What I Have Learned This Semester

Over the course of this semester, I have learned many things from the different types of media and the effect they have on individuals and society, to the specific laws that pertain to certain mediums. However one of the most important things that I learned this semester was the massive effect that media can have on society as a whole. Television, radio, books, and magazines can have huge impacts on people and they way they think and act. Media acts as an agenda setter meaning that it dictates what should be on people's minds at a given point in time.

One of the things that I found most interesting was the way mass media varies from culture to culture. In China for instance, media is extremely monitored and censored. Characters on television are not allowed to use words such as "ok," and other slang terms that are ever present in our culture and society. I also find it interesting how Western culture continues to creep into other societies.