Welcome to Mass Media & Society!

This web space features the creations and critiques produced by Davidson College students in Dr. Martinez' COM/SOC 275: Mass Media & Society course. We focus on understanding the history of various mass media technologies, media convergence, and the effects of new media platforms on participatory/produser culture among digital natives, digital bridges/border-dwellers, and digital immigrants. We strive to continually apply theoretical mass communication perspectives as we interrogate and debate issues in our media-saturated, digital environment. Life in the global village --> Where the medium is the message!

Featured Posts

Media Effects: Representations & Effects on Diverse Audiences

1) What is one aspect of media representation and portrayals that concerns you from the readings for today?
2) What is one aspect of the potential for media to effect diverse audiences that you find particularly striking based on our readings for today?

Master of None: Combatting The Negative Effects of Cultivation

Ansari realizes how damaging it is to allow minorities to watch their own races misrepresented, mocked, and deemphasized on television (and especially the implications this has for children who grow up with a certain fabricated view of their race as portrayed on television, as he discusses this in several places in the show itself). Cultivation is a real and present threat to people’s perceptions of the world, and it can be especially dangerous when it misrepresents minorities – especially to the children watching. Shows like Master of None are attempting to combat this, while creating highly entertaining, humorous, and thought-provoking content at the same time.

Parasocial Relationships: The Wrong Direction

Parasocial relationships can become an unhealthy phenomenon. In today’s digital and social media world, young girls allow celebrity figures, such as One Direction band members, to determine their own lives. Social media’s seemly intimate celebrity /fan connections significantly perpetuates this illusion of a real relationship with unattainable celebrities.

Mass Media Ethics & Legal Issues: Where do we draw the fine lines?

Happy Birthday To Everybody: Victory For The Public Domain (With An Asterisk) It’s now (probably) legal to publicly sing the world’s most popular song, thanks to an opinion handed down yesterday by a federal judge in Los Angeles. After years of litigation, the court held that the lyrics1 of “Happy Birthday To You” are not […]

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