The Radio

It all started over a century ago when the italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi developed the radio transmitter in 1896. Ever since then the radio industry has evolved and impacted the world in many different ways from alerting the world of the Titanic tragedy of 1912 to redefining the music industry. The radio brought the household together long before the television arrived, and has adapted to accommodate the arising technologies it has had to compete with. It's biggest revolution however, was the rise of FM radio.

FM radio allowed several audiences to be addressed at once. Prior to the radio, it was impossible for information to be broadcasted instantly, or arguably more important for one to be able to listen to the radio while doing something else. Men could listen in on the news on their ways to work and the women at home could tune into the shows they enjoy, both without having to stop whatever it is they were busy with. This was not even concievable before the radio, but Marconi and David Sarnoff's visions shaped Mainstream America to make the impossible... possible.
Radio got to the point where it was almost in every household, but then another technological revolution occured, the television. Coincidentally, radio always found a way to keep it's flare. Around the same time television became big, the era of DJs and music on the radio began. Even today, with computers and i-Pods making music so much more personal to the individual, Satellite radio became very popular, offering hundreds of stations that allowed the individual to select very specific stations that played one particular genre/type of music. The internet Pandora, seems to be offering radio a threat now, but radio has survived a lot of change thus far... I'm sure it will be around for a while.

Social Learning Theory

The social learning theory is directly related to the uses and gratifications theory. The uses and gratifications theory states that users (people) seek out media to satisfy their needs, whether it that is to learn something new, be socially engaged, or just to be distracted from their daily lives. Instead of focusing on satisfying needs, the social learning theory suggests that how we react towards somthing in the media will directly determine how we behave when something of similar contents arises. If you like a movie you see with a particular actor, when their next movie comes out there is a chance that the first movie watched will influence your decision to see the next. The theory also discusses expectations we have of the media. If you watched that movie with the same actor and it ends with a nice conclusion that makes you feel good, you may expect the same outcome from their next movie, or if a movie is of the same genre as one you have seen much of in the past it is very common to expect a cliche ending.
One film star I find that well suits the social learning theory is Will Smith. He started out as the Fresh Prince of Bel Air but then soon broke into the movie industry with Independence Day in 1996. The movie grossed over 300 million dollars, and ever since then Smith has become a global superstar. He easily can be applied to the theory because every since that debut film was both a great success at the box-office and applauded by the critics every film he has been in has either been a box-office hit (100 million) or a critical success, if not both. When people see that a Will Smith movie is coming out they expect great things. Whether it an action movie, a comedy, or a drama every Will Smith film because a success one way or another and that is very rare.

You can view his filmography and box-office totals here:
http://boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?id=willsmith.htm

Hegemony

The concept of hegemony refers to the dominance of one group over everything else of the same nature. This group could be political, economical, or even cultural, but regardless of which the group clearly proves that it is superior among the rest and can manipulate it's consumers how it pleases. There are many relevant examples of such corporations in society today like McDonald's or Starbucks, but the most obvious example I can think of is the Apple Corporation.

In this day and age of technology, the usage of computers has become very essential to a high majority of the country. Many different companies such as Dell, Hp, and IBM were the forefront of this advancement for many years. Now in the 21st century, it's more than safe to say Apple has taken over, not only with computers and laptops but also in the music industry. Millions of people own MacBooks, I-Phones, and Ipods, (if not all of them) and no matter how much Apple decides to charge for their products, the consumers of America will be right there to back them up with their cash. Their sales keep rising and this past quarter they have finally surpassed Microsoft. Signs only suggest their profits will continue to substantially increase.

http://mobile.downloadatoz.com/article,report-apple-surpass-microsoft-in-quarterly-sales.html