To study the media is to understand the world around us: how it adapts to meet our needs, how it persuades through manipulating and gratifying our wants, and how it crafts different concepts to influence the public.
The power of the media is phenomenal, influencing every single person who becomes part of its readership. From ambient marketing (cigarette packets, beer mats, pens, pencils), to billboards and posters, all the way up to television and internet advertising campaigns, each segment of the media is crafted to trigger certain responses.
The influence is studied through analysing the media and understanding why decisions are made, how audiences are targetted, and how needs are met. If we do not study the media, then we risk becoming blind to that which has the greatest influence on us. Therefore, it is essential that we follow and understand the media as it evolves and adapts to meet our needs, not only to master the art of influence for ourselves, but also to avoid the traps that such vast proportions of the public fall into through being influenced by what the media produces.