Mass Media: The Shaping of America's Global Image Over the years, mass media has become a growth industry in the United States. It has increased more and more every year for the past decade with advances in technology. For all the good of technology, however, the growing mass media industry has also hurt America. Mass media shapes how the world negatively views American society through communications, broadcasting, journalism, and social media. The communications industry has been prevalent in America throughout the nation's existence, from the first letters in colonial times to today's smartphones. . One of the most popular means of communication today is the cell phone. Cell phones have become millions in just a few years. University of Pittsburgh professor Alexandros Labrindis says, “Mobile phones went from zero in the world's population in 1982 to 3.3 billion in 2008, serving about half the world's population. Not even the polio vaccine was distributed that quickly” (Cronin). Along with cell phones, there is an even more advanced form known as a “smartphone”. These types of cell phones give users access to the Internet and come with many different programs known as applications or "apps." The ever-increasing number of these smartphones has changed the American lifestyle. A survey conducted in June 2013 found that more than half of American adults own a smartphone. Two years earlier only about 35% owned one. Just four years earlier, Apple Inc. had launched the iPhone, the world's first modern smartphone (Rogowsky). Cell phones have given Americans the ability to connect with the world through calls and text messages. Having this ability, however, can g...... middle of paper ......ton, Walter Todd. “Pew: MSNBC's Biases Are Much Worse Than Fox's.” Breitbart News Network.Breitbart, November 3, 2012. Web."Journalism." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web.MacArthur, Amanda. "The True Story of Twitter, in Brief." About.comTwitter. About.com, 2014. Web.Norton, Amy. “Text Message Bullying Becomes More Common.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, November 21, 2011. Web. Rogowsky, Mark. “More than half of us own a smartphone, which gives Apple and Google a lot to smile about.” Forbes. np, June 6, 2013. Web. “Sex and Technology: Results from a Survey of Teens and Young Adults.” Nationalcampaign.org. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, December 2013. Web.Terkel, Amanda. “White House will not comment on petition to deport Justin Bieber.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, April 18, 2014. Web.