short essay on media and society

The Impact of Media on Society Cause and Effect Essay

Introduction, role of media in the society, impact of media on society, works cited.

Media is one of the world’s power and force that can not be undermined. Media has a remarkable control in almost every aspect of our lives; in politics, social and cultural or economic welfares. Perhaps the best analysis of the impact that media has played in the society is through first acknowledging its role in information flow and circulation.

It is would be unjust to overlook the importance of information to the society. Information is the significant to the society in the sense that, all that happens in the society must be channeled and communicated among the society’s habitats. Without media, the habitats or else the population will be left clueless on what is happening or what is ought to happen.

From another perspective, the society benefits from the media in a number of ways and as well it derives a lot of misfortunes from the society. However, regardless of the impact that is made by media on the society, the media remains to be one of the strongest forces that influence the pillars of the society. This essay paper highlights the impacts that media has continued to assert on the society either in a positive or in a negative manner.

The most common role that media has played in the society has been; to inform people, to educate people and sometimes to offer leisure or entertainment. The role of media in the society is stretched back in the ancient traditions when, there were approaches on which media role in the society was perceived. Some of these approaches included a positive approach, critical approach, production approach, technological approach, information approach and finally a post colonial approach.

A positivist approach assumed that media’s role in the society was to achieve predetermined objectives of the society, usually from a beneficial perspective. The critical approach assumes that media is pertinent can be used in struggle for power and other issues in the society that were preceded by a spark of a new or old ideology.

The production approach is that media plays a greater role in society by providing a new experience of reality to the masses by providing an avenue of new perceptions and visions. The information approach assumes that the key role of media in the society is to provide information channels for the benefit of the society (Fourie178).

With the above roles being achieved in one of the most remarkable means over centuries, media has some solid impacts that have been imprinted on the society. Some of these impacts and effects are to remain for ever as long as media existence will remain while others require control and monitoring due to their negative effects on the society. The best approach to look at this is by first describing the positive impacts that media has had on the society (Fourie 25).

The development of media and advancement of mass media is such positive impact that media has accomplished in recent times. It has been proven that mass communication has influenced social foundation and governments to means that only can be termed pro-social (Preiss 485). An example of such can be use of mass media in campaigns to eradicate HIV and AIDS in the society.

Mass communication through media avenues such as the internet, television and radio has seen great co-operation of government, government agencies, non-government organizations, private corporations and the public in what is seen as key society players in mutual efforts towards constructing better society. In this context, media has contributed to awareness, education of the society and better governance of the society.

Were it not for media, the worlds most historical moments would probably be forgotten today especially in the manner they reshape our contemporary society in matters regarding politics, economics and culture (Fourie 58).

However, media has had its shortcomings that have negative influence on the society. These negatives if not counterchecked or controlled will continue to ruin the values and morals of a society that once treasured morality and value of information.

These negative impacts include: media has contributed to immense exposure of violence and antisocial acts from media program that are aimed at entertaining the public. Media roles in the society have been reversed by merely assuming a role of society visibility thus controlling the society rather than being controlled by society.

Media has continued to use biased tactics to attract society attention and thus having a negative impact on the society’s culture due to stereotyping of other cultures. Media has continued to target vulnerable groups in the society such as children and youths be exposing them to pornographic materials that has sexual immorality consequence on the society’s young generations.

It is through such shortcomings that the cognitive behavior’s which shape the moral fiber of the society gets threatened by media (Berger 106). However, regardless of the impacts of the media on the society, the future of the media will evolve with time and its role in the society will unlikely fade.

Berger, Arthur. Media and society: a critical perspective . Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. 2007.

Fourie, Pieter. Media studies: media history, media and society . Cape Town: Juta and company ltd. 2008.

Preiss, Raymond. Mass media effects research: advances through meta-analysis . New York: Routledge. 2007.

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"The Impact of Media on Society." IvyPanda , 29 Oct. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/the-impact-of-media-on-society/.

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IvyPanda . 2023. "The Impact of Media on Society." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-impact-of-media-on-society/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Impact of Media on Society." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-impact-of-media-on-society/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Impact of Media on Society." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-impact-of-media-on-society/.

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Essay On Media

Keeping up with the most recent developments is critical in today's society. People can get the most recent and important news through the media. The media is the most commonly used medium for receiving information from north to south or east to west. Here are a few sample essays on the topic ‘Media’.

100 Words Essay On Media

200 word essay on media, 500 word essay on media.

The media has an impact on the reputation of a political party, organisation, or individual. Media keeps people informed about current happenings in politics, culture, art, academia, communication, and commerce. Different forms of media help modern civilization in remaining in touch with the world in the shortest amount of time.

The media is all around us; we are immersed in it even when we are not aware of it. It is seen in newspapers, television, and technological gadgets such as cell phones. We perceive it as a tool for speeding time or distancing ourselves from what is going on in other people's lives.

Social media is a tool that has become immensely popular among all ages due to its user-friendly interface. The youth are the most prevalent social media user demographics, which is both remarkable and concerning.

Imagery from the media abounds in today's culture. We know this since we may see posters advertising well-known brands and the latest products almost anywhere we go, such as while driving on the highway. When we are drawn to advertisements, we may begin to imagine or visualise ourselves using them.

The media can tell us about a product, service, or message. Today, media influence is so powerful that it may easily influence public opinion both positively and negatively. We also live in a society that is heavily reliant on the media for entertainment and information. Indeed, pictures in the media have an effect on both people and society, especially women, men, teenagers, and young children.

Simultaneously, media such as television, broadens our perspective by providing us with access to facts from all around the world. Television may also provide us with a wide range of news and current happenings. It can also be a useful learning tool, guiding future generations in the proper direction.

The media has a large influence on our lives. We educate ourselves on a regular basis by staying up with the latest events. The news serves a crucial role in keeping us informed about current affairs and global happenings. For example, because of globalization, you can read about current happenings in the United States of America even if you live in India.

The media is the most significant communication tool. It aids in the delivery or dissemination of news. Although the media is also associated with spreading fake news, it also plays an important role in informing us about reality. We cannot deny that this world is filled with so many social problems that we require the media to spotlight these concerns so that the government or other individuals can take action to resolve these social issues.

Role Of Media

When it comes to the media, it is regarded as the fourth element of democracy. It's the most comprehensive repository of information on the globe. Everyone hope and expects the media to provide us with the most complete and accurate news in any situation. As a result, the media plays an important role in balancing all areas of our society.

It is crucial for teaching and informing global citizens about what is happening around the world. As a result, supplying readers with truthful and authentic news is vital for societal growth. The case of Aayushi Talvaar is a good illustration of how the media works.

Advantages Of Media

Education | The media educates the public. The mob learns about health issues, environmental preservation, and a variety of other relevant topics through television or radio programming.

Keeps Us Informed | People obtain the most recent news in a timely manner. Distance is not a barrier to providing knowledge to people from anywhere on the planet. People receive the daily latest news from media sites, which keep them current on the latest trends and happenings throughout the world.

Knowledge | The media can help you learn more about a variety of topics.

Amusement | It is a great source of entertainment. People are amused by music and television shows.

Disadvantages Of Media

Individualism | People spend far too much time watching or binge-watching stuff on the internet. As a result, their relationships with friends, family, and neighbours may suffer as a result.

Fraud and Cybercrime | The Internet is lurking with imposters, fraudsters, hackers, and other predators with the opportunity to commit criminal acts without the victims' knowledge.

Addiction | For most children and adults, some television shows and internet media can be quite addictive, resulting in a decrease in productivity.

Health Issues | Prolonged television viewing or internet bingeing can cause visual difficulties, and prolonged exposure to loud noises via headphones or earphones can cause hearing impairments.

Malware and Fake Profiles | Anyone can set up an anonymous account and pretend to be someone else. Anyone with access to such profiles might use them for malevolent purposes, such as spreading misinformation, which can harm the image of any targeted people or company.

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A Conservation Architect is a professional responsible for conserving and restoring buildings or monuments having a historic value. He or she applies techniques to document and stabilise the object’s state without any further damage. A Conservation Architect restores the monuments and heritage buildings to bring them back to their original state.

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Speech therapist, gynaecologist.

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Audiologist

The audiologist career involves audiology professionals who are responsible to treat hearing loss and proactively preventing the relevant damage. Individuals who opt for a career as an audiologist use various testing strategies with the aim to determine if someone has a normal sensitivity to sounds or not. After the identification of hearing loss, a hearing doctor is required to determine which sections of the hearing are affected, to what extent they are affected, and where the wound causing the hearing loss is found. As soon as the hearing loss is identified, the patients are provided with recommendations for interventions and rehabilitation such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and appropriate medical referrals. While audiology is a branch of science that studies and researches hearing, balance, and related disorders.

An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Are you searching for an ‘Anatomist job description’? An Anatomist is a research professional who applies the laws of biological science to determine the ability of bodies of various living organisms including animals and humans to regenerate the damaged or destroyed organs. If you want to know what does an anatomist do, then read the entire article, where we will answer all your questions.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs. 

Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats create and direct original routines for themselves, in addition to developing interpretations of existing routines. The work of circus acrobats can be seen in a variety of performance settings, including circus, reality shows, sports events like the Olympics, movies and commercials. Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats must be prepared to face rejections and intermittent periods of work. The creativity of acrobats may extend to other aspects of the performance. For example, acrobats in the circus may work with gym trainers, celebrities or collaborate with other professionals to enhance such performance elements as costume and or maybe at the teaching end of the career.

Video Game Designer

Career as a video game designer is filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. A video game designer is someone who is involved in the process of creating a game from day one. He or she is responsible for fulfilling duties like designing the character of the game, the several levels involved, plot, art and similar other elements. Individuals who opt for a career as a video game designer may also write the codes for the game using different programming languages.

Depending on the video game designer job description and experience they may also have to lead a team and do the early testing of the game in order to suggest changes and find loopholes.

Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Photographer

Photography is considered both a science and an art, an artistic means of expression in which the camera replaces the pen. In a career as a photographer, an individual is hired to capture the moments of public and private events, such as press conferences or weddings, or may also work inside a studio, where people go to get their picture clicked. Photography is divided into many streams each generating numerous career opportunities in photography. With the boom in advertising, media, and the fashion industry, photography has emerged as a lucrative and thrilling career option for many Indian youths.

An individual who is pursuing a career as a producer is responsible for managing the business aspects of production. They are involved in each aspect of production from its inception to deception. Famous movie producers review the script, recommend changes and visualise the story. 

They are responsible for overseeing the finance involved in the project and distributing the film for broadcasting on various platforms. A career as a producer is quite fulfilling as well as exhaustive in terms of playing different roles in order for a production to be successful. Famous movie producers are responsible for hiring creative and technical personnel on contract basis.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook. 

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Individuals who opt for a career as a reporter may often be at work on national holidays and festivities. He or she pitches various story ideas and covers news stories in risky situations. Students can pursue a BMC (Bachelor of Mass Communication) , B.M.M. (Bachelor of Mass Media) , or  MAJMC (MA in Journalism and Mass Communication) to become a reporter. While we sit at home reporters travel to locations to collect information that carries a news value.  

