Media Power and Mass Appeal

In reading Don Dellio's "White Noise" I've become aware of the greeat power media has in creating our perceptions of the world as we know it, also the role it has as a stimulus driving us into action as a result of conformed perceptions. In class we spoke of the connection between Hitler and the media and the significance of the statement "We couldn't have television without Hitler." We discussed how Hitler, like television, held mass appeal and could thus move a people to perform heinous acts as a result of a seemingly brainwashing effect. Hitler was able to manipulate people's perceptions, move them to perform unthinkable acts, and thereby create an uncanny level of power through mass appeal. If we think of television in the same light, as a medium holding mass appeal, creating a sense of unity among people's ideas, while possessing the power to create those very ideas, we recognize the necessity in challenging the messages we're fed by the media and not simply allowing them to become our own.