Main Content
Lesson 2: Media and Society
The Role and Adoption of Media in Today’s Society
The early wave of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented period of increased media adoption. It was a difficult time for people, families, and businesses globally as nations went into lockdown to curtail the spread of the virus. During this period, individuals relied more heavily on media for anything and everything, including, but not limited to:
- grocery shopping,
- remote work,
- banking,
- entertainment,
- contact with loved ones,
- news,
- education,
- skill acquisition, and
- art production.
From Your Course Author
Definitely, I am one such individual. I depended on social media (specifically, Twitter and Instagram), e-commerce websites, fitness apps, videoconferencing apps (Zoom, Google Hangouts, etc.), and cable television for my social, professional, and health-related needs. My mobile phone and I were joined at the hip because I was afraid to miss out on local/world news, latest movies, music releases, and more.
The proliferation of the internet has changed the nature of media: According to Croteau and colleagues' text (2022), in 2018, 95% of American teenagers had access to a smartphone, desktop, and laptop, while many homes relied on virtual multichannel video devices for entertainment, news, and so on. This increasing media adoption rate among individuals and households indicates how our lives, society, and media intertwine. The world is now at our fingertips because of the widespread information flowing through the media. Nonetheless, this was not always the case.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, radio broadcasting grew rapidly in America. In the 1950s and 1960s, the media industry welcomed the use of print and television in many households, resulting in the popularity of mass media. Presently, we have witnessed a switch to internet-enabled media ranging from cable television to smartphones to video game consoles to social media to digital home assistants (Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, Amazon's Alexa, and more) to non-linear television like Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBO Max, Roku, Disney+, Hulu, and other streaming services.