Media is an essential tool that allows people in a community to interact and share ideas. With the rapidly growing technology, it has enabled people from different corners of the world to learn from one another. Media is a powerful tool which allows people in a given locality to adapt and modify their beliefs, values, and practices. Therefore, it influences culture both negatively and positively. In the American community, audio-visual media provides an opportunity for citizens to model how people in different regions believe, value or act. Copying culture occurs when people see and listen to what others do.
In the United States, the telecast is the major broadcast that is being used. Television broadcasts have impacted the culture of Americans for the past few years. Since the 1950s, after the termination of the Second World War to date, television has had increasing popularity (Dixon et al., 2019). Visual broadcasts became common methods of entertainment and for disseminating information in homes, businesses, public institutions such as schools, hospitals and in offices. Media broadcast acts as the mirror of society, allowing people to see and reflect on events occurring in society. The broadcasts provide forums for Americans to see or learn what people in different parts of the world think, say, act and how they interact with their colleagues. Video transmissions have nurtured and improved morals and values which are beneficial to society.
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Television has led to the dissemination of ideologies such as same-sex marriages and single parenthood. These practices were not prevalent initially. However, with the development of television and media industry, people have incorporated these practices in their culture. The broadcasts have enabled these practices to be culturally acceptable in different states in America (Dixon et al., 2019). These practices have led to an increasing number of single-parent families and a surge in the number of men marrying fellow men or a woman getting married to a woman. The increase is attributable to the access and ability to learn from movies and television broadcasts.
Although radio broadcasts are still used in the US, they are not as common as television broadcasts. With the current increase in the use of smartphones and access to the internet, radio broadcasts have lost the attention of many people, and they have become obsolete. Radio program receives less than 35% of the total broadcast attention in a day (Keith, 2020). With the increasing use of audio-visual media technology, radio broadcast gives less influence to the culture of Americans. Those who use radio broadcasts can only hear what the presenter is saying. Learning different values and practices is less likely to occur when radio broadcasts are used. Learning occurs more especially when a person sees and listens to what the presenter or the other person is doing or saying.
Since 2006 or even earlier, there has been a declining number of radio users. From the late 1980s and early 1990s, there has been an average of 0.5 to 1% decline in the amount of time spent listening to the radio. This means that radios have lost relevance and popularity among US citizens (Keith, 2020). The emergence of social media has captured the attention of people who were initially radio broadcast users and influenced their behaviors and attitudes.
Over the past fifty years, there has been an increase in the use of audio-visual media, which has resulted in declining attention given to audio broadcast. The television broadcasts have provided more negative and positive impacts on the culture than radio broadcasts.
References
Dixon, T. L., Weeks, K. R., & Smith, M. A. (2019). Media constructions of culture, race, and ethnicity. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication . University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.502
Keith, M. C. (2020). Talking Radio: An Oral History of American Radio in the Television Age: An Oral History of American Radio in the Television Age . Routledge.
