20 Important Reasons to Study the Media

By Chris Worsnop

  1. Like history, because the media interpret the past to us show us what has gone into making us the way we are.

     

  2. Like geography, because the media define for us our own place in the world.

     

  3. Like civics, because the media help us to understand the workings of our immediate world, and our individual places in it.

     

  4. Like literature, because the media are major sources of modern culture and entertainment.

     

  5. Like literature, because the media require us to learn and use critical thinking skills.

     

  6. Like business, because the media are major industries and are inextricably involved in commerce.

     

  7. Like language, because the media help define how we communicate with each other.

     

  8. Like science and technology, because the media help us to learn technology by adopting the leading edge of modern technological innovation.

     

  9. Like family studies, because the media determine much of our cultural diet and weave part of the fabric of our lives.

     

  10. Like environmental studies, because the media are as big a part of our everyday environment as are trees, mountains, rivers, cities and oceans.

     

  11. Like philosophy, because the media interpret our world, its values and ideas to us.

     

  12. Like psychology, because the media helps us (mis)understand ourselves and others.

     

  13. Like science, because the media explain to us how things work.

     

  14. Like industrial arts, because the media are carefully planned, designed and constructed products.

     

  15. Like the arts, because through the media we experience all the arts as no other age has ever done.

     

  16. Like politics, because the media bring us political and ideological messages all the time - yes - all the time.

     

  17. Like rhetoric, because the media use special codes and conventions of their own languages that we need to understand.

     

  18. Like drama, because the media help us understand life by presenting it as larger-than-life, and compel us to think in terms of the audience.

     

  19. Like Everest, because they are there.

     

  20. BECAUSE THE MEDIA GO TO GREAT LENGTHS TO STUDY YOU!