Corporate Executive

Are you searching for a Corporate Executive job description? A Corporate Executive role comes with administrative duties. He or she provides support to the leadership of the organisation. A Corporate Executive fulfils the business purpose and ensures its financial stability. In this article, we are going to discuss how to become corporate executive.

Multimedia Specialist

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product. 

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans. 

Process Development Engineer

The Process Development Engineers design, implement, manufacture, mine, and other production systems using technical knowledge and expertise in the industry. They use computer modeling software to test technologies and machinery. An individual who is opting career as Process Development Engineer is responsible for developing cost-effective and efficient processes. They also monitor the production process and ensure it functions smoothly and efficiently.

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party. 

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems. 

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

Information Security Manager

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack 

ITSM Manager

Automation test engineer.

An Automation Test Engineer job involves executing automated test scripts. He or she identifies the project’s problems and troubleshoots them. The role involves documenting the defect using management tools. He or she works with the application team in order to resolve any issues arising during the testing process. 

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Media and its Effects on Society

Abstract: Media makes people aware of events, persons, or possibilities beyond their direct experience. It helps the masses to understand the world beyond their own direct experiences, helps them to shape their opinion of the environment into the second-hand reality which characterizes much of the known world. Media can bring attitudinal changes in their views about events after the exposure to news reports regarding the discrepancy between private attitude and behavior by forcing the public morality on people (Lazarfeld and Merton, 1948). Though the relationship between media and society is mutual.  The audience receives what mass media offer and depict the human relationships in their package, their life, and social set up to give the respondents direct experience. Yet the production and distribution of media content is carried out by organizations or groups associated with the communication channels. It is difficult to see how society can operate without the presence of media.  The present article focuses on the relationship of media and society, its effects, and its functions in society.

 Key Words:

Media, Society, Relationship, audience, effects, functions

Overview of effects of media and Society:

The contribution of media to society can be seen in the transition of traditional societies and developing nations to a modern form (L.W. Doob). Media is essential for a society to prepare, instigate and bind the development of modern society (Lerner and Schramm). studies show a positive association between the magnitude of media development in a country and indices of urbanization, industrialization, per capita income, and literacy. It is a fact that the interlocking and mutual interactive relationship, between media and society and depends on the support and mobility assured to media at both social and geographical levels. According to Lerner, the media relates the multitudes to the infinite vicarious universe and consequently, functions as a ‘ mobility multiplier’. increased urbanization and literacy, has led to increased exposure to media which in turn has given rise to wider economic opportunity and development and wider participation in the political process. media helps in disseminating new objects and ideas, which engage and activate the human capacities and stimulate the development process in a society. In a rapidly moving world, it is important to keep our democratic society viable and strong which can be assured by strong media mobility. This would ensure to be aware of issues and problems in society and would develop understanding about diffent factions of society (Agee 1969). Hence Media has three traditional functions in a society, as ‘watchman’ , as an aid to social decision making and as a ‘teacher’ (Schramm 1964).

Another aspect of Media is its Effects on its audience. explained the effects of mass media on the audience, It can foster a sense of prestige and importance among the members of a group singled out by media (Wagles, Berelson, and Bradshaw (1940) Apart from bringing positive changes, media is often being charged as stimulating adverse effects such as reinforcing low cultural interest, precluding the development of a proper appreciation and an understanding of high culture, and failing to act as an educator of public taste. E. Dale (1933)   while studying effects of films suggested that people might acquire wrong notion of criminality roughly from one out of every four films among the large numbers examined, which permitted the criminal to ‘get away with it’. A similar study was undertaken by R. Arnheim while analyzing the radio serial dramas, and averred that listeners could get wrong or harmful impressions of what life was all about. Supposing that if the listeners identify themselves with the characters that instigate conflicts or create problems for others in the episodes, they will think that people are imperfect and sinners; and identification with the characters who face trouble will lead to the idea that decency and virtue do not bring them just rewards.

Paul Hartmann and Charles Husband (1971) studied the effects of mass media on racial conflicts indicated that the way the race-related material is handled by the mass media serves both to perpetuate negative perceptions of the blacks to define the situation as one of the inter-group conflict. They also found that in communities with a conflict (e.g. competition for housing) the media will reinforce the thinking of blacks versus whites about the situation, and the existing social strains will be amplified. So in communities with diverse ethnic groups, where there is no objective basis for conflict , a conflict may be created, because people come to think in terms of conflict after exposed to certain messages on media.

Denis Mcquil (1976) explains beautifully the relationship between Media and Society and the effects of media on society in figure 1. For him, societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication. It is impossible to understand social and cultural changes without knowledge of the working of media. McLuhan asserts that the medium is the message, and looks around to see what’s happening. McLuhan says that Media, by altering the environment, evoke in us unique ratios of sense perceptions. The extension of any one sense alters the way we think and act the way we perceive the world.

Source : McQuil, Denis (1976). Sociology of Mass communication .

Harmondsworth (Middx). Penguin Books Ltd.

Media, Mediation and sociability

Media have a mediating role between objective social reality and personal experience. The mass media are intermediate and mediating in several senses. It is a kind of link between real life and what we fantasize about other lives. This is done when mass media makes messages, entertains us with programs. In other words, they often lie between us (as receivers) and that part of potential experience , which is outside our direct perception or contact. They may stand between ourselves and other institutions with which we have dealings – law, industry, the state, etc. They may provide a link between these different institutions; the media are also channels for others to contact us, or for us to contact them; they often provide the material for us to form perceptions of other groups, organizations and events.

There are different media through which mediation can take place with varying degree and kind of activity, purposefulness, interactivity, and effectiveness . Mediation can mean many things ranging from direct relationship of one to another. It is not restricted in one direction. The variations can be captured by the following common images, which express different aspects of daily life in which the media correct us to form reality. It is a window of experience, which extends our vision, enables us to see what’s going on for ourselves, without interference or bias. It helps us to interpret, a platform or carrier for information and opinion.  Media is a mirror, which reflects back an image of society to itself – usually with some distortion by accentuating what people want to see of their own society or sometimes what they want to punish or suppress – a screen or barrier which conceals truth in the service of propagandist purpose or escapism. (Anand 1994)

Functions of Media in our Everyday Life

The media play a wide range of roles in our lives. Some of these roles are constructive and some are destructive. Media work as Information Provider and Interpreter. The media provide people with important information about their environment (e.g. political, cultural, social issues) and respond to more imminent problems (weather, traffic, natural catastrophes, etc.). At least in part, people make decisions about whether to dress for warm or cold, choose political leaders to vote for in elections, and judge other groups in society based on the media.

The media interpret events beyond our physical realm and help us make sense of them. With the improvement of technologies and the advancement of new media such as the internet, media plays an increasingly more prominent role in our daily communication and entertainment.

Recognizing the diversity within media professionals is a first step in critically analyzing how best to use the media to support conflict prevention and peace building. For example, the Otpor Movement, developed in 1998 by Serbian students, responded to new restrictions on academic and media freedom with a highly unconventional movement called Otpor (‘resistance’ in Serbian). Otpor developed their own grassroots media campaign to provide information and inspiration to all who resisted the Milosevic government .123

Harold Lasswell (1949),  a political scientist, who has done pioneering research in mass communication, has noted three major functions of the media.

A. Surveillance of environment : This means collection and distribution of information concerning events in the environment, both outside and within a particular society. To some extent, it corresponds to what is popularly conceived as the ‘handling of news’.

B. Correlation of part of society in responding to the environment: Correlation here includes interpretation of information about the environment and prescription for conduct in reaction to these events. In past, this activity has been popularly defined as ‘editorial propaganda’.

C. Transmission of social heritage from one generation to another: Lasswell says that the transmission of culture focuses on the communication of information, values, and social norms from one generation to another or from members of a group to newcomers. Commonly, it is identified as ‘educational activity’.            

As industrialization brought mass production and mass distribution, the media became more than ever linked to the economy and its operations. Through advertisement, the media play an important role in bringing together the buyers and the sellers of goods and services. By doing so, they contribute to a high level of consumption, help allocate the nation’s sources and services, stimulate product variety and help make possible prices that are favorable to consumers. Of lately another category, entertainment is added to the above three, because it has its own importance not less than the above three. Entertainment has evolved into an important industry employing more people than any other sector. Entertainment refers to communicative acts, primarily intended for amusement, irrespective of any instructional effects they may have. Providing entertainment is one of the principal functions of all the media. Commercial broadcasting, films, magazines, books, radio, and even newspapers are having more and more news as entertainment is one form or another. A comprehensive depiction of the functions of mass media is done in figure 2.

The role media is widely accepted for the proliferation of a healthy democratic Society (Peterson, Jenson, and Rivers (1966) . Freedom of media guarantees freedom in a democratic society which in turn, is obliged to perform certain essential functions for society. John S. Mill has emphasized the instrumentality of mass media in protecting civil liberties. The purpose of the media is to help discover the truth, to assist in the successful working of the society by presenting all evidence and opinion equally necessary to safeguard the civil liberties of the people.

• Agee, W.K. (1969). Mass media in a Free society . Oxford. Oxford and IBH Publishing Co.
• Anand, Navneet (1994). Mass Media and Nation Building: A case study of India. MPhil Dissertation, JNU, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, New Delhi.
• Bratic, Vladimir and Schirch, Lisa (2007). Why and When to Use the Media for Conflict Prevention and Peace building Issue . Paper presented on December 2007 European Centre for Conflict Prevention/Global Secretariat of the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict. retrieved from http://allacademacia.com. Lasswell, Harold D. (1949). “The structure and function of Communication in Society” in W.Schramm (ed). Mass Communication. Urbana. University of Illinois Press.
• Dale, E. (1933). The content of Motion Pictures . New York. MacMillan. Hartmann, P. and Husband, Charles (1971). “The Mass Media and racial Conflict”. Race . Vol. 12.
• Doob, L.W. (1961). Communication in Africa: A Search for Boundaries . New Haven, Yale University Press.
• Lazarfeld, P.F. and Merton, R.K. (1948). Mass Communication, Popular taste and Organized Social Action. In L. Bryson (ed), The communication of ideas . New York. Harper Collins.
• Lerner, D. (1968). The Passing of Traditional Society . London. Chato & Windus. p. 15; Schramm, W. (1964). Mass Media & National Development . Stanford. Stanford University Press.
• McLuhan, Marshal and F. Quentin (1967). Medium is the Message . Harmondsworth. Penguin.
• Mcquil, Denis (1976) . Sociology of Mass Communication . Harmondsworth. Penguin Books. p. 75.
• Peterson, Jenson, Rivers (1966). The Mass Media and Modern Society . New York. Holt Rinehart & Winston.
• Schramm, W. (1964). Mass Media & National Development . Stanford. Stanford University Press.
• Wagles, Berelson and Bradshaw. (1940). What reading does to people. Chicago. University of Chicago Press; Davison, W.P. (1956). “Political significance of recognition via mass media – An illustration from the Berlin blockade,” Public Opinion Quarterly . 20.

