One keyword that stood out to me was “access”.

The definition that this group gave, made me think about the Critical Media Studies reading about mass media. In that reading mass media was described as having the potential to reach large audiences in remote locations. This group explains that access is the opportunity to gain entry to this mass media content, and they included five really interesting points that demonstrate what ‘access’ means. One of those points was accessibility, as well as accommodation. Moving into an online learning sphere, I have understood now more than ever how important accessibility is, especially in relation to mass media that is reaching large remote audiences. Thinking about if the content is available everywhere (on all platforms), and to everyone, no matter their location. Additionally taking into consideration if these forms of mass media are available to those who are hard of hearing/deaf, who speak another language, or who have trouble deciphering words in certain font or colours – is all equally important. On top of all of this, in order to be accessible, mass media has to also be affordable to everyone in these remote locations.

I think that this definition really reminded me that, although mass media is being distributed to large remote audiences – you have to begin to wonder if it’s actually being accessed by many people in a helpful way, or if it can even be accessed at all by people in different locations (or perhaps different backgrounds, languages, and education levels). It reminded me about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaking on how many Spanish speakers in the United States misunderstand many advertisements broadcasted to them about voting and elections, either due to language barriers or mass media broadcasts purposefully placing false information. With these situations happening more frequently, it makes me wonder how much information being given through mass media is actually reliable (and therefore also, accessible). I think that mass media having the potential to reach remote locations is important, however if mass media is unaffordable, inaccessible on all platforms (print & media), unaccepting to the general publics opinions, and unaccommodating to those with visual and hearing impairments – then I don’t think that mass media has successfully reached these large remote audiences. There needs to be as much accessibility as possible in order for media to be consumed and used at it’s full potential.