AS Media Studies, 3rd Edition

Introduction

In this section we:

• discuss how the media is changing
• explain what we mean by ‘the media’
• suggest reasons as to why the media are important.

Faster! Faster! More! More!

Although it is rather a cliché to say that the media are an important part of our lives, since the events of 11 September 2001 in New York and 7 July 2005 in London, it has become particularly apparent that media images often have a power and significance that can resonate around the world in a matter of seconds. This power and significance have been given an impetus by the development of digital media, for example, the growth of the internet, social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, and the growth of relatively cheap and easy-to-use ...