Effects of Synthetic Media - Report Example

Effects of Synthetic Media Name: Institution: Effects of Synthetic Media Introduction Several authors over the past years have commented on how media has been able to shape picture of the reality. This is through exposing the realities in ways that shapes the audience perception about them. However, the emergence of the new technology has made it possible for today’s media to rearrange the contents in reality events thereby changing the way an audience perceives them. Additionally, it has also been argued that a larger part of today’s media audience have since come to prefer synthetic events of media because of some reasons. These reasons are therefore incorporated in a number of hypotheses including, low tolerance for boredom or inactivity, heightened expectation of perfection and high level of performance, expectation of quick, effective, neat resolutions of problems, misconceptions of certain classes of physical and social events, and limited contact with one’s own occupied environment. TOLERANCE OF BOREDOM OR INACTIVITY This always occurs on circumstances where the audience gets bored with viewing of the same thing in reality thus the need for provision of some synthetic materials in the media to help in reducing the boredom (Frankhouser & Shaw, 1990, 83). Regarding an example of a football match, it is realized that as much as watching live football is important since one gets to come see the real players physically, most of the audience will prefer watching it on television. This is because sitting at the same point in a football stadium for more than 90 minutes might lead to emergence of boredom unlike when in the house. Furthermore, a televised football match comes with a number of synthetic effects such as instant replays and slow-motions thus making more interesting compared to watching a real match. The gatekeepers in a football match broadcast Gate keeping in the media industry is the act where the editor of a publication selects or reject what is to be published depending on its newsworthiness (Weerakkody, 2010, 2). Therefore, regarding an example of a football match, it is realized that there exist two types of gatekeepers, that is the mediated gatekeeper; who controls what the audience sees on television and non-mediated gatekeeper. Non-mediated gatekeeper in this context is the organizer of the football match. It is also important to realize that non-mediated gatekeeper may differ from the mediated gatekeeper since he/she is only relevant to the audience viewing the match in real experience. On the other hand, mediated gatekeeper is relevant to the audience viewing the match on television; that is synthetic experience. By showing the effects such as slow motions and instant replays, mediated gatekeeper may alter the perception of the audience by making them think that the players have repeated the play or the players’ motion has slowed down. These effects therefore tend to break boredom among the audience. Role of agenda setting in mediated experience Agenda setting is the ability of the media to tell the public what to think about and how to think about it (Rajshreel, 2010, 7). This is achieved in most media through emphasizing on certain issues thereby making them appear more important to the audience. Regarding the example of a televised football match, it is clear that the media tries to alert the audience more on the events such as goal scoring and red cards shown to a player by the referee. The media then goes ahead to dwell on such issues and ends up spending most of the time on such events as compared to other sections of the game. This factor therefore implies that the media make the audience to think about the goals scored within the match or the red card shown to a player by the referee. It is also important to note that the media will show such events in certain angles that eventually perceives how the audience thinks about the goal scored or the red card shown. It is also important to realize that by adding more emphasis on the exciting scenes of the match makes the clip interesting thus breaking the boredom. Influence of the reality concept by the mediated version As much as mediated versions of the media seem interesting to watch thus breaking the boredom due to addition of synthetic effects on them, several influences on the reality concept, have also been impacted through it. This argument therefore implies that mediated experiences are not the same with real experiences that an individual might encounter in a real experience of a real event (Frankhouser & Shaw, 1990, 79). This is because of the odd nature of the activities or differences in the meaning of an event between the audience perceiving it through a synthetic experience and real experience. It can therefore be said that introduction of synthetic experiences might alter the concept of the real event in the sense that a member of the audience who might have not attended a real football match event, might have a different perception about the match. For instance, he or she might create a misconception of the reality that if a player scores a goal in a football match, he/she is given another chance to repeat the move exactly how it was in a slower pace. Occurrences of stereotyping and maintenance of status quo on mediated versions Besides killing the boredom, synthetic experiences have led to the emergence of various paradigms of research in the media industry. However, some issues have proved hard to be researched thereby falling outside the paradigms. The issues, which fall outside the boundary of the paradigm research, have therefore resulted in the formation of stereotyping and status quo in the mediated version of the media (Kunaln, 2010, 4). For instance, it is possible for an audience viewing a game of football on a mediated version such as television, to spot a mistake that might have passed the referees attention compared to an audience watching the real match in the stadium. This therefore implies that referees of the match might make mistakes during a match without knowing. This factor has therefore created a stereotype among football lovers that referees imperfect no matter how watchful they are during a game. On the other hand, football-governing bodies have let the status quo stand in the sense that even if an audience spots a mistake done by the referee, the referees decision will remain final even if it is wrong. This factor has been so since some mistakes in are hard to be spotted without the help of mediated versions. EXPECTATIONS OF PERFECTION AND HIGH LEVELS OF PERFORMANCE It is an obvious thing to note that the technological advancement of the modern world has influenced the audiences of the media towards expecting programs that are neatly incorporated, quick, effective, and of high perfection. This is therefore the reason behind the audience prevalence towards synthetic experiences of events through mediated media (Frankhouser & Shaw, 1990, 83). The gatekeepers in a football match broadcast with respect to heightened audience expectation In this context, it can be argued that the quality of events presented through mediated versions, determines media prevalence towards it (Frankhouser & Shaw, 1990, 84). For instance, an individual might decide to stick to watching a football match on television because before the game starts to air live, there is juxtaposing of previous highlights of the teams. This factor makes watching events through a television interesting compared to catching up with the event experiencing in a stadium. Therefore, the gatekeepers in this context are media personalities who edit the whole game thus making it result in a quality, effective and time conscious package. The mediated gatekeepers in this context are different with the non-mediated ones in the sense that they are capable of juxtaposing previous events for their viewers within a period. This factor consequently enhances development of the event presented to their viewers compared to the real experience viewers. Juxtaposing of the previous highlight may also influence the audience expectation of the involved teams. Role of agenda setting in mediated experience concerning heightened audience expectation As it has been discussed initially, role of agenda setting in this context is the most essential factor. This is because, for any media to satisfy it audience expectation, it must focus a lot on interesting issues of the event. Consequently, this is the reason why individuals might prefer to watch events on a television and not through a live experience, since the mediated version puts a lot of emphasis on the important issues of the event (Rajshreel, 2010, 7). For instance, when a goal is scored when an audience might have diverted his/her attention to something else, the audience of the mediated version will have a chance of seeing it again unlike the non-mediated version audience. It can be concluded that the audience has come to prefer more of synthetic media since it provides more emphasis on important issues of an event being viewed. Influence of the reality concept by the mediated version with respect to heightened audience expectation It is also important to note that as much as mediated version emphasizes a lot on what is presumed as the important segments of an event, some of the implication that the audience perceive contradicts the reality of the matter (Weerakkody, 2010, 7). For instance, audiences of mediated version might just get to have a glimpse of the goals scored in a match and not the whole match. This factor can influence how they perceive the teams that played basing their facts on the basis that the team, which scored more goals, is a stronger one. However, regarding the real experience of an audience in a stadium, the losing team might have appeared stronger because they might have created many chances but only lacked the composure to convert them into goals. This factor therefore implies that even though the media might package events base on important issues towards fulfilling its audience expectation, the possibility that the audience might get a misrepresentation of the reality is also present. Occurrences of stereotyping and maintenance of status quo on mediated versions with respect to heightened audience expectation Most of the sports events and entertainments being aired through mediated versions such as television are normally packaged in a manner that might appear to take longer time should they be performed in reality. This factor has therefore made television audiences to view real events as dissatisfied, slow and incomplete (Binuc, 2010, 5). This factor consequently implies that television viewers have created the stereotype that real life experience is slow and incomplete. However, it is interesting to note that this experience, which they claim to be slow are the basics of the synthetic events that are presented to them through the mediated media versions. References: Weerakkody, N. D., 2010. “It was in the news”- But is it what really happened?: Mass Media gatekeeping and the construction of social reality. Commonwealth of Aaustralia, 1-22. Frankhouser, R. G. and Shaw, E. F., 1990. How synthetic Experience Shapes Social Reality. Journal of Communication, spring 1990, 75-87. Rajshreel., 2010. Tracing the History of Mass Media Effects Theorising and Research. Media Effects, 1-26. Kunaln., 2010. Changing Audiences; Changing Paradigms of Research. Commonwealth of Australia, 4-17. Binuc., 2010. Introduction to the study of media effects. Commonwealth of Australia, 1-14. Read More

