Instant access. That is what media has brought to the modern world. Instant access to information of any kind. It once took months to get information from one state to another, but now we can convey messages to people on the other side of the world. Today, the messages we send seem trivial at times. Social media sites that give us 120 characters to tell the world what we had for lunch, reality shows that stations broadcast to us, and bubbly pop songs we hear on the radio may not be the messages that creators of mass media devices intended us to spread or hear. However, we have managed to use their inventions to get a few things right.
While access to social media sites on the internet and endless stream of content from television and radio has been extremely beneficial to us as far as entertainment goes, the most beneficial attribute of mass media has been the mass of the audience to which it can reach. Mass media has and will continue to change the world because of it ability to reach people from all over the world. Since the introduction of radio and television, media has helped fuel revolutions and change. The Civil Rights Movement was largely benefited by television broadcasts. Millions of people watched the brutality of black oppression through their TV sets. If they had been unable to see the terrible acts which were committed, it is likely that the Movement would not have gained enough support to be successful. But because people from all over the country were able to witness events like ‘Bloody Sunday’ and ‘The Little Rock Nine’, the movement gained the demand it needed for the country to see change.