Dr. Iram Rizvi

I am a Freelance Academic Writer. I have PhD in journalism from Jamia Millia Islamia. I have worked with many media organisations for over 15 years.

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Essay on Media: Short and Long Sample Essays

• Updated on  
• Dec 18, 2023

Media plays an important role in shaping our perceptions, influencing public opinion, and connecting individuals across the globe. The role of media in today’s modern world is not limited to just providing information. There are three basic purposes of media; inform, educate, and entertain. A society with free media allows it to have a social and cultural impact on it. Media offers us information about every activity going on in the world. Our smartphones, laptops, televisions, radios, and even public transportation have access to media, where we can watch news anytime and anywhere. Media not only influence our thoughts but can often manipulate our understanding of a particular topic. Continue reading essay on media to know more. Stay tuned!

Also Read: Social Media Bane or Boon

Also Read: Essay on Colonialism

Short Essay on Media

‘Media plays an important role in shaping our perceptions, influencing public opinion, and connecting individuals across the globe. Media includes different platforms such as television, radio, newspapers, and the internet. Media is considered a powerful tool to disseminate information and have social, cultural, and political influences on the masses.’

Some of the roles played by the media are:

• Informing the public through newspapers, news channels, and online portals.
• At the push of a button, media can provide us with a large source of information.
• Media has a significant impact on public opinion by framing issues, influencing perceptions, and shaping narratives.
• Some media platforms are considered political watchdogs, scrutinizing the actions of government officials and institutions. 
• Several media platforms rely on advertising revenue, and in turn, they provide a platform for businesses to promote their products and services.

Media can have both positive and negative impacts on an individual and society as a whole. Understanding the role of media and its limitations is important when watching or reading news. Media is meant for informational purposes. Its influence can vary from person to person. Media is a double-edged sword, which can have a negative or positive impact on our understanding, depending on how we perceive information.

Also Read: Essay on Social Issues

Long Essay on Media

‘Media is a great source of information. Some watch media for entertainment, while others for information or educational purposes. The way we perceive media can have a great impact on our understanding of a particular topic or information. In recent years, the influence of media has significantly increased. The role and influence of media is not limited and can take different forms. Newspapers and radio stations are some of the old and most preferred media sources as compared to television and internet media sources. The choices made by editors, the emphasis given to certain stories, and the narratives crafted can significantly impact how we perceive the world.

Types of Media

There are different types of media, which determine our choices.

News media comprises various platforms like SMS, blogs, email, internet, etc. These platforms are used to access and disseminate economic, social and political information. It offers new ways to develop business relationships with telecommunication companies that are capable of disseminating critical information that can change people’s lives.

Mass media includes print (newspapers, magazines), TV and radio. Due to the fast-paced TV and radio media platforms, there has been a significant decline in newspaper readership all over the world. However, there is a section of a group who still prefer newspapers as the best sources of information. On the other hand, TV and radio stations offer live information from different parts of the world.

Community Media

Community media focuses on the development and issues of a particular community. Some journalists work for community newspapers and radio stations within their community. They have their geographical limitations and sometimes are poorly resourced with immature journalists and editors.

What is the Role of Media?

‘Media plays multiple roles, educating and informing us about different fields. Media is not only there for news but also produces some amazing stories, documentaries, magazine programs and articles through its platforms.’

‘Media allows us to raise awareness and public voice against any unethical activity or decision of the government. Apart from sharing information, media has the power to be a catalyst for social change. It serves as a platform for advocacy, shedding light on injustices, and human rights violations, and inspiring collective action. 

We have witnessed how movements for equality and justice have gained momentum through the amplifying effect of media. As responsible citizens, we should support and engage with media that contributes to positive social change.

Different Roles of People in Media

Different people play different roles in the media and mass communication sector. 

• Board of Directors – Their job is to ensure that everyone within the organization fulfills their responsibilities within the given framework. They are the real policymakers within the organization. They are not responsible for day-to-day media programs. Their job is not to influence the work of editorial staff and junior journalists. 
• Media Manager – They are responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies for employees. They keep a check on what their media covers, how they have to do it, and what resources are required for everyday media coverage.
• Editors – There are different editorial teams, based on their roles and responsibilities. It includes editor-in-chief, special projects, financial, business, assignment, entertainment, etc. They are the gatekeepers because they are the final decision-makers on what will be published. They also guide journalists on the sources they would like to see in the story. 
• Sub-editors – They are an important part of a media house as they determine the ‘End product.’ Their role is to edit stories of structure, measure lengths of stories, check factual details, etc. They are responsible for writing news headlines and captions for photographs. These people have to work under strict deadlines. Because of this, their decision can be detrimental to the published stories.
• Reporter/ Journalist – They are the news hunters and gatherers. They make decisions on which stories to cover. It is critical to identify which journalists cover your type of issues and develop a relationship with them. 

Related Articles

Ans: Media plays an important role in shaping our perceptions, influencing public opinion, and connecting individuals across the globe. Media includes different platforms such as television, radio, newspapers, and the internet. 

Ans: There are three types of media: New media, Community media, and mass media.

Ans: Several people perform different roles in a media house, including reporters or journalists, sub-editors, editors, media managers, and the board of directors.

For more information on such interesting topics, visit our essay writing page and follow Leverage Edu .

Shiva Tyagi

With an experience of over a year, I've developed a passion for writing blogs on wide range of topics. I am mostly inspired from topics related to social and environmental fields, where you come up with a positive outcome.

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Essay on Media And Society

Students are often asked to write an essay on Media And Society in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Media And Society

What is media.

Media is like a big window that shows us news, entertainment, and education. It includes TV, radio, newspapers, the internet, and social networks. Media is everywhere, and it helps us learn about the world.

Media’s Role in Society

Media is important because it tells us what’s happening around us. It can teach us new things and give us a voice. When something big happens, media lets everyone know. It connects people and shares different ideas.

Media’s Influence

Media can change what we think and do. It shows us stories that can make us happy, sad, or angry. Sometimes, media can make us want to buy things or act in certain ways. It’s powerful.

Using Media Wisely

It’s important to think about what we see in the media. Not everything is true or good for us. We should ask questions and talk to others about what we see and hear. This helps us understand better.

250 Words Essay on Media And Society

Media is like a giant window that shows us stories, news, and information from all over the world. It includes things like TV, newspapers, the internet, and radio. Imagine it as a big library where you can find almost everything you want to know.

Media is very important in our lives. It tells us what is happening around us and helps us learn new things. It can teach us, make us laugh, and sometimes make us sad. It is like a teacher who is always there to show us different things about the world.

Media’s Power

The media has a lot of power because it can change the way we think. It can make something seem very important or not important at all. This is why people who make media have to be careful to tell the truth and to be fair.

Media and You

Media can be your friend by helping you with homework or letting you watch your favorite cartoon. But it’s good to spend time doing other things too, like playing outside or reading books. Too much time with media can make you miss out on other fun activities.

In conclusion, media is a big part of our society. It helps us know what’s going on in the world and can teach us a lot. But remember, it’s important to do different things and not just focus on media all the time.

500 Words Essay on Media And Society

Media refers to many different ways of sharing information and news with a lot of people at once. It includes newspapers, television, radio, the internet, and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Imagine media as a giant megaphone that can reach every corner of the world, telling stories, showing pictures, and broadcasting voices.

Media plays a big part in our daily lives. It tells us what’s happening around the world, teaches us new things, and even entertains us with stories, movies, and music. In a way, media acts like a bridge that connects people from different places by letting them share their experiences and ideas.

Learning from Media

Schools are not the only places we learn from. Media is like a huge classroom that never closes. You can learn about science, history, or math through educational programs on TV or online videos. Even news articles and documentaries are great for learning about the world and different cultures.

Media Shapes Our Thoughts

The things we see and hear in the media can influence the way we think. For example, if you watch a lot of shows about space, you might start to dream about becoming an astronaut. Media can inspire us to try new things, to be better people, and to care about important issues.

The Power of Media

Media is very powerful because it can reach so many people and change their opinions. This power can be used in good ways, like raising money for people who need help. But it can also be used in bad ways, like spreading false information. That’s why it’s important for us to think about what we see and hear and to check if it’s true or not.

Media and Fun

We can’t forget that media is also about having fun! Watching cartoons, playing video games, or scrolling through funny pictures on the internet can make us laugh and feel happy. Media gives us a break from schoolwork and chores, and it’s a way to relax and enjoy our free time.

Staying Safe with Media

Even though media can be fun and helpful, we also need to be safe. Some parts of the internet are not good for kids, and not everyone you meet online is a friend. It’s important to talk to your parents or teachers about what you do on the internet and to be careful with the information you share.

In conclusion, media is like a big mirror that reflects everything that’s happening in the world. It can teach us, make us think, and entertain us. But we should use media wisely, learn how to tell if something is true, and always stay safe online. By understanding media and its effects on society, we can use it to make the world a better place.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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• Essay on Media And Politics
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8.3: Media and Technology in Society

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Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you should be able to:

• Describe the evolution and current role of different media, like newspapers, television, and new media
• Describe the function of product advertising in media
• Demonstrate awareness of the social homogenization and social fragmentation that occur via modern society’s use of technology and media

Technology and the media are interwoven, and neither can be separated from contemporary society in most core and semi-peripheral nations. Media is a term that refers to all print, digital, and electronic means of communication. From the time the printing press was created (and even before), technology has influenced how and where information is shared. Today, it is impossible to discuss media and the ways societies communicate without addressing the fast-moving pace of technology change. Twenty years ago, if you wanted to share news of your baby’s birth or a job promotion, you phoned or wrote letters. You might tell a handful of people, but you probably wouldn’t call up several hundred, including your old high school chemistry teacher, to let them know. Now, you might join an online community of parents-to-be even before you announce your pregnancy via a staged Instagram picture. The circle of communication is wider than ever, and when we talk about how societies engage with technology, we must take media into account, and vice versa.

Technology creates media. The comic book you bought your daughter is a form of media, as is the movie you streamed for family night, the web site you used to order takeout, the billboard you passed on the way to pick up your food, and the newspaper you read while you were waiting for it. Without technology, media would not exist, but remember, technology is more than just the media we are exposed to.

Categorizing Technology

There is no one way of dividing technology into categories. Whereas once it might have been simple to classify innovations such as machine-based or drug-based or the like, the interconnected strands of technological development mean that advancement in one area might be replicated in dozens of others. For simplicity’s sake, we will look at how the U.S. Patent Office, which receives patent applications for nearly all major innovations worldwide, addresses patents. This regulatory body will patent three types of innovation. Utility patents are the first type. These are granted for the invention or discovery of any new and useful process, product, or machine, or for a significant improvement to existing technologies. The second type of patent is a design patent . Commonly conferred in architecture and industrial design, this means someone has invented a new and original design for a manufactured product. Plant patents , the final type, recognize the discovery of new plant types that can be asexually reproduced. While genetically modified food is the hot-button issue within this category, farmers have long been creating new hybrids and patenting them. A more modern example might be food giant Monsanto, which patents corn with built-in pesticide (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office 2011).

