 140 newspapers were being printed in different languages such as Arabic and Indian. By 1890, Europe has seen a quick expansion of the popular press and an increase in readership, especially in France and Britain.

            Newspapers were also used in order to highlight the nationalist side within countries. For example, Sun Yat Sen who is a nationalist Chinese leader created a daily paper named Chung-kuo Jih-pio in order to emphasize nationalism. Also, at the same time in India, Gandhi used Harijan newspaper to accentuate an anticolonial agenda.

            The first part of the twentieth century was marked by the impact of media on cultures. The media was used to introduce new services such as selling articles, crossword puzzling and comics all over the world.

            One the other hand, the globalization of the new mass culture was accompanied and helped by the growth of movies industry where new studios were created and the Hollywood film industry was developed.

            At the end of the nineteenth century, the media focused on the advertising aspect as advertising became essential in order to sell products. For instance, Coca Cola or Nike knew a huge popularity thanks to their advertising through TV and radio; and became the world largest consumed products. It was also the case of Marlboro cigarettes introduced by Philip Morris in 1955. However, it was banned in 1971 because of the health groups who were against advertising a harmful product.

            Today we live in a society where media has a huge impact on our lives. The means of communication have power over individuals, societies and countries all over the world. I personally believe that media is has many powers. First, it can be considered as an arm for democracy, which protects us against abuse or misconduct by creating a public awareness. In fact, everyone can have access to any information thanks to media, so it does contribute to the human civilization. Secondly, media is one of the most important influencer in the world. Therefore, its enlargement and development is crucial for delivering the news.

However, it has many consequences. For example, we all know that the media is responsible for giving us the information and events that are happening all over the world but we should also acknowledge the fact that media can shape and influence our opinions in the way they deliver this news and how they present it based on the importance they give to certain events over other ones. Also, the advances in technology has helped the spread and the access to information but at the same time it created a gap between traditional media and mainstream ones. Meaning that technology in the media has separated society in many ways. First, some prefer print media whereas others online ones. Also, many areas still don’t have access to internet and as the internet is interactive and the information is spread and published instantly and more rapidly on that sphere, it clearly create a gap.

I strongly believe that media is one of the most powerful and efficient tool for advertising. Indeed, in Europe, Japans and US citizens have free access to networks while free newspapers occupy subway stations. As a result, advertising has rapidly emerged and products are easily sold. In my opinion, we trust media since they give us all the news so when we see an advertisement in a trustful source, we tend to think that the product or the service published must be as good as it is presented.

Finally, media is also used to increase nationalism or colonialism, thing that aimed at promoting through the establishment of a political, military and economic administration to one single local population. This can lead a nation to success and unification of power, but can be also viewed as a form of manipulation since some countries have access to false information and can influence negatively the societies. As for many years, propaganda was used and developed through media and therefore we can add to that for example in France that some newspapers are categorized as representative of one political party. We can give the example of “Le Nouvel Observateur” which is positioned in the left-wing political orientation.