Heart of Radio

As radio became highly popular in the 1920s, broadcast companies noticed how important listening to the radio became, both culturally and financially. Commercial advertising soon became an important money maker for radio stations and has become the heart for radio.

Broadcast companies made a profit from commercial advertising through a simple way. In order for a product to advertise on the airways, they had to pay a fee to the broadcast company. The fee depended on how long the commercial would run. Soon, advertisers began to sponsor certain programs and eventually led to the program advertising the product in their program.

AT&T's WEAF Radio Advertising 1922
Picture courtesy of Flickr.com

Commercial broadcasting began in the early 1920s and soon became the heart that keeps the radio alive today. Advertisers realized the popularity of radio among audiences and began paying the broadcast companies to advertise their products on the airways. Commercials have kept the radio alive because they essentially pay the broadcast companies to continue broadcasting from the early 1920s to today.

So I Can Get My, SATISFACTION.

While the Rolling Stones famously sang of their lack of "satisfaction" in the sixties, a new way to attain satisfaction began around the same time. The internet made it possible for people obtain a certain satisfaction or gratification they were looking for. People use the media in order to satisfy certain needs.

This satisfaction may be seen as the uses and gratifications theory. In this theory, people, or the active audience, use the media as a means to gratify their needs. Furthermore, the needs the audience seeks to satisfy are not unplanned. People know what they want to satisfy and know how to use the media to get what they want exactly. This can either mean through gratifying their knowledge of what is going on in the world such as watching the news or gratifying their social needs by interacting with people via the internet.

One prime example of using the media to satisfy their social needs is through the social networking internet site, Facebook.com. Facebook allows users to virtually connect with friends and share their thoughts and ideas to them. People log-on to Facebook because they want to share what they are currently thinking, feeling, viewing, etc. In a world where people feel they need to express themselves, Facebook is a great example of how they gratify their desires.

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Hegemony and the Media

The media has a strong influence on the opinions and choices of the public through the use of hegemony.

Like a puppeteer who controls its puppets with strings, the media controls the public with hegemony. Hegemony can be defined as the control and/or influence a ruling group has over another. The powerful group may refer to hegemony as "leadership" or "guidance" but, for the unknowingly public, hegemony may be easier defined as subtle submission by their part. The only difference between the puppeteer and the media is the strings for the puppet are physical whereas the strings for the media are naturally planted into the public's mind.

Steve Jobs is the ultimate modern day puppeteer and the way he advertises his products are the strings to his success. The products of the Apple Company are advertised to seem as the "cool" and "modern" technologies of the "cool" and "modern" citizen. The classic example of the hip Apple customer is of the commercials of the MacBook where a cool and young fellow tells the viewer that he "is a Mac" and an older, less cooler man proclaims that he "is a PC." This kind of commercial tells the audience that Macs are cooler than a PC and in a country where it is essential to be cool, the public unknowingly succumbs to the Apple Company's use of hegemony.

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