Anderson and Tushman (1990) suggest an evolutionary model of technological change , in which a breakthrough in one form of technology leads to a number of variations. Once those are assessed, a prototype emerges, and then a period of slight adjustments to the technology, interrupted by a breakthrough. For example, in terms of portable data storage, the first mainstream device was a floppy disk–a square, plastic object larger than a playing card, which in its final iteration held 1.4 megabytes of data (or less than a single high-resolution photo). Until the early 2000s, these were common formats, and students and professionals would regularly carry several of them. Floppy disks were improved and upgraded, then replaced by higher-capacity Zip and Jaz disks, which were then replaced by flash drives. This is essentially a generational model for categorizing technology, in which first-generation technology is a relatively unsophisticated jumping-off point that leads to an improved second generation, and so on.

Another type of evolution involves disruptive technology (or disruptive innovation), which is a product, service, or process that has a major effect on the operation of an entire industry, and/or may create new industries or new markets. In the example above, a disruptive technology might be the advent of cloud-based storage platforms like Google Drive and iCloud, which have significantly reduced the need for physical portable storage. Disruptive technology can create and destroy entire industries, sometimes in a rapid manner rather than in an evolutionary one. In one of the most famous examples, the advent of digital photography rendered film-based cameras obsolete; the change came quickly, and many companies could not adjust. In a similar manner, ride-sharing services have had a massive impact on the taxi and limousine industry. Emerging technologies such as blockchain, additive manufacturing (3D printing), and augmented reality are likely to have similar impacts. For example, if companies decide that it is more efficient to 3D print many products or components close to their destinations instead of shipping them from distant manufacturing plants and warehouses, the entire shipping industry may be affected.

The sociological impact of disruptive technology can be sudden. Digital photography, for example, resulted in the rapid decline of companies like Kodak, which had been stalwarts of the American economy and a major employer. Layoffs devastated cities like Rochester, New York. The advent of online music purchasing and subscription services resulted in the closure of thousands of record stores, both small businesses and large chains like Tower Records. Beyond the economic impact, these stores were often parts of the fabric of communities, places for fans to gather to explore and share music. Automation has likewise changed manufacturing and mining, resulting in severe job loss and drastic alterations in regions such as the Great Lakes, where many towns went from being part of the Manufacturing Belt to being part of the Rust Belt.

Sociology in the Real World

Violence in media and video games: does it matter.

A glance through popular video game and movie titles geared toward children and teens shows the vast spectrum of violence that is displayed, condoned, and acted out.

As a way to guide parents in their programming choices, the motion picture industry put a rating system in place in the 1960s. But new media—video games in particular—proved to be uncharted territory. In 1994, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ERSB) set a ratings system for games that addressed issues of violence, sexuality, drug use, and the like. California took it a step further by making it illegal to sell video games to underage buyers. The case led to a heated debate about personal freedoms and child protection, and in 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the California law, stating it violated freedom of speech (ProCon 2012).

Children’s play has often involved games of aggression—from cops and robbers to fake sword fights. Many articles report on the controversy surrounding the suggested link between violent video games and violent behavior. Is the link real? Psychologists Anderson and Bushman (2001) reviewed forty-plus years of research on the subject and, in 2003, determined that there are causal linkages between violent video game use and aggression. They found that children who had just played a violent video game demonstrated an immediate increase in hostile or aggressive thoughts, an increase in aggressive emotions, and physiological arousal that increased the chances of acting out aggressive behavior (Anderson 2003).

However, though the American Psychological Association and other researchers found an increase in aggressive tendencies based on video game play, several studies and conclusions indicated "scant evidence" that violent video games cause either physical violence or criminal behavior. Researchers have found correlations between those behaviors, essentially indicating that violent people may be more likely to play violent video games, but that still does not mean that video games cause violence.

Types of Media and Technology

Media and technology have evolved hand in hand, from early print to modern publications, from radio to television to film. New media emerge constantly, such as we see in the online world.

Early forms of print media, found in ancient Rome, were hand-copied onto boards and carried around to keep the citizenry informed. With the invention of the printing press, the way that people shared ideas changed, as information could be mass produced and stored. For the first time, there was a way to spread knowledge and information more efficiently; many credit this development as leading to the Renaissance and ultimately the Age of Enlightenment. This is not to say that newspapers of old were more trustworthy than the Weekly World News and National Enquirer are today. Sensationalism abounded, as did censorship that forbade any subjects that would incite the populace.

The invention of the telegraph, in the mid-1800s, changed print media almost as much as the printing press. Suddenly information could be transmitted in minutes. As the nineteenth century became the twentieth, U.S. publishers such as Hearst redefined the world of print media and wielded an enormous amount of power to socially construct national and world events. Of course, even as the media empires of William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer were growing, print media also allowed for the dissemination of countercultural or revolutionary materials. Internationally, Vladimir Lenin’s Irksa ( The Spark ) newspaper was published in 1900 and played a role in Russia’s growing communist movement (World Association of Newspapers 2004).

With the invention and widespread use of television in the mid-twentieth century, newspaper circulation steadily dropped off, and in the 21st century, circulation has dropped further as more people turn to internet news sites and other forms of new media to stay informed. According to the Pew Research Center, 2009 saw an unprecedented drop in newspaper circulation––down 10.6 percent from the year before (Pew 2010).

This shift away from newspapers as a source of information has profound effects on societies. When the news is given to a large diverse conglomerate of people, it must maintain some level of broad-based reporting and balance in order to appeal to a broad audience and keep them subscribing. As newspapers decline, news sources become more fractured, so each segment of the audience can choose specifically what it wants to hear and what it wants to avoid. Increasingly, newspapers are shifting online in an attempt to remain relevant. It is hard to tell what impact new media platforms will have on the way we receive and process information.

It is hard to tell what impact new media platforms will have on the way we receive and process information. The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (2013) reported that audiences for all the major news magazines declined in 2012, though digital ad revenue increased. The same report suggested that, while newspaper circulation is holding steady at around $10 billion after years of decline, it is digital pay plans that allow newspapers to keep their heads above water, and the digital ad revenue that is increasing for news magazines is not enough to compensate for print revenue loss in newspapers.

A 2014 report suggested that U.S. adults read a median of five books per year in 2013, which is about average. But are they reading traditional print or e-books? About 69 percent of people said they had read at least one printed book in the past year, versus 28 percent who said they’d read an e-book (DeSilver 2014). Is print more effective at conveying information? In recent study, Mangen, Walgermo, and Bronnick (2013) found that students who read on paper performed slightly better than those who read an e-book on an open-book reading comprehension exam of multiple-choice and short-answer questions. While a meta-analysis of research by Andrews (1992) seemed to confirm that people read more slowly and comprehend less when reading from screens, a meta-analysis of more recent research on this topic does not show anything definite (Noyes and Garland 2008).

Television and Radio

Radio programming obviously preceded television, but both shaped people’s lives in much the same way. In both cases, information (and entertainment) could be enjoyed at home, with a kind of immediacy and community that newspapers could not offer. For instance, many people in the United States might remember when they saw on television or heard on the radio that the Twin Towers in New York City had been attacked in 2001. Even though people were in their own homes, media allowed them to share these moments in real time. This same kind of separate-but-communal approach occurred with entertainment too. School-aged children and office workers gathered to discuss the previous night’s installment of a serial television or radio show.

Right up through the 1970s, U.S. television was dominated by three major networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) that competed for ratings and advertising dollars. The networks also exerted a lot of control over what people watched. Public television, in contrast, offered an educational nonprofit alternative to the sensationalization of news spurred by the network competition for viewers and advertising dollars. Those sources—PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), the BBC (British Broadcasting Company), and CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company)—garnered a worldwide reputation for high-quality programming and a global perspective. Al Jazeera, the Arabic independent news station, has joined this group as a similar media force that broadcasts to people worldwide.

The impact of television on U.S. society is hard to overstate. By the late 1990s, 98 percent of U.S. homes had at least one television set, and the average person watched between two and a half and five hours of television daily. All this television has a powerful socializing effect, providing reference groups while reinforcing social norms, values, and beliefs.

The film industry took off in the 1930s, when color and sound were first integrated into feature films. Like television, early films were unifying for society: as people gathered in theaters to watch new releases, they would laugh, cry, and be scared together. Movies also act as time capsules or cultural touchstones for society. From Westerns starring the tough-talking Clint Eastwood to the biopic of Facebook founder and Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg, movies illustrate society’s dreams, fears, and experiences. While many consider Hollywood the epicenter of moviemaking, India’s Bollywood actually produces more films per year, speaking to the cultural aspirations and norms of Indian society. The film industry, like other media formats, has gone through substantial change as a result of streaming services, online privacy, and the new competition for people's entertainment dollars. Because the mainstream movie industry has been so reliant on ticket sales at live theaters, the COVID-19 pandemic affected it more dramatically than most other media categories. Highly anticipated movies slated for 2020 and 2021 releases were delayed or shifted to streaming distribution, reducing revenue. And some companies made lasting decisions regarding their future offerings.

New Media and Online Environments

New media encompasses all interactive forms of information exchange. These include social networking sites, blogs, podcasts, wikis, and virtual worlds. Many are not "new" in the sense that they were developed in the past few years (some may be older than you), but they are newer than the media mentioned above, and they rely on types of technologies that were not available until about thirty years ago. Many are ways disruptive to traditional media or to companies that rely on those other formats. Clearly, the list of new media grows almost daily, and you might feel we are missing some. In fact, the immediacy of new media coupled with the lack of oversight means we must be more careful than ever to ensure that we are making good decisions about the accuracy, ethics, and cultural responsiveness of these formats.

Planned Obsolescence: Technology That’s Built to Crash

Chances are your mobile phone company, as well as the makers of your laptop and your household appliances, are all counting on their products to fail. Not too quickly, of course, or consumers wouldn't stand for it—but frequently enough that you might find that it costs far more to fix a device than to replace it with a newer model. Or you find the phone company e-mails you saying that you’re eligible for a free new phone, because yours is a whopping two years old. And appliance repair people say that while they might be fixing some machines that are twenty years old, they generally aren’t fixing those that are seven years old; newer models are built to be thrown out. This strategy is called planned obsolescence , and it is the business practice of planning for a product to be obsolete or unusable from the time it is created.

To some extent, planned obsolescence is a natural extension of new and emerging technologies. After all, who is going to cling to an enormous and slow desktop computer from 2000 when a few hundred dollars can buy one that is significantly faster and better? But the practice is not always so benign. The classic example of planned obsolescence is the nylon stocking. Women’s stockings—once an everyday staple of women’s lives––get “runs” or “ladders” after only a few wearings. This requires the stockings to be discarded and new ones purchased. Not surprisingly, the garment industry did not invest heavily in finding a rip-proof fabric; it was in manufacturers' best interest that their product be regularly replaced.

