Who has the power?

“Box office report: 'The Possession' leads the worst weekend in over a decade” by Grady Smith

The Possessions - Official Trailer

       CNN featured a story from EW yesterday on this weekends depressing box office sales. According to Grady Smith’s article, “Box office report: 'The Possession' leads the worst weekend in over a decade,” this weekend marked the lowest movie ticket sales in years as the top 12 films grossed a cumulative $51.9 million. It was the worst top 12 total since 2008. The last time overall ticket sales were so low was two weekends after the 9/11 attacks in September of 2001. Therefore, it is evident to see that numerous aspects contribute to the receptivity of the public to the media. Whether it is political, social, or economic issues, when the people are not responding to the media in a positive way, it becomes concerning news. This is just one example of how important money and success is to individual facets of the media and to the mass media as a whole. 

      Therefore, this article raises the question, “What makes media successful?” According to the EW article, movies are deemed successful based on box office sales. Newspaper success is based on whether or not they sell copies each day. Online publications and magazines rely on subscriptions from readers in order to sustain their companies. So, who goes to those movies to make the box office sales go up or down? Who buys the newspapers and reads them on a daily basis? Who subscribes to various websites or magazines? It’s the people. As much power and influence the media has over the general public, it is still the people who have the ultimate decision of whether or not to respond to those media sources. The mass media is an outlet and voice for the people. It seeks to express the general public’s opinions, beliefs, and concerns. As much power as the media has, however, it gets that power from the people. If we as individuals and groups decide to stop reading newspapers and magazines, and if we stop going to movies or listening to music, the entire system would collapse. The media would lose all power, all influence, and would eventually cease to exist at all. Therefore, this article helped remind me that I do have power despite the grandness of the media. I am not just a victim of it or a mind for it to manipulate. Rather, I am its controller, and we as a people get to choose how we respond to it, how we question it, and how much power we choose to give it.