List below relates to STORY-based (narrative) media, not reference texts.
Some items have been indicated as currently having a crucial Survival benefit to us (either for our personal health or as a society) - Other media forms will have served this purpose in the past, before certain other technologies/techniques were invented/developed.
The list is personal and not exhaustive.
Banner image from Bjork's, 'All is Full of love' directed by Chris Cunningham, 1999
NOTE: All of the above are now used by corporations as vehicles to access your subconscious to 'incentivise' - to SELL you things.