Those who use Microsoft Windows might feel that like the women who purchased endless pairs of stockings, they are victims of planned obsolescence. Every time Windows releases a new operating system, there are typically not many innovations in it that consumers feel they must have. However, the software programs are upwardly compatible only. This means that while the new versions can read older files, the old version cannot read the newer ones. In short order, those who have not upgraded right away find themselves unable to open files sent by colleagues or friends, and they usually wind up upgrading as well.

Planned obsolescence is not always done ethically, and some companies can dictate the obsolescence after the user makes a purchase. Apple users took to social media to confirm that their older iPhones suddenly began losing power or were slowing down considerably. Many users bought new phones at high prices, and later learned that the slow downs were intended by the phone maker. Customers filed dozens of class action lawsuits, which are suits where a very large group of people can band together. Apple was found to have intentionally and improperly altered its phones through a software update in order to hide battery problems. While it never admitted guilt, Apple's $500 million settlement paid benefits to iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 users who had been affected, and a later $113 agreement with state attorneys general included provisions to behave more ethically and transparently (CNBC 2020).

Product Advertising and the Attention Economy

Companies use advertising to sell to us, but the way they reach us is changing. Naomi Klein identified the destructive impact of corporate branding her 1999 text, No Logo , an antiglobalization treatise that focused on sweatshops, corporate power, and anticonsumerist social movements. In the post-millennial society, synergistic advertising practices ensure you are receiving the same message from a variety of sources and on a variety of platforms. For example, you may see billboards for Miller beer on your way to a stadium, sit down to watch a game preceded by a Miller commercial on the big screen, and watch a halftime ad in which people are shown holding up the trademark bottles. Chances are you can guess which brand of beer is for sale at the concession stand.

Advertising has changed, as technology and media have allowed consumers to bypass traditional advertising venues. From the invention of the remote control, which allows us to skip television advertising without leaving our seats, to recording devices that let us watch programs but skip the ads, conventional television advertising is on the wane. And print media is no different. Advertising revenue in newspapers and on television has fallen significantly, which shows that companies need new ways of getting their messages to consumers.

Brand ambassadorships can also be powerful tools for advertisers. For example, companies hire college students to be their on-campus representatives, and they may target for students engaged in high-profile activities like sports, fraternities, and music. (This practice is slightly different from sponsorships, and note that some students, particularly athletes, need to follow strict guidelines about accepting money or products.) The marketing team is betting that if we buy perfume because Beyoncé tells us to, we’ll also choose our workout gear, clothing, or make-up brand if another student encourages that choice. Tens of thousands of brand ambassadors or brand evangelists work on college campuses, and such marketing approaches are seen as highly effective investments for companies. The numbers make it clear: Ambassador-referred customers provide sixteen percent higher value to companies than other customers, and over ninety percent of people indicate that people trust referrals from people they know (On-Campus Advertising, 2017).

Social media has made such influencer and ambassador marketing a near constant. Some formal ambassadors are sponsored by companies to show or use their products. In some cases, compensation arrives only in the form of the free products and whatever monetization the ambassador receives from the site, such as YouTube. Influencers are usually less formally engaged with companies than are ambassadors, relying mostly on site revenue to reward their efforts. Some influencers may overstate their popularity in order to get free products or services. For example, luxury hotels report that they are barraged by influencers (some with very few followers, and therefore questionable influence) who expect free stays in exchange for creating posts promoting the location (Locker 2019).

One ethical and perhaps relationship-oriented question is whether paid ambassadors should be required to disclose their relationship with a company, and how that works in online versus face-to-face interactions. In this case, online presence may be more "truthful" than in-person relationships. A video can formally include sponsorship information, and some ambassadors list partners or sponsors on their profiles. But in day-to-day, in-person conversations, it might be awkward for a classmate or colleague to mention that they are wearing a particular brand or using gear based on a financial relationship. In other words, the person sitting next to you with the great bag may be paid to carry it, and you may never know.

Homogenization and Fragmentation

Despite the variety of media at hand, the mainstream news and entertainment you enjoy are increasingly homogenized. Research by McManus (1995) suggests that different news outlets all tell the same stories, using the same sources, resulting in the same message, presented with only slight variations. So whether you are reading the New York Times or the CNN’s web site, the coverage of national events like a major court case or political issue will likely be the same.

Simultaneously with this homogenization among the major news outlets, the opposite process is occurring in the newer media streams. With so many choices, people increasingly customize their news experience, minimizing their opportunity to encounter information that does not jive with their worldview (Prior 2005). For instance, those who are staunchly Republican can avoid centrist or liberal-leaning cable news shows and web sites that would show Democrats in a favorable light. They know to seek out Fox News over MSNBC, just as Democrats know to do the opposite. Further, people who want to avoid politics completely can choose to visit web sites that deal only with entertainment or that will keep them up to date on sports scores. They have an easy way to avoid information they do not wish to hear. Americans seem to view this phenomenon with great concern, indicating that the impact of customized or personalized news delivers worse news. Yet, they still engage with the platforms that deliver news in that manner.

The fragmentation of the news has led to an increased amount of digital tribalism. Tribalism in this sense is the state or tendency to gather and reinforce ideas belonging to a group, and to do so out of a sense of strong loyalty. Digital tribalism, then, is the tendency to do so online, and also to forge new tribes purely based on online personas or ideologies. Instead of basing these groups on the classic bonds of ethnic, religious, or geographic ideologies, they are based on politics, emotions, lifestyles or lifestyle goals, or even brands (Taute & Sierra 2014). Digital tribes can lead people to a greater sense of belonging, and can also be heavily exploited for commercial or power-attaining interests.

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Why social media has changed the world — and how to fix it

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Are you on social media a lot? When is the last time you checked Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram? Last night? Before breakfast? Five minutes ago?

If so, you are not alone — which is the point, of course. Humans are highly social creatures. Our brains have become wired to process social information, and we usually feel better when we are connected. Social media taps into this tendency.

“Human brains have essentially evolved because of sociality more than any other thing,” says Sinan Aral, an MIT professor and expert in information technology and marketing. “When you develop a population-scale technology that delivers social signals to the tune of trillions per day in real-time, the rise of social media isn’t unexpected. It’s like tossing a lit match into a pool of gasoline.”

The numbers make this clear. In 2005, about 7 percent of American adults used social media. But by 2017, 80 percent of American adults used Facebook alone. About 3.5 billion people on the planet, out of 7.7 billion, are active social media participants. Globally, during a typical day, people post 500 million tweets, share over 10 billion pieces of Facebook content, and watch over a billion hours of YouTube video.

As social media platforms have grown, though, the once-prevalent, gauzy utopian vision of online community has disappeared. Along with the benefits of easy connectivity and increased information, social media has also become a vehicle for disinformation and political attacks from beyond sovereign borders.

“Social media disrupts our elections, our economy, and our health,” says Aral, who is the David Austin Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Now Aral has written a book about it. In “The Hype Machine,” published this month by Currency, a Random House imprint, Aral details why social media platforms have become so successful yet so problematic, and suggests ways to improve them.

As Aral notes, the book covers some of the same territory as “The Social Dilemma,” a documentary that is one of the most popular films on Netflix at the moment. But Aral’s book, as he puts it, "starts where ‘The Social Dilemma’ leaves off and goes one step further to ask: What can we do about it?”

“This machine exists in every facet of our lives,” Aral says. “And the question in the book is, what do we do? How do we achieve the promise of this machine and avoid the peril? We’re at a crossroads. What we do next is essential, so I want to equip people, policymakers, and platforms to help us achieve the good outcomes and avoid the bad outcomes.”

When “engagement” equals anger

“The Hype Machine” draws on Aral’s own research about social networks, as well as other findings, from the cognitive sciences, computer science, business, politics, and more. Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles, for instance, have found that people obtain bigger hits of dopamine — the chemical in our brains highly bound up with motivation and reward — when their social media posts receive more likes.

At the same time, consider a 2018 MIT study by Soroush Vosoughi, an MIT PhD student and now an assistant professor of computer science at Dartmouth College; Deb Roy, MIT professor of media arts and sciences and executive director of the MIT Media Lab; and Aral, who has been studying social networking for 20 years. The three researchers found that on Twitter, from 2006 to 2017, false news stories were 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than true ones. Why? Most likely because false news has greater novelty value compared to the truth, and provokes stronger reactions — especially disgust and surprise.

In this light, the essential tension surrounding social media companies is that their platforms gain audiences and revenue when posts provoke strong emotional responses, often based on dubious content.

“This is a well-designed, well-thought-out machine that has objectives it maximizes,” Aral says. “The business models that run the social-media industrial complex have a lot to do with the outcomes we’re seeing — it’s an attention economy, and businesses want you engaged. How do they get engagement? Well, they give you little dopamine hits, and … get you riled up. That’s why I call it the hype machine. We know strong emotions get us engaged, so [that favors] anger and salacious content.”

From Russia to marketing

“The Hype Machine” explores both the political implications and business dimensions of social media in depth. Certainly social media is fertile terrain for misinformation campaigns. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Russia spread  false information to at least 126 million people on Facebook and another 20 million people on Insta­gram (which Facebook owns), and was responsible for 10 million tweets. About 44 percent of adult Americans visited a false news source in the final weeks of the campaign.

“I think we need to be a lot more vigilant than we are,” says Aral.

We do not know if Russia’s efforts altered the outcome of the 2016 election, Aral says, though they may have been fairly effective. Curiously, it is not clear if the same is true of most U.S. corporate engagement efforts.

As Aral examines, digital advertising on most big U.S. online platforms is often wildly ineffective, with academic studies showing that the “lift” generated by ad campaigns — the extent to which they affect consumer action — has been overstated by a factor of hundreds, in some cases. Simply counting clicks on ads is not enough. Instead, online engagement tends to be more effective among new consumers, and when it is targeted well; in that sense, there is a parallel between good marketing and guerilla social media campaigns.

“The two questions I get asked the most these days,” Aral says, “are, one, did Russia succeed in intervening in our democracy? And two, how do I measure the ROI [return on investment] from marketing investments? As I was writing this book, I realized the answer to those two questions is the same.”

Ideas for improvement

“The Hype Machine” has received praise from many commentators. Foster Provost, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, says it is a “masterful integration of science, business, law, and policy.” Duncan Watts, a university professor at the University of Pennsylvania, says the book is “essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how we got here and how we can get somewhere better.”

In that vein, “The Hype Machine” has several detailed suggestions for improving social media. Aral favors automated and user-generated labeling of false news, and limiting revenue-collection that is based on false content. He also calls for firms to help scholars better research the issue of election interference.

Aral believes federal privacy measures could be useful, if we learn from the benefits and missteps of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and a new California law that lets consumers stop some data-sharing and allows people to find out what information companies have stored about them. He does not endorse breaking up Facebook, and suggests instead that the social media economy needs structural reform. He calls for data portability and interoperability, so “consumers would own their identities and could freely switch from one network to another.” Aral believes that without such fundamental changes, new platforms will simply replace the old ones, propelled by the network effects that drive the social-media economy.

