Books as Mass Media

At one time or another, mass media is important in our lives. As a mass medium, books have greatly affected our society. In order to understand what impact books have had on a person, one needs to understand the definition of mass communication. According to “Understanding Mass Communication”, mass communication is defined as “a process in which professional communicators design and use media to disseminate messages widely, rapidly, and continuously in order to arouse intended meanings in large, diverse, and selectively attending audiences in attempts to influence them in a variety of ways (18).” Books have negatively and positively affected and influenced thinking, behavior, and attitudes of the community in numerous ways. Books have also affected the way Americans and other people around the world live their lives.

Examples of recent books that have changed the way the world thinks are “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown, and the “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling. Examples of older books that have changed the world are the Bible, and “The Odyssey” by Homer.

The “Harry Potter” series has a negative and positive effect on peoples’ lives. People had “Harry Potter” books banned from schools because of the so-called negative effects that the books would have on their children, i.e. witchcraft and the thought of possibly worshiping Satan: “But last month, students found that their favorite series had “disapparated” from the school library, after St. Joseph’s pastor, the Rev. Ron Barker, removed the books, declaring that the themes of witchcraft and sorcery were inappropriate for a Catholic school (http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2007/10/25/man_from_ministry_bans_potter/).” People from Massachusetts thought that Harry Potter should be removed and banned from a school. This proves that the series has a negative impact on some individuals and the American society. According to the article, Massachusetts has banned books in past years: The removal at St. Joseph’s is the first reported instance that the wildly popular series has been banned in the Bay State, according to the American Library Association. But British author J.K. Rowling’s series, which many educators credit with inspiring a generation of children to pick up a book, has been as controversial as it has been popular. Groups in at least 17 other states have tried to ban the books since the first one was published in 1998, prompting the library association last year to name the Harry Potter collection “the most challenged books of the 21st century.http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2007/10/25/man_from_ministry_bans_potter/)

The “Harry Potter” novels also have a positive effect on society, Americans, and the world. The novels themselves inspire adults and children to be imaginative, and more creative. The series also helps children gain a greater vocabulary. J.K. Rowling created a creative, extraordinary, new world in which children can learn and try to have the best feeling in the world- that they can do achieve anything they put their minds to. Throughout the United States and the world, human beings love “Harry Potter”, and the magical creations J.K. Rowling created. There are thousands of websites dedicated to the “Harry Potter” series such as harrypotter.warnerbros.com, www.mugglenet.com, and www.hp-lexicon.org. These websites show that people love Harry Potter, regardless of the problems and the so-called Satanic worship that supposedly exists in this book. The attitudes of “Harry Potter” readers are mostly awe-inspiring and wonderful, trying to figure out how J.K. Rowling wrote this amazing, magical world. Each book has/will have a movie, and there is going to be a Harry Potter theme park in 2009.

The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown also created thoughts of controversy and wonder at his own magnificent fiction novel. Like The “Harry Potter” series, “The Da Vinci Code” is also banned, but it has been banned in other countries such as Lebanon and China: “There are paragraphs that touch the very roots of the Christian religion… they say Jesus Christ had a sexual relationship with Mary Magdalene, that they had children,” he said (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3663344.stm).” Even though “The Da Vinci Code” is a fictitious novel, people around the world still have problems with the paragraphs and pages that Dan Brown wrote. People around the world have different cultures and views not in the novel: “The General Security Department said it consults with Christian and Muslim religious authorities on all books that deal with sensitive subjects (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3663344.stm).” This is why “The Da Vinci Code” is a great example of a mass medium because it affected the thoughts, behaviors, and actions of the community. “The Da Vinci Code” is a well-written book with controversial topics and beliefs that are questioned every day.

“The Da Vinci Code” also has interesting effects on the world, Americans and individuals. Even though “The Da Vinci Code” is a fictional novel, author Dan Brown, created new religious theories. Dan Brown’s theories seemed so realistic that they caused more controversy. One theory mentioned in “The Da Vinci Code” is that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married and had a child. This theory is not true: “To support the claims that there are “countless records” alluding to a marriage involving Jesus, and that the marriage was a matter of “historical record,” the novel generically refers to the so-called “Gnostic Gospels” and specifically to the so-called “Gospel of Philip,” although none of these writings mention any marriage or engagement involving Jesus (http://www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/davinci.htm). Even though this theory is false, it still has a positive effect on people and how they think about the Bible. The “Da Vinci Code” is a popular book to discuss because of the religious controversy and other discovers Dan Brown makes. It makes people wonder if anything else they read is true. Another theory that Dan Brown mentions is that the “Dead Sea Scrolls are the earliest Christian records. According to www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/davinci.htm, this myth is not true: “Many scholars have attempted to show that there is a connection between the scrolls and Christianity, with an implication that instead of being the word of God, the New Testament supposedly grew out of the writings of the Essenes. However, the Dead Sea Scrolls do not contain even a single mention of Jesus, according to several sources.

One book that has changed the world is Homer’s “The Odyssey”. “The Odyssey” is about a man named Odysseus who travels on a journey back to his home land, Ithaca. People who read “The Odyssey” by Homer will realize that it is used as allusions in other works of literature. For example, in Sir Phillip Sidney’s “Astrophil and Stella”, there are several references to “The Odyssey”. According to “A Brief Note” by P.J. Klemp, both Sidney and Homer have love triangles in their literary works: “Sidney’s numerical allusion to the Odyssey is consistent with the other Homeric allusions in Astrophil and Stella. The combination of numerical and verbal allusions to Homer proves a moral context, based on ancient tragic romances… (326)”. This article proves that allusions to Homer’s “The Odyssey” are used in books that are well-known and popular. Homer’s epic novels impacted the world so much that other famous authors decided they needed to allude to it as well.

If one has not had the chance to read Homer’s “The Odyssey”, or does not remember what happened in the Greek epic, they will lose insight and specific information that the reader would not have known without reading it. Americans who have read the novel know enough to look for and understand the allusions in other novels, which mean that it has had a greater impact on people than one thinks. “The Odyssey” had a positive effect on most authors, since they allude to the novel all the time. The verse in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is

“[. . .] The eye of

man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen,

man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive,

nor his heart to report, what my dream was. I

will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this

dream: it shall be called ‘Bottom’s Dream’, because

it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end

of a play, before the Duke [. . .]. (4.1.209-216)”

The speech that Bottom gave is incredibly similar to the original verse, which is

“But as it is written,

The things which

eye hathe not sene, nether eare hath heard,

nether came into mas heart, are, which

God hathe prepared for them that love

him.

But God hathe reveiled them unto us by

his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all

things, yea, the deepe things of God.1

It would seem, however, that a more modest and concrete connection to Bottom’s speech may have been overlooked by scholars in their consideration of the 1 Corinthians allusion.”

William Shakespeare, like other authors, used biblical allusions so that the readers would have a better understanding. This is why the Bible is an example of a book as a mass media. The Bible has a huge impact on the world, individuals, and Americans. Without the religious controversial topics, we would not have important impacts or things to discuss.

Overall, books are an important example of mass media. Books like the “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, “The Odyssey” by Homer, and the Bible have had a huge impact on individuals, Americans and the world. The world would be a boring place if we did not have any books to read or books to talk about. Books make huge impacts on everyone’s lives, and everyone learns lessons books have to offer.