It seems the media is growing more powerful with time which is, in my opinion, both good and bad. The media takes full advantage of their first amendment right and the freedom of the press. The media has three main roles and responsibilities to the American public, which I will cover in detail. I will explain how these responsibilities fit in with my current events project on our economy. Our politicians have a great influence over what the media reports as well.
The above listed characteristics therefore help identify what could be classified as media; cinema, television, newspapers, magazines, advertisements, radio, interactive multimedia, video games, computers, mobile phones, pagers, texters and the Internet are some of the viable media options made available to us these days. Widely utilized as a source of information, the media plays an extremely important role in our society. Unable to constantly access this information first hand, we rely on the media to serve as an informational source that is to be trusted. When the mass circulation newspaper was introduced in the nineteenth century, people “now had a window on the world” (Salter, 2007). The flow of information that travels from a media outlet to an individual acts as an informant for the individual, which in turn inevitably cultivates an individual’s personality and view.
Mass media is designed to reach a large audience, whether it is in the form of a news paper, broadcasted over the TV and radio or spoken. Mass media is what controls and monitors, reflects and creates what it is that we consider being our culture. I feel that the most important function of mass media is to influents people in their decision making and acceptance of certain things. Media has always played a huge role in our lives from keep us informed about the latest in political concerns, who’s who in the movies, news and even what trends to follow or not. Everything that we do is apart of or transformed by our views from media that we watch, read or hear.
Every assumption builds upon one another in order to create a comprehensive and respected theory of media exposure. This theory not only focuses on the actions of consumers, but it also centers on the different areas of media gratification. At the surface of the uses and gratifications theory is the concern for the ways people use different media. The creators, Elihu Katz, Jay Blumler, and Michael Gurevitch, as well as the followers of this theory, believe individuals use the same mass media for very different and personal reasons. The theory’s objective is to identify, understand, and finally verbalize the psychological needs and demands which form peoples’ motives and intentions for using specific media (Roy, 2009).
This is so important. Because the news media touches so many people every day it needs to be constantly watched and governed to make sure we the are getting the most “straight forward” news and
‘Story-telling’ is of paramount importance to the news process. With increased demand and greater centrality of media ownership, ‘story-telling’ has fostered an environment of ritual communication which sees the journalist as responsible to “make meaning” (Schudson 2003: 177) of an apparently chaotic modern existence. Truth in this system becomes a subjective commodity which is sensationalised, manipulated, sacrificed and fabricated to meet the needs of media owners. As will be displayed however, supposed truths are presented as fact to a public domain which inevitably becomes defined by this process of ‘story-telling’ in news production. Throughout the 20th century demand for news increased exponentially due largely to the progress of technology.
In the last five decades or so, the media and its influence on the societies, has grown exponentially with the advance of technology. First there was the telegraph and the post offices, then the radio, the newspaper, magazines, television and now the internet and the new media including palmtops, cell phones etc. There are positive and negative influences of mass media, which we must understand as a responsible person of a society. In present era of globalization, majority of people in the society depends on information and communication to remain connected with the world and do our daily activities like work, entertainment, health care, education, socialization, travelling and anything else that we have to do. A common urban person usually wakes up in the morning checks the tv news or newspaper, goes to work, makes a few phone calls, eats with their family or peers when possible and makes his decisions based on the information that he has either from their co workers, tv news, friends, family, financial reports, etc.
How important are the media in shaping public perceptions of security? The media is a term used to describe forms of communication that convey information through mediums such as, television, newspaper, or internet. As we are unable to be everywhere at once we need the media to keep us informed about events happening worldwide. This essay will talk about the media and how it can create dramatic news from any situation. It will look at controls the media may have imposed upon them, and will also discuss whether the media can challenge government decisions.
(Bazalgette, 2000: 5) But come to think of it, media studies actually help create a great opportunity to become the ‘centre of crucial changes’ in thoughts about ‘what’s worth learning and how it should be learned’. (Bazalgette, 2000: 6) ‘It makes you more powerful as a reader’, some say, ‘it gives you the power of choice, the power to question’, expanding your knowledge of how things work and deal with matter that you already know. (Bazalgette, 2000: 14) Media studies is more than getting employed, or rather just consuming it. It relates to our everyday life. The idea of only people who are interested to work in the media choose to pick up a media studies course is barely accurate.
Two Step Flow Theory Lazarsfeld and Katz suggested that as a society we consume media texts as a group or if alone we will talk about the text we have consumed. This theory believes that when we talk about the media content with others we are more than likely going to be affected by other people’s opinions. These people are called Opinion Leaders, they can be in the form of presenters or politicians as well as family and peer groups. They have influential views of the media and are likely to enforce people to believe what they do. Audience This is active audience due to the fact that it encourages people to actively engage themselves in media texts, as well as sharing this with other people through aspects such as eg.