“I do not advocate any one silver bullet,” says Aral, who emphasizes that changes in four areas together — money, code, norms, and laws — can alter the trajectory of the social media industry.

But if things continue without change, Aral adds, Facebook and the other social media giants risk substantial civic backlash and user burnout.

“If you get me angry and riled up, I might click more in the short term, but I might also grow really tired and annoyed by how this is making my life miserable, and I might turn you off entirely,” Aral observes. “I mean, that’s why we have a Delete Facebook movement, that’s why we have a Stop Hate for Profit movement. People are pushing back against the short-term vision, and I think we need to embrace this longer-term vision of a healthier communications ecosystem.”

Changing the social media giants can seem like a tall order. Still, Aral says, these firms are not necessarily destined for domination.

“I don’t think this technology or any other technology has some deterministic endpoint,” Aral says. “I want to bring us back to a more practical reality, which is that technology is what we make it, and we are abdicating our responsibility to steer technology toward good and away from bad. That is the path I try to illuminate in this book.”

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Prof. Sinan Aral’s new book, “The Hype Machine,” has been selected as one of the best books of the year about AI by Wired . Gilad Edelman notes that Aral’s book is “an engagingly written shortcut to expertise on what the likes of Facebook and Twitter are doing to our brains and our society.”

Prof. Sinan Aral speaks with Danny Crichton of TechCrunch about his new book, “The Hype Machine,” which explores the future of social media. Aral notes that he believes a starting point “for solving the social media crisis is creating competition in the social media economy.” 

New York Times

Prof. Sinan Aral speaks with New York Times editorial board member Greg Bensinger about how social media platforms can reduce the spread of misinformation. “Human-in-the-loop moderation is the right solution,” says Aral. “It’s not a simple silver bullet, but it would give accountability where these companies have in the past blamed software.”

Prof. Sinan Aral speaks with Kara Miller of GBH’s Innovation Hub about his research examining the impact of social media on everything from business re-openings during the Covid-19 pandemic to politics.

Prof. Sinan Aral speaks with NPR’s Michael Martin about his new book, “The Hype Machine,” which explores the benefits and downfalls posed by social media. “I've been researching social media for 20 years. I've seen its evolution and also the techno utopianism and dystopianism,” says Aral. “I thought it was appropriate to have a book that asks, 'what can we do to really fix the social media morass we find ourselves in?'”

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Short Essay: Mass Media

In today’s interconnected world, mass media plays a pivotal role in shaping our perception of the world, disseminating information, and influencing public opinion. From traditional platforms like television, radio, and newspapers to the ever-expanding digital landscape encompassing social media, online news portals, and streaming services, mass media has become an integral part of our daily lives. Understanding the impact and intricacies of mass media is crucial, making it a compelling subject for exploration within the realm of academic writing.

To effectively write an essay on mass media, it is essential to employ a structured and systematic approach. This includes conducting extensive research to gather relevant information, critically evaluating sources, and organizing your thoughts to present a coherent and well-argued analysis. Additionally, understanding the key theories, concepts, and debates within the field of mass media will provide a solid foundation for constructing a compelling essay.

Table of Contents

Mass Media Essay Tips

Understand the Prompt: Carefully read and understand the essay prompt or question. Identify the specific focus or aspect of mass media that you need to address in your essay. Analyze any instructions or guidelines provided to ensure that you meet the requirements.

Conduct Thorough Research: Gather information from reliable and credible sources such as books, academic journals, reputable websites, and scholarly articles. Use a combination of primary and secondary sources to support your arguments and provide evidence for your claims. Take note of key statistics, theories, and case studies relevant to the topic.

Develop a Clear Thesis Statement: Craft a concise and focused thesis statement that clearly states your main argument or position on the topic. Your thesis should reflect the specific aspect of mass media that you will be discussing in the essay and provide a roadmap for your analysis.

Create an Outline: Organize your thoughts and ideas by creating an outline for your essay. Identify the main points you want to cover and arrange them in a logical order. This will help you maintain a clear structure and flow throughout your essay.

Introduction: Write an engaging introduction that provides an overview of the topic and captures the reader’s attention. Introduce the significance of mass media, its impact on society, and provide a brief preview of the main points you will be discussing in your essay. End your introduction with a strong thesis statement.

Body Paragraphs: Each body paragraph should focus on a specific subtopic or argument related to mass media. Start each paragraph with a clear topic sentence that relates back to your thesis statement. Provide supporting evidence, examples, and analysis to strengthen your arguments. Ensure smooth transitions between paragraphs to maintain coherence.

Use Critical Analysis: Engage in critical thinking by evaluating different perspectives, theories, and debates within the field of mass media. Analyze the potential biases, ethical considerations, and the social, cultural, and political implications of mass media. Support your analysis with evidence and logical reasoning.

Incorporate Examples: Use relevant and current examples from real-world situations to illustrate your points. These can include case studies, media campaigns, or specific events that highlight the impact of mass media on society.

Conclusion: Summarize the main points discussed in your essay and restate your thesis in a succinct manner. Offer some final thoughts or reflections on the significance of mass media and its potential future developments. Avoid introducing new information in the conclusion.

Revise and Edit: Review your essay for clarity, coherence, and grammar. Ensure that your ideas flow smoothly and that your arguments are well-supported. Check for any spelling or punctuation errors. Consider seeking feedback from peers or instructors to gain different perspectives and improve the overall quality of your essay.

Mass Media Essay Example 1

Title: The Influence of Mass Media: Shaping Perspectives and Societal Dynamics

Introduction Mass media has emerged as a powerful and influential force in our contemporary world. With its ability to reach diverse audiences and shape public opinion, mass media plays a significant role in shaping perspectives, disseminating information, and driving societal dynamics. This essay delves into the influence of mass media, exploring its impact on individuals, communities, and broader society. By analyzing its reach, effects, and challenges, we can better understand the complex relationship between mass media and the world we inhabit.

I. The Reach and Forms of Mass Media: A. Traditional Media: 1. Television: Discuss the impact of television as a dominant medium, its ability to shape cultural narratives, and the influence of television programs on viewers’ beliefs and behaviors. 2. Radio: Examine the role of radio in disseminating information, fostering community engagement, and its historical significance in reaching diverse populations.

B. Print Media: 1. Newspapers and Magazines: Explore the historical importance of print media, its role in providing in-depth analysis and investigative journalism, and the challenges it faces in the digital age. 2. Books and Literature: Discuss the enduring impact of books and literature in shaping public discourse, fostering critical thinking, and influencing societal values.

C. Digital Media: 1. Internet and Online News: Analyze the transformative impact of the internet on mass media, the rise of online news platforms, and the democratization of information. 2. Social Media: Examine the influence of social media platforms on communication, community engagement, and the spread of information, as well as the challenges of misinformation and echo chambers.

II. The Effects of Mass Media on Individuals: A. Formation of Beliefs and Attitudes: 1. Agenda Setting: Discuss how mass media influences the issues and topics that capture public attention and shape individual opinions. 2. Framing and Priming: Explore how media framing and priming techniques shape the way individuals interpret and understand information.

B. Socialization and Identity: 1. Media Representations: Analyze the impact of media representations on the formation of social identities, including gender, race, and ethnicity. 2. Media Influence on Body Image: Discuss the role of mass media in shaping beauty standards and its impact on body image and self-esteem.

III. Mass Media and Societal Dynamics: A. Political Influence: 1. Media and Democracy: Examine the role of mass media in facilitating political participation, fostering informed citizenship, and holding those in power accountable. 2. Media Bias and Propaganda: Discuss the challenges of media bias, propaganda, and the implications for public trust in media institutions.

B. Cultural Transmission and Globalization: 1. Cultural Homogenization and Hybridization: Analyze the impact of mass media on cultural diversity, including the spread of globalized media content and the emergence of hybrid cultural forms. 2. Media and Cultural Hegemony: Discuss the potential for cultural dominance and the influence of media conglomerates on shaping cultural values and practices.

IV. Challenges and Responsibilities of Mass Media: A. Ethics and Responsibility: 1. Media Ethics: Explore the ethical considerations in media production, including accuracy, objectivity, and respect for privacy. 2. Responsible Journalism: Discuss the importance of responsible journalism in an era of sensationalism, clickbait, and misinformation.

B. Media Literacy and Critical Thinking: 1. Promoting Media Literacy: Highlight the significance of media literacy education in empowering individuals to critically analyze media messages and navigate the digital landscape. 2. Combating Misinformation: Examine the role of media literacy in combating misinformation and fake news, and the responsibility of media organizations in fact-checking and verification.

Conclusion Mass media holds immense power in shaping perspectives, influencing behaviors, and driving societal dynamics. Its reach, whether through traditional channels or digital platforms, has transformed the way we communicate, consume information, and construct our identities. By understanding the effects and challenges associated with mass media, we can navigate its influence more consciously, promote responsible media practices, and cultivate a media-literate society capable of engaging critically with the messages it delivers.

Mass Media Essay Example 2

Title: The Role of Mass Media in the Digital Age: Opportunities and Challenges

Introduction In the digital age, mass media has undergone a profound transformation, revolutionizing the way information is created, shared, and consumed. The rise of digital platforms and social media has expanded the reach of mass media, providing new opportunities for communication and engagement. However, this shift has also brought forth a range of challenges, including the spread of misinformation, privacy concerns, and the erosion of traditional media models. This essay explores the role of mass media in the digital age, examining its opportunities, challenges, and the implications for individuals and society.

I. The Digital Revolution and the Changing Landscape of Mass Media: A. Rise of Digital Platforms: 1. The emergence of social media and its impact on mass communication. 2. The democratization of content creation and the blurring of traditional media boundaries.

B. Fragmentation of Audiences: 1. The diversification of media consumption habits and the decline of traditional media channels. 2. The challenges and opportunities presented by niche audiences and personalized content.

II. Opportunities and Benefits of Mass Media in the Digital Age: A. Accessibility and Global Reach: 1. The democratization of information and increased access to news and knowledge. 2. The ability of mass media to bridge geographical and cultural divides.

B. Citizen Journalism and Participatory Culture: 1. The empowerment of individuals to contribute to the media landscape through user-generated content. 2. The role of social media in amplifying diverse voices and promoting civic engagement.

III. Challenges and Concerns in the Digital Media Landscape: A. Spread of Misinformation and Fake News: 1. The impact of misinformation on public discourse and decision-making processes. 2. The role of mass media in fact-checking, verification, and combating the spread of fake news.

B. Privacy and Data Security: 1. The ethical implications of data collection and surveillance in the digital media ecosystem. 2. The need for robust privacy regulations and individual empowerment in the digital age.

IV. Media Literacy and Critical Thinking in the Digital Era: A. Promoting Media Literacy: 1. The importance of media literacy education in navigating the digital media landscape. 2. Equipping individuals with critical thinking skills to evaluate media content and sources.

B. Responsible Media Practices: 1. The role of media organizations in upholding ethical standards and responsible reporting. 2. Encouraging transparency, accuracy, and accountability in the digital media environment.

