Mass communication has come such a long way in the past ten years. This makes it difficult to predict how much further it will go in the next ten years. New forms of media are sure to develop and compete with the mediums that we have today. There will always be a struggle between old and new forms of technology. The biggest battle in music distribution used to be between eight tracks and cassettes. Now both of these technologies are nearly obsolete and itunes battle it out with cds and other media players.

 Two things will remain part of mass media are controversies and specialization.

There will always be material that could be offensive to someone in the media. Despite this fact the media will always push the limits of acceptable representation further and further. I believe that nearly everything will be represented in some way in the media in the future; even taboo ideas will become more accepted because wider spread communications will expose more people to these ideas.

 Also with the future media will continue to become more and more specialized. People like to be part of a small elite society also known as a niche society. With more and more media outlets catering to these small groups society will continue forming them. Instead of being able to relate to everyone and have those water cooler conversations at work about the latest TV shows or events, people are able to find people that have the same interests as themselves and they are able to relate to people oceans away. Another thing that will be perpetuated in the future is the idea of a globally connected world. Everyone throughout the world will be connected in some way. I believe that it will become the norm for cultures across the globe to become more unified though internet connections. Someday internet connection may replace intra person interactions, but as we saw in class that one day, virtual class rooms have as many benefits as they do draw backs. Technology of the future will allow a message to be intercepted by more and more people then ever before. This means that the people sending the message will be reaching a greater audience and they will have to think about what the effects of what they are saying will have on a huge, vastly different audience.