Media and the general public

Media plays a very large role in everybody's life, whether they know it or not. In the U.S.A people only have to look up while they are driving to see a billboard or hit a button to turn on the television. In Africa, a tribe would have some sort of symbol to represent the way they live and people walking by would notice this and have some sort of understanding as to what they are about. Plain and simple, in one form or the next media is everywhere the human eye can see. I believe that the general public not only consumes the media but we are also the ones who create it. Of course we pay the bills to see advertisements on television and movies, pay admission tickets to go see professional sports or movie tickets. This is the part of how we consume the media, but if the media producers did not know the wants, needs, and interests of the public then how would they know what we want to watch or see? Therefore by the public demanding a certain type of show, lets say comedy, then the producers are forced to make a comedy to please the public's wants, which in turn makes up the part of how the public also have a lot of influence over the media. Throughout this class I would like to learn about mass media obviously, but mostly the effects that it has on the public and how the media constantly keeps up to date with the wants and the needs of the general public