Regarding the example of a televised football match, it is clear that the media tries to alert the audience more on the events such as goal scoring and red cards shown to a player by the referee. The media then goes ahead to dwell on such issues and ends up spending most of the time on such events as compared to other sections of the game. This factor therefore implies that the media make the audience to think about the goals scored within the match or the red card shown to a player by the referee.

It is also important to note that the media will show such events in certain angles that eventually perceives how the audience thinks about the goal scored or the red card shown. It is also important to realize that by adding more emphasis on the exciting scenes of the match makes the clip interesting thus breaking the boredom. Influence of the reality concept by the mediated version As much as mediated versions of the media seem interesting to watch thus breaking the boredom due to addition of synthetic effects on them, several influences on the reality concept, have also been impacted through it.

This argument therefore implies that mediated experiences are not the same with real experiences that an individual might encounter in a real experience of a real event (Frankhouser & Shaw, 1990, 79). This is because of the odd nature of the activities or differences in the meaning of an event between the audience perceiving it through a synthetic experience and real experience. It can therefore be said that introduction of synthetic experiences might alter the concept of the real event in the sense that a member of the audience who might have not attended a real football match event, might have a different perception about the match.

For instance, he or she might create a misconception of the reality that if a player scores a goal in a football match, he/she is given another chance to repeat the move exactly how it was in a slower pace. Occurrences of stereotyping and maintenance of status quo on mediated versions Besides killing the boredom, synthetic experiences have led to the emergence of various paradigms of research in the media industry. However, some issues have proved hard to be researched thereby falling outside the paradigms.

The issues, which fall outside the boundary of the paradigm research, have therefore resulted in the formation of stereotyping and status quo in the mediated version of the media (Kunaln, 2010, 4). For instance, it is possible for an audience viewing a game of football on a mediated version such as television, to spot a mistake that might have passed the referees attention compared to an audience watching the real match in the stadium. This therefore implies that referees of the match might make mistakes during a match without knowing.

This factor has therefore created a stereotype among football lovers that referees imperfect no matter how watchful they are during a game. On the other hand, football-governing bodies have let the status quo stand in the sense that even if an audience spots a mistake done by the referee, the referees decision will remain final even if it is wrong. This factor has been so since some mistakes in are hard to be spotted without the help of mediated versions. EXPECTATIONS OF PERFECTION AND HIGH LEVELS OF PERFORMANCE It is an obvious thing to note that the technological advancement of the modern world has influenced the audiences of the media towards expecting programs that are neatly incorporated, quick, effective, and of high perfection.

This is therefore the reason behind the audience prevalence towards synthetic experiences of events through mediated media (Frankhouser & Shaw, 1990, 83). The gatekeepers in a football match broadcast with respect to heightened audience expectation In this context, it can be argued that the quality of events presented through mediated versions, determines media prevalence towards it (Frankhouser & Shaw, 1990, 84). For instance, an individual might decide to stick to watching a football match on television because before the game starts to air live, there is juxtaposing of previous highlights of the teams.

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