Growing up with the media

Analysis.

“Growing up with the media” by P.G. Aldrich.

Growing up with the media is an essay. The author tells the reader about the influence of the media. The message he tries to convey is that people are too addicted with media. The author used simile to emphasize how addictive media is (In a commercial society the media’s ability to stimulate motivation to buy – almost as though people were puppets on strings – builds other people power.)

The author proves his opinion by giving the statistical data. He gives great illustration to his words. (According to recent report, more than a third of all children by the age of three are viewing TV with some regularity and more than a half are listening to books read to them. Before they are old enough for school – a third of the children are looking through magazines, 40 % are listening to radio, and 80 % are viewing television. At age seven, newspapers enter a child’s life, usually through the comic strips.) These data persuades the reader. They speak for themselves.

This essay is highly informal. The author uses rhetorical questions. (What do you remember about your childhood? What did your friends talk about, at least part of the time, before class? An item from a newspaper? An ad that you noticed in a magazine or television commercial?) The author involves the reader into conversation. The essay is represented as a dialogue.

As far as vocabulary is concerned, the author uses simple, easy-to-understand words. The author uses colloquial words to illustrate some points of his discussion. (ad, mike). He gives synonyms of the words television (tv, T.V. TV, teevee).

The author includes the graphical device also. He capitalized and italised the most important things to his opinion. (mass; media; Mickey mouse; the MAJORITY of material is chosen or designed to produce a predetermined response).

As far as syntax is concerned, the author uses a fair amount rhetorical questions. Moreover, he uses asyndeton, the type of connection without conjunctions. (When the material is written, staged, photographed with or without audio, printed.) It makes the narration more vivid and dynamic. It looks like the stream of consciousness.

He uses the inversion in the text (With all this you also absorb ideas about behavior…)

All in all the structure of the text is rather homogenous. The author tries to make the reader to reflect. The author persuades the reader. The essay is informal because it is highly personal. The author tires to entertain. Sometimes he deviates from the theme in order to give humor, irony.