Media Message: Adapting to Our Culture
Hello! My name is Molly Sears and I am studying communications, visual design, and biblical/religious studies. I am a believer, runner, artist, student, friend, and storyteller. I firmly believe everyone has a story to share, whether it be through spoken communication, visual imagery, or written word. My personal favorite is visual communication; hence, my dream is to be a designer. Designers communicate messages subconsciously to their audience. Through hierarchy, repetition, rhythm, and other principles of design, designers reach their audience in visually interesting ways.
In our society today, it is almost impossible to use the term media without attaching the word social to it. Our generation is enthralled with the digital world: Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook. Social media is used to immediately communicate with a large audience. However, social media has influenced society’s perceptions on media’s intended design. The purpose of media is to have an outlet to reach an audience. More simply, the purpose of media is to communicate. Forms of media include (and are not limited to): books, newspapers, magazines, artwork, blogs, websites, and photographs. As stated earlier, the general purpose of media is to communicate; hence, I believe the definition of media goes beyond the social realm to an occupational realm. Media is often used by companies and organizations to communicate with their customers.
Our culture has morphed media, so that we display our most attractive selves online. We post our accomplishments, our edited photographs, and our best moments. I find it ironic that media is used to “instantly” communicate with one another; however, we take time to revise and edit our messages before sending them. It is not raw, instantaneous communication. It is an edited conversation. I don’t necessarily believe that we need to change the direction media has gone. Rather, as communicators we must adapt to media to better relate to the audience.
