Evolving Mediums

The eight current mass mediums are Books, Newspaper, Magazines, Recordings, Radio, Movies, Television, and the Internet. Two possible candidates to be added to these are Cell Phones and Video Games. In the past cell phones have just been a mode of communication to other people, but modern cell phones now have access to the Internet, so the question is that if it qualifies as a mass medium. Then there are video games, users of the games are having the same experience as the other million people that bought the game, so is that mass communication? This is a controversial topic in the mass media, there are many debates by experts in this industry, and most disagree that these are mass mediums.

I believe that I can see the points on both sides, but I believe that is possible for this to evolve into a mass medium. It is possible that in the near future that advertising companies could tap into the satellites of phone companies and send advertisements directly to peoples phones. I believe this sounds a little like a conspiracy yet totally possible. In the aspect of a cell phone being a portal to the Internet therefore not making them a mass medium. BUT if the conspiracy is true I believe that should be considered as a mitigating factor in this case. With the video games, I think there is a stronger possibility of it being promoted to a mass medium. All an advertising company would have to do is to add an ad into the game or even just have product placement, like they have in most movies now a days. This would add a lot of income to the video game industry and potentially make it a mass medium, because it would be providing the millions of gamers information about the outside world, which might become a good thing for some of them:)