As a result, the country panicked for twenty minutes. This was a significant demonstration of the ideological power of the media, and the people's reliance on it. Furthermore, it showed how the media can 'prevent' the proper communication of facts, at its whim and fancy. In conclusion, this essay has tried to demonstrate how the media in the form of the press, radio and cinema prevent communication. The aim has not been to show the advantages of these new technologies, of which there are many, but to show the ideological influence of the media and the credence lent by the people to radio broadcasts, cinema news reels and press articles.
Communication refers to the ways people send messages to each other.
These may consist of daily newspapers, radio bulletins, telephone calls, cinema newsreels etc. There is, however, a danger of receiving messages on trust, when in fact they may present a distortion of reality. The media prevents two-way interactive communication and this was demonstrated in the individual treatment of the press, cinema and radio. The newspapers caused a retemporalization of events, that is to say that events occuring around the world at all hours of the day and night were displaced to fit the newspaper schedules. Similarly, the cinema displaced former means of live entertainment.