Media audiences and Media geography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Media audiences and Media geography - Essay Example A potential representation of the traditional media is the folk media that projected the communication channels of the ancient societies. Modern media has a very different and advanced mechanism of mass communication. The mass media in the contemporary age is one of the most effective systems of life support that has pronounced effect on the global future and has the widest distribution all over the world. The contemporary age is essentially the age of information, in which the social and environmental issues continue to grow, that imparts the need of transition to a sustainable economy for every nation. â€Å"There has also been a healthful and general realization that the emphasis on â€Å"mass† audience – meaning an audience of individuals in lonely and direct contact with mass communication was never accurate† (Schramm, 1960, p. vii). The distinction between the audience of the past and the audience of the new age is imperative for the media to customize the content according to the every-changing and modifying needs of the audiences in an increasingly culturally diverse and globalized world. Media has a very strong influence on the society. Klapper (1960, p. 5) defined the consideration of the mass media as a compulsory and sufficient cause behind the effects observed in the audiences as short-sightedness, and recommended the consideration of media as just another influential element amidst other influences. â€Å"[I]t is the presumed power of the media to capture and sway the hearts, minds and behavior of the national public that account for both the fear and anxiety, and the hope and excitement, with which the media are regarded† (Fejes, 1984, p. 219). Media has always been both a trend-setter for and influenced by the audiences of a particular point in time. â€Å"The media are crucial in the social circulation of discourse and thus play a formative role in social and political change† (Fiske, 1996, p. 10). Media place s immense emphasis on the likes and dislikes of the audiences because the success of media fundamentally depends upon the approval of the audiences of the content that the media shows. The first and the foremost basic principle that every would-be programmer is taught through every handbook is â€Å"know the audience† (Ang, 1991, p. 19). â€Å"In order for television to achieve its work – that is, to make meaning and produce pleasure – it has to draw upon and operate on the basis of a kind of generalized societal common sense about the terms of the society and people’s social location in it† (Gray, 1995, p. 9). The research culture has evolved greatly over the passage of time. Although research has been a necessary part of the spread of knowledge in all times, yet the research was never as rampant as it is today. In the past, it was easy to advertise a product by just showing the models endorsing them as the audiences understood that the technology was not quite developed to expect every product to be made after a lot of research. Besides, the audiences themselves were too uneducated and far from being the part of a research culture to think on these lines. Over the decades, there has been immense advancement in technology which has played a fundamental role in the development of a research culture all over the world. Today, scientists are equipped enough to

Boutique Designers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Boutique Designers - Essay Example "Charles Eames was the first architect to be totally at home with technology. He used technology with an artist's flair", particularly, he with wife Ray Eames 'developed a new method to bend plywood into complex curves over three geometric lanes" (Dezine Holdings Ltd). From 1900-1909, the name Charless Rennie Mackintosh, Josef Hoffman and Frank Lloyd Wright have surfaced with the introduction of Ingram Chair, Hill House Chair and Willow Chair (Dezine Holdings Ltd). In the middle of the century, notable designers like "Eameses, Gio Ponti, Harry Bertoia, Arne Jaconsen and Eero Saarinen led the way in the modernist organic style" as the public went for "warmer and softer furnitures, organic forms, warmer products like timber and upholstered chairs" (Dezine Holdings Ltd). In the 70's to 80's, industrialization has brought forth changes in designers' thoughts. Particularly, "the industrial style or Hi Tech movement developed" and there were great advances in "office furniture and equipment" (Dezine Holdings Ltd). At the closing of the century, the designers pursued "meaning and purpose for their furniture designs" with the exploration of some strange and unusual forms such as the W.W Stool by Phillip Starck (Dezine Holdings Ltd). Karim Rashid is one of the sought-after and bankable interior designers of the modern generation. A half English and half Egyptian, Karim Rashid "was born into an art family" with his father an abstract painter, his brother Hany Rashid "a computer-based organic architecture" and his sister a musician (http://www.rashidglobal.net). It was his father that them art and design (http://www.rashidglobal.net). Rashid, therefore has a strong art influence. "Karim Rashid pursued graduate design studies in Naples, Italy, with ettore sottsass and others, then moved to Milan for one year at the Rodolfo Bonetto studio" (Designboom). He went solo in 1993 and opened his design practice in New York. It is in New York where he designs products for companies such as namb, issey miyake, pure design, fasem, guzzini, tommy hilfiger, sony, zanotta, citibank, and others" (Designboom). Rashid's works were highly praised by Design Awards Bodies. In 2007, he won the title for the Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards Product Design Finalist, "in 2006 with an Honorary Doctorate from the Ontario College of Art and Design, in 2005 with an Honorary Doctorate from Corcoran College, the Sleep05 European Hotel Design Award, and the 2005 Pratt Legends Award. Karim has also won the prestigious I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review, Red Dot Design Award, and Chicago Athaneum Good Design Award numerous times throughout his career" (http://www.rashidglobal.net). Because of his modern and innovative designs, he holds an associate professorial position and is a "frequent guest lecturer at universities and conferences" on industrial design (http://www.rashidglobal.net). Concepts and Works Rashid boasts of "over 3000 designs in production, over 300 awards and working in over 35 countries" (Karim Rashid Inc.) "Like an omnipresent vibrant spirit, he creates and utilizes a global feeling. He is an example of synchronicity in permanent movement. In him, work and person meld, inseparably subjective, manically productive and sensitive" (Karim Rashid I