Musicals, Then and Now For my final project, I decided to do a compare and contrast Powering comparing musicals then and now. While I was working on my project I was able to draw a connection between some key terms in the book and class notes.
The key terms I selected related to a range of concepts and theories learned in class throughout the semester They also helped to make my Powering more easily understood with the message I was trying to send. I choose to do my final project on musicals because flashing back to my early childhood I was always in love with musicals.They paved a ay for me to see life in a much better perception than one could ever imagine. I fell in love with several musicals such as West Side Story, RENT and the Sound of Music. In this final evaluative essay, I will cover information to describe how my self- designated project assist us in better understanding the growth of musicals through the role of mass communication in our lives. This will be explained through five relevant theoretical ideas selected from the text and class discussion, social media, digital divide, newspapers, television, and culture imperialism respectively.
Social Media Musicals are all about informing and educating the population in respect to mass communication which enforces storytelling and strategy with a certain purpose. Mass communication has become a vigorous and an uninterrupted part of our routine life. With the divergence and growth of mass communication, it has stretched out to a selection of wide-range of social media and digital uses. The Merriam-Webster dictionary define Social Media as, the forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal assuages, and other contents such as videos.
In the class text, practitioners and researches describe social media as the social interaction which involves sharing, creation, and the story telling of past, present, and current events (Campbell, Martin, & Boss, 2013, p. 52). Musicals would be considered to be a form of social media simply because it combines songs, acting, dance, and spoken dialogue. Storytelling through musicals is communicated through words, movement, music, and methodical aspect of the performance unified as one.In addition, social media creates content as means of communicating with social graph.
Social media traces back to the beginning era of the internet back in the ass's and the ass's when bulletin boards we're used to exchange information. The population would agree that social media has been given life by online content. There are six types of social media; blobs, collaborative project, content communities, social networking, virtual game world, and virtual social world (Campbell, Martin, & Boss, 2013, p. 53).Blobs, for example, have enabled people to post ideas whereas as before the invention of blobs, ideas were almost impossible to be shared due to lack of mass communication methods.
II. Digital Divide Access to musicals before the development and enhancement of mass communication was only available to those that could afford it through the internet. Today, musicals are downloaded easily through the internet . You could also easily purchase tickets through the internet. The development of computers began in the asses and access to it was only for the rich.
Those who couldn't afford the internet lacked sufficient information compared to the rich. Nowadays, a higher percentage of he population has access to the internet. I can't imagine myself without money and having no access to the internet. Today, the internet is all around us, the library, household, school, phones, etc. Digital divide was based on disparity between the rich and the poor.
According to the text, 80% of US households are connected to the internet. There is also a big gap in access especially with age.The percentages of people 55 and older have online access. People ages 30-49 today are at 87%. People ages 18-29 have access online.
If you don't have a high school degree you would be mongo 41% of people with online access while 71% of high school graduates have access. However, in terms of college graduates, they are at 94% to having access to the internet (Campbell, Martin, & Boss, 2013, p. 69). These percentages speak for themselves separating rich versus the poor, educated versus the uneducated and old versus young today.
However, they are much higher than what it would be in the sass's when internet was only for the rich and possibly the educated. Ill. Newspapers Newspapers serve as a tool of informing and educating (Campbell, Martin, & Boss, 2013, p. 276). Newspapers were a key role in getting any form of information back then. All musical were advertised through newspaper and delivered to their front door.
Today Newspapers have had their rise and decline, as time grew advertisement of musicals through newspapers began to fade as the age of radios began to rise.Radios simply "usurped" the use of newspapers, they took power by force because of its more rapid means of communication. However, the internet has taken over both the newspapers and the radio by containing an unlimited source of news sites. Internet search engines have also taken over. If I needed to find updated news on a musical theatre, I would simply go to Google and type any information I needed in the search engine and it would be visible in a matter of seconds.Newspapers researchers would agree have lost a great number of young readers to this new era of mass communication through digital applications.
As newspapers were a key role in informing people and assisting them to make sense of events and issues that affected the communities and countries, today internet usage has conquered that. Today I can read detailed information about a musical play through internet, but I loud be limited with a newspaper IV. Television Musicals began as "book musicals" in the 20th century whereas it transitioned to stage plays and now to television.Television would be considered as the network era. It is almost as effective as the internet.
People used to leave their households to see a musical theatre. Since the invention on the internet and the television, every person has ceased to go a theatre and can now stay home and watch a musical on television. Television would be agreed to affect the whole world in the aspect of mass communication. Television has been improving in the area of equality. Television shows were intended for larger audiences, now the target audience would be towards smaller groups.Television has lost the interest from audience because people would rather download what they want to watch rather than pay for cable (Campbell, Martin, & Boss, 2013, p.
195). V. Culture Imperialism Culture imperialism emerged in the asses and it would be known as the exercising of endorsing a more dominant culture (first world) over a least known or the least desirable culture (third world). The United States would be a prime example of a entry practicing culture imperialism.
Other countries fear culture imperialism of the United States because of its military strength.The greater then disparities the more likely a conflict will occur. I can recall, an example, in the musical The West Side Story, which I believe to give an image of culture imperialism. The plot of the story was an image of racism and hatred between Whites and the Puerco Rican New York gangs. The Whites could not embrace the presence of Puerco Ricans in America; therefore the only way to get rid of them was to torment them through violence.
By al means necessary. The Puerco Ricans were also given an image of less importance to American society because of their culture and their way of speaking.However, the only thing that united them both was a romance between each member of their group. Conclusion The world has come a long way as far as mass communication. We have come to clinch onto this digital world for a faster way of doing things.
Mass Communications has made life easier with the presence of digital tools like the internet, texts, television, etc. This world is affected greatly by the presence of enhanced digital applications and will continue to grow and develop deep beyond our modern day capabilities.
