Demassification

A very prominent discussion we had last class was about demassification. It never crossed my mind that certain "mass communications" were really not meant to reach such a broad audience. I understood newspapers, and radio shows, and how they could potentially reach anyone; but it never truly prodded my mind that there really was a certain audience thought of when creating these things.  Of course, over the course of history, television has forced radio to demassify and apply towards a certain niche of people. It's a smaller concept that wedges itself into the whole mass communication spectrum. 

Demassification is also presented as a somewhat simpler topic, but further analysis would show it to be far more complex. Comic books never had to demassify, because they were originally meant for a niche audience. Manual's communications are mass communication, but have a niche audience in mind. Something such as Fox News is mass communication, but has a niche audience in mind. But a liberal may not watch Fox News because it's a conservative network, so that would be classified as a psychological filter. This is where things get tricky in keeping up with certain terms and classifications.Imagine there was a blind liberal who was watching an Animal Planet documentary, but then there was a conservative host they refused to listen too, so they left the theater. Meanwhile the rest of the the liberals also left the theater for the same reason. They told all their friends and so no liberal watched this Animal Planet documentary, only conservatives. How would you even begin to classify this situation? It's absolutely mind-blowing how either one person or a whole wide group came up with the terminology to use for these sorts of things.  

In that example, imagine that we throw in that Animal Planet has been losing conservative viewers for a while now, for using left- leaning hosts and narrators in their content. If Animal Planet continues this without changing anything, would it count as demassification? Or would it be the conservatives having a psychological filter? 

I just find it intriqueing that in a world of media we  turn to labels to assess and provide. There are so many alternatives to turn to if you lose followers, and adaptation is natural these days. If you don't succeed as a book series, maybe it'll become a TV show. There are hundreds upon thousands of podcasts and TV shows to fit everyone's individual need. It's almost like you'll never have to encounter a differing opinion or conflicting interest ever again.