V. The Future of Mass Media: A. Innovation and Adaptation: 1. The need for media organizations to embrace technological advancements and new storytelling formats. 2. Exploring emerging trends such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence.

B. Preserving Democratic Values: 1. Safeguarding the role of mass media in fostering informed citizenship and democratic processes. 2. Balancing commercial interests with the public interest in the digital media landscape.

Conclusion The digital age has presented both opportunities and challenges for mass media. While it has expanded access to information and facilitated citizen participation, it has also given rise to concerns regarding misinformation, privacy, and ethical practices. Navigating the evolving media landscape requires media literacy, critical thinking, and responsible media practices. By addressing these challenges and harnessing the potential of digital media, we can ensure that mass media continues to play a vital role in informing, engaging, and empowering individuals and society in the years to come.

Mass Media Essay Example 3

Title: Mass Media and Social Change: Catalysts for Progress and Challenges to Consider

Introduction Mass media has the power to shape public opinion, influence societal norms, and drive social change. Throughout history, mass media has played a significant role in raising awareness, mobilizing communities, and promoting progressive movements. This essay explores the dynamic relationship between mass media and social change, examining its role as a catalyst for progress, the challenges it faces, and the ethical considerations involved.

I. The Influence of Mass Media on Social Movements: A. Amplifying Voices: 1. The role of mass media in providing a platform for marginalized communities and underrepresented voices. 2. Examples of social movements that gained momentum through media coverage and public attention.

B. Mobilizing Communities: 1. The power of mass media in mobilizing individuals and communities for collective action. 2. The role of media campaigns, documentaries, and online platforms in fostering social activism.

II. Mass Media as an Agent of Awareness and Education: A. Raising Awareness of Social Issues: 1. The ability of mass media to shed light on social injustices, human rights violations, and global crises. 2. The impact of media coverage on public perception and engagement with social issues.

B. Educating and Empowering Individuals: 1. The role of mass media in disseminating information, promoting critical thinking, and fostering empathy. 2. The use of documentaries, news programs, and online resources to educate the public on social issues.

III. Challenges and Criticisms Associated with Mass Media and Social Change: A. Media Bias and Selective Reporting: 1. The influence of media bias on the portrayal and framing of social issues. 2. The need for balanced and objective reporting to ensure accuracy and credibility.

B. Commercialization and Sensationalism: 1. The impact of commercial interests on media content and the prioritization of profit over social impact. 2. The role of sensationalism in shaping public perception and undermining the integrity of social change movements.

IV. Ethical Considerations in Mass Media and Social Change: A. Representation and Authenticity: 1. The importance of diverse and authentic representation in media narratives. 2. Addressing stereotypes, misrepresentations, and cultural appropriation in media portrayals.

B. Accountability and Responsibility: 1. The ethical responsibilities of media organizations in reporting accurately and upholding journalistic integrity. 2. Balancing the pursuit of social change with the need for balanced reporting and informed public discourse.

V. The Future of Mass Media and Social Change: A. Technological Advancements and Opportunities: 1. The role of digital media in facilitating grassroots movements and online activism. 2. Exploring emerging technologies and their potential impact on social change efforts.

B. Collaboration and Collective Action: 1. The importance of collaboration between media organizations, activists, and communities to drive social change. 2. Harnessing the power of mass media to create a collective impact and sustainable social transformation.

Conclusion Mass media serves as a powerful catalyst for social change, raising awareness, mobilizing communities, and promoting progressive values. However, it also faces challenges such as bias, sensationalism, and ethical considerations. By addressing these challenges and embracing responsible media practices, mass media can continue to play a vital role in advancing social change, fostering dialogue, and creating a more just and inclusive society.

About Mr. Greg

Mr. Greg is an English teacher from Edinburgh, Scotland, currently based in Hong Kong. He has over 5 years teaching experience and recently completed his PGCE at the University of Essex Online. In 2013, he graduated from Edinburgh Napier University with a BEng(Hons) in Computing, with a focus on social media.

Mr. Greg’s English Cloud was created in 2020 during the pandemic, aiming to provide students and parents with resources to help facilitate their learning at home.

Whatsapp: +85259609792

[email protected]

Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Social Media — Social Media Impact On Society

Social Media Impact on Society

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Essay: The impact of media

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Media is a very Integral part of the society. It has the power of influencing the viewers thinking and making them think of things or situations which might not even be true. Now days, mass media has grown so vast and the options have increased a lot for the people. Mass media not only includes the electronic media but it also includes the print media. Newspaper, magazines, brochures, pamphlets, books, various media channels, social web sites like face book and twitter are all means of communication. Access to things and information has now become very easy for the audiences.

Today, we are living in a global village where the mass media are an important source of information about what is going on in the world. This is an obvious fact that the news media organizations seem more interested in some events than in others. There is a direct effect of media on the audience. Media is known to be the most powerful means of communication. The electronic media, the internet and the print media are all the subsets of mass media. The newspapers, bulletins, brochures and the magazines are included in the print media, whereas the electronic media consists of the radio, television and other forms of communication. Without doubt, Internet is the fastest known way of communicating with millions of people across the globe. Nonetheless, the effects of mass media on society can be positive as well as negative. Mass media does affect the way in which the people or individuals think and act. It has a negative and a positive effect on their behavior. The positive effects are surely celebrated by one and all. But the negative effects are not favorable to a healthy society.

Media plays a very important role in shaping the traits of people. It has been seen and observed that the citizens become more sensible and skilled to shoulder their responsibility towards the nation and the society because of the media. We usually get our role models by hearing about the admiration of their great deeds from the media. Hence, our attention is further focused and our pictures of the world are shaped and reproduced by the way journalists frame their news stories.

Media affect our modern life in almost every way. With an easy flip of the TV channel or with a turn of a magazine page there at our disposal is a huge collection of potential identity replicas. In contemporary society, individuality is nonstop unstable; it must be constructed, created, and selected with suggestion to expected surrounding media traditions. There are a number of mediums from which people can pick and access information from such as TV, Internet, Radio, or cell phones. Therefore, the media grasps a very powerful capacity to set a social issue for mass audience to assume and talk about. Media can contribute a lot to a society. It can make people change their opinions, as they have access and this gives it a lot of strength.

Media is playing a very important role, which is of a watch dog. Watch dog basically means that an individual or a group of persons who work together or act as a protector and knows what ever is going around and helps the society or the people from the wrong deeds happening or saves them from the illegal acts. Media plays an important role in providing information, and also guiding the people about a number of different matters. Hence, the person who has more power over the media has the skill to leave an affect the way it wants the society to think. Media knows about everything happening around the world, and it closely monitors the happenings in all the aspects. It usually keeps a close eye on the news and the series of events happening throughout the world. Media is now considered as one of the pillars of a society, without which a society is incomplete.

Media is considered as a fourth pillar of any society and thus, it represents the society or the country in all aspects which is political, social and economic.

Pakistan is a third world country; at its developing stage where it needs to portray an image in front of the globe as a successful country and Media is the successful weapon which we have in hand

It monitors everything, whatever is going around. It shows the people what it wants the people to know about. Pakistani media pays attention to some issues and neglecting and ignoring some others. Thus, mass media has an effect on the opinions of the people. People will get to know about those happenings and issues, which are emphasized by the media and they adopt the order of priority assigned to different issues. News media organizations are not just passive transmitters of information, repeating the words of official sources or conveying exactly the events in a way as they happened. Through their daily selection and presentation of the news, editors and reporters focus attention of the public’s perceptions about the most important issues of the day. Hence, our attention is further focused and our pictures of the world are shaped and reproduced by the way journalists frame their news stories. The medium of television is something viewers watch mainly in passive way and so the news channels have a great responsibility to tell the truth and show it to the world

Pakistan has been struggling a lot with the national interests since over a decade with internal security as the main alarming cause. National security is very important at every stage for a country to provide to its people. Terrorist attacks have damaged the country to a great degree, thus, weakening its image. Any individuals entity should not be violated and the media again over here plays a very significant role and is thus, a very important asset for Pakistan or likewise any other country. Media shows everything and all aspects of a scenario, which is being watched all over the globe. There are many issues which should not be shown on the television by the media because they might damage the entity of the people or it might give them harm. Media should know what they are showing and it should not leak every secret out. Security is the first and the foremost asset which needs to be provided to the people. There are many sensitive issues which need to stay underground or are not to be leaked. Media should not always criticize the government; it should analyze it but not always provide bad remarks. It should show the reality and tell facts and figures and talk logically, but then again national interest of the country, which includes sensitive issues, should be kept a secret and the media should handle such scenarios very carefully. Media can play the role of a force multiplier for the security issues.

The Security of Pakistan is also very important, our security problems if we go back in past 1947 when British India separated in two sovereign states Pakistan faced a lot of security problems it was on the issue of Kashmir between India and Pakistan we fought three wars two border conflicts. There are some several cases happened in Pakistan which are much thought provoking about the security concerns of Pakistan. Every inch of the territory of the State being more valuable than the liberty of speech and expression enjoyed by any of its citizens, such liberty cannot on any social, moral, legal or political ground be used as ‘democratic’ means of pay a debt the State that has bestowed that liberty.

Media and security together are two concepts which can be linked from both ends. Both of these are two different and important parts of a country. The media just wants to tell the people whatever information they get to know about whereas, the security forces always want to be on the winning side so that they have to face less casualties. There are four keys tools which the media demands for, those key tools are freedom, want total access to information, do not want censorship and the last is that they want to make sure that all the stories and the happenings have reached the audiences in just a short span of time on the right moment. They want to provide all the information and making sure that nothing is hidden from the people whereas, this can lead to a lot of problems which then have to be faced by the security militants and of course the government.

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Short Essay on Power of Media [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF

In today’s lesson, you will learn how you can write short essays on ‘Power of Media.’ There will be three different sets of short essays on the same topic covering different word limits. 

Short Essay on Power of Media in 100 Words

The term ‘’media’’ is derived from the word ‘’medium’’, which refers to the way through which information is transferred from one person to another. Media as the collection of several types of equipment enable the spreading of news and messages far and wide.

Several modes of communication like television, telephone, radio, internet, newspaper, advertisements, allow us to impart knowledge about important issues in our life. Media is extremely powerful in its speed of spreading accurate information. At any specific time, we observe how media personals work at several places and give us the news most required. Any scandal, rumour, facts,  everything is noted by the media and explained to us in due course. 

Short Essay on Power of Media in 200 Words

Media is the way of mass communication and entertainment. It is the process through which the masses of people are communicated and united under one single piece of information. Media or the several forms of information medium fall under the group of information technology.

All of them act together to deliver error-free news and information so that democracy is not disturbed by fake information. Media includes newspapers, magazines, telephone, television, internet, advertisement, emails, messages, cinemas, and others. Media acts through both audio and visual effects to create the maximum effect. 

The biggest power of media lies in its potential to persuade people to take necessary action. When we hear a newsreader dictating the news, then the listeners are swayed by the intonation of the reader. The person speaks in order to claim the truthfulness of the piece of information. In the exact same manner, a newspaper is organized to direct the opinions of the readers in a certain course.

Advertisements are the most powerful ways of media. We are highly influenced by it and inspired to take ready actions that are necessary. At present, the internet is the media that share all news with the greatest speed. 

Short Essay on Power of Media in 400 Words

The influence of media in our lives is of immense importance. It not only imparts us news and pieces of information but is the biggest source of entertainment. Cinema and music as parts of media give us pure joy and happiness, which also enables us to entertain ourselves. Yet the majority of the media is concentrated on gathering correct information and delivering it to the country.

Media includes newspapers, radio, T.V., telephone, internet, advertisements, placards and posters, and others. All these are our constant companions that allow us to form our opinions on different issues regarding life, society, and country. 

Media is powerful in its mode of persuasion. The biggest capacity of any media equipment is that it can easily manipulate the opinion of people and allow them to form a specific sort of perspective. The best weapon in this regard is the newspaper. The way a newspaper is arranged and the headlines are prepared, makes this persuasion quite easy. The visual and literal aspects of a newspaper are the sole power of media. The same goes for the advertisements as well.

The visual and written content of advertisements equally influences us to buy a product or service. For the newsreaders, their intonation is the power. The way they narrate a news story enables listeners to realize the significance of the news. The diction of a newsreader is important in this regard that helps to grab the attention of the people. Media is the potential way to unite the country under one principle and equal opinion. The issue lies with the efficiency of the journalist.

He risks every danger so as to collect authentic news for the benefit of mankind. The efficiency of the strength of media lies at every stratum of collecting the information and converting it into the news. Be it the print media or the audio method, all require this adept nature to strongly create a safe environment for news channels.

Media is both effective and effective. In this regard, the nature of the internet can be considered. Even in the most difficult circumstances internet becomes the den of evil and fake news. It creates unnecessary commotion among innocent folks and is equally responsible for disrupting the peace and stability of the nation.

The capacity to create public opinion is used for dangerous purposes and the power of media is wasted for the benefit of evil people. It is thus the knowledge of the people to not accept all news blindly. Media is effective in spreading the news within the shortest period. However, careful utilization of this power is expected.

Hopefully, after going through this session, you have a  holistic idea about writing short essays on the topic ‘Power of Media.’ I have written these essays in very simple words for a better understanding of all kinds of students. Kindly comment down your doubts, if you still have any. 

Keep browsing our website to read more such short essays on various important topics. And don’t forget to join us on Telegram to get all the latest updates. Thank you. 

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Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society

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In recent years, scholarship around media technologies has finally shed the assumption that they are separate from and powerfully determining of social life, to look at them rather as the product of and embedded in distinct social, cultural and political practices. To better examine them in this light, communication and media scholars have increasingly taken theoretical perspectives originating in science and technology studies (STS), while at the same time some STS scholars interested in information technologies have linked their research to media studies questions about their symbolic dimensions. In this volume, scholars from both fields come together to advance this view of media technologies as complex socio-material phenomena. The first four contributors address the relationship between materiality and mediation, highlighting the linkages between the symbolic and the artifactual by considering such topics as the lived realities of network infrastructure and the informational embodiment of networked knowledge. A second set of four contributors highlight media technologies as always in motion, held together through the minute, unobserved work of many. This includes examining how the meanings of media technologies came to be and the work involved to keep them alive. After each of the two sets of essays, comments by senior scholars respond to the essays and articulate overarching themes. The volume intends to initiate conversations about the state of current scholarship around media technologies, as well as identify directions for future research.

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Mass Media Essay For Students in English

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Mass Media Essay: Mass media encompasses a diverse array of communication channels, including television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and digital platforms. Its significance lies in its role as a powerful tool for informing, entertaining, and influencing society on a global scale. Mass media shapes public opinion, disseminates information, and reflects and shapes cultural norms and values. Students might find writing an essay on mass media highlighting its significance and impact a bit difficult. Here we are with this article to help you with essay writing on this topic. In this article, we have provided sample essays of different lengths, ranging from 100 to 500 words on the realm of mass media and its multifaceted influence.

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Long and Short Mass Media Essays

Short essay on mass media of 100 words.

Mass media plays a significant role in today’s society. It refers to a wide range of communication platforms, such as television, radio, newspapers, and the internet, that reach a large audience. The primary purpose of mass media is to inform, entertain, and persuade. It keeps us updated with current events, broadcasts various forms of entertainment, and presents different perspectives on important issues.

While mass media can be a powerful tool for democracy and education, it is crucial to consume media critically and discerningly to avoid misinformation and manipulation. In a world driven by technology and constant connectivity, it is essential for high school students to be media literate and aware of the influence of mass media.

Mass Media Essay of 250 Words

Mass media encompasses a wide range of communication channels that have become an integral part of our daily lives. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the internet collectively form the backbone of mass media. Its primary purpose is to reach a large audience and convey information, news, entertainment, and advertisements.

One of the most significant roles of mass media is to inform the public. News outlets, both traditional and digital, deliver news from around the world, keeping people updated on current events, politics, science, and culture. In this way, mass media acts as a bridge between people and the world.

Additionally, mass media influences public opinion. It shapes our perceptions and beliefs, often by highlighting certain issues and downplaying others. Media has the power to set agendas, influence social norms, and even impact political decisions.

media also serves as a source of entertainment. Television programs, movies, music, and online content provide an escape from daily routines and offer a variety of choices to suit diverse tastes.

In the digital age, social media platforms have gained immense popularity, allowing individuals to become content creators and share their perspectives with a global audience. This democratization of media has transformed the way information is disseminated and has given rise to citizen journalism.

In conclusion, mass media is a powerful force that shapes our worldviews, informs us, entertains us, and influences our choices. Its impact is widespread and profound, making it a central aspect of modern society.

Short Essay on Mass Media of 300 Words

Mass media is an integral part of modern society, encompassing various communication channels that reach large audiences simultaneously. These channels include television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the internet, and they serve multiple functions, from informing and educating to entertaining and influencing.

One of the primary functions of mass media is to inform the public. News outlets, both traditional and digital, deliver news from around the world, providing information on current events, politics, science, and culture. Mass media acts as a vital link between individuals and the broader world, helping people stay informed and connected.

In addition to providing information, mass media shapes public opinion. It influences our perceptions and beliefs by highlighting certain issues, framing narratives, and emphasizing specific perspectives. The media’s ability to set agendas and sway public sentiment makes it a potent tool in shaping society.

Mass media is also a significant source of entertainment. Television programs, movies, music, online videos, and gaming provide a wide range of choices to cater to diverse tastes. These forms of entertainment offer relaxation and an escape from the demands of daily life.

The digital age has brought about a transformation in the media landscape, with the rise of social media platforms. Social media allows individuals to become content creators and share their viewpoints with a global audience. It has empowered citizen journalism and facilitated real-time communication and activism.

However, it’s important to recognize that mass media can also have drawbacks, such as sensationalism, bias, and the spread of misinformation. In this digital era, discernment and critical thinking are crucial when consuming media.

In conclusion, mass media is a multifaceted phenomenon that serves as a cornerstone of contemporary society. It informs, influences, entertains, and connects us, making it an essential aspect of our daily lives.

Long Essay on Mass Media of 500 Words

Mass media refers to various means of communication that reach a wide audience, such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and social media platforms. It plays a significant role in shaping our society and influencing our thoughts, opinions, and behaviors. In this essay, we will discuss the importance of mass media, its impact on society, and the responsibility it carries.

Firstly, mass media is essential for disseminating information to the public. It acts as a bridge between the people and the world, providing us with news and updates on important events happening locally and globally. Whether it is political affairs, economic developments, or social issues, mass media serves as a platform to educate and inform the public. It allows us to stay connected and aware of what is happening around us, which is crucial for active participation in society.

Secondly, mass media has a profound influence on society and culture. It has the power to shape public opinion, attitudes, and behaviors. Through its various mediums, it can highlight certain issues, set agendas, and create trends. For instance, television shows and movies significantly impact fashion, lifestyle choices, and societal norms. Advertisements also play a crucial role in influencing consumer behavior and promoting certain products and services. Therefore, media has the ability to both reflect and shape the values and ideals of a society.

However, with great power comes great responsibility. Mass media carries the responsibility of ensuring unbiased and accurate reporting. Unfortunately, media bias and misinformation are pressing concerns. Certain media outlets may have hidden agendas or political affiliations, which can lead to skewed reporting and the spread of misinformation. This can have severe consequences, such as the dissemination of false news, increased polarization, and the erosion of public trust. In order to uphold its credibility, the mass media needs to prioritize balanced reporting and fact-checking.

Furthermore, the mass media can be a double-edged sword when it comes to content consumption. On one hand, it provides a platform for diverse voices and perspectives, promoting inclusivity and democracy. It allows marginalized communities and underrepresented individuals to have their stories heard. On the other hand, mass media can also perpetuate stereotypes, reinforce existing biases, and contribute to the digital divide. It is crucial for users to critically analyze the content they consume and actively seek out diverse sources to ensure a well-rounded understanding of the world.

In conclusion, mass media plays a crucial role in society, acting as a source of information, a shaper of culture, and a platform for public discourse. However, it also carries immense responsibility in terms of accurate reporting, avoidance of biases, and the promotion of diverse voices. As consumers of media, it is vital for us to critically analyze the content we consume and actively participate in shaping the role that mass media plays in our lives. By doing so, we can ensure that the mass media continues to be a force for positive change and progress in our society.

FAQs on Mass Media Essay

What is mass media.

Mass media refers to various communication channels, including television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the internet, designed to reach a large audience simultaneously.

How does mass media influence society?

Mass media influences society by shaping public opinion, disseminating information, providing entertainment, setting agendas, and impacting cultural norms and behaviors.

What are the types of mass media?

The types of mass media include television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and digital platforms such as websites and social media.

How does mass media impact politics?

Mass media plays a significant role in politics by covering elections, political campaigns, and government policies. It can influence voter opinions and public perception of political figures.

What is the role of social media in mass media?

Social media is a subset of mass media that empowers individuals to create and share content. It has revolutionized communication, enabling real-time interactions and citizen journalism.

How does mass media affect our daily lives?

Mass media informs us about current events, entertains us with various content, and shapes our worldview, influencing our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

What is the impact of mass media on culture?

Mass media reflects and influences cultural trends, including fashion, music, art, and social norms. It can contribute to the globalization of culture.

Is mass media always reliable?

Mass media can vary in reliability. It's essential to critically evaluate sources and cross-check information to ensure accuracy and avoid misinformation.

What is the future of mass media in the digital age?

Mass media is evolving in the digital age, with increasing reliance on online platforms and user-generated content. The future includes more interactive and personalized media experiences.

What is a short note on mass media?

Mass media encompasses various communication channels that reach a broad audience, including television, radio, newspapers, and the internet, serving as a vital source of information, entertainment, and influence.

What is the main importance of mass media?

The main importance of mass media lies in its ability to shape public opinion, disseminate information, provide a platform for free