This or That?

For my last entry for communication blog today, I would like to talk about mass media. Functions of media include surveillance, correlation, cultural transmission as well as entertainment. The very visible and obvious example regarding this would most probably be the advertisement we have today. As we turn on the television every day, advertisements and commercials would be coming our way one after another.

“The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium – that is, of any extension of ourselves – result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.”

Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan argues that medium is more important than the message. This is because; he thinks that how we deliver is more significant than what we deliver. Also, medium has the power to change the way we live and experience the world.

Television, being one of the most popular medium of conveying information, is widely available all around the world. Almost all the residents living in Singapore have at least one television; and it would most probably be placed in the living room. Most of us do watch television almost every day, because we need to get ourselves updated with a variety of information, be it the news, sports or even fashion. For this reason, companies have put up commercials in between shows we’re watching. They have chosen perfectly fitting time for these commercials to be aired, often timed to reach most audience members.

In order for the advertisement to attract more audiences, most companies would pick the best medium, as medium is the message regardless of what you’re conveying. Not only that, since media functions as an entertainment too, therefore, it has made even clearer that the basic medium is television. Not only it is entertaining, television has also become the new educator in most households. Thus, it has made it even simpler for messages and information to be conveyed. For every fifteen minutes we spent watching a show, we’ll get a five minutes commercial break.

However, until today, audiences are always the active consumers, meaning, they will always have the ability to resist media messages. According to the limited effects theory, audiences can clearly seek out the competing media messages according to their own needs rather than being influenced by all of them. As to further elaborate, active audiences tend to focus on watching advertisements of the same kind in order to make the best choice.

For instance,

Which of these two would you prefer?

Clairol’s product have a ordinary standard way of dying hair, whereas the Japanese brand, Prettia Soft Bubble Hair Color allows you to just apply the foam of the dye and shampoo them on the hair. Obviously, it is more convenient to use the hair dye like a shampoo rather than having such complicated steps to follow when using Clairol’s. However, this may not make the audiences decide on which one to buy just comparing this aspect, still, more aspects such as the price and availability are put into consideration. Therefore, limited effects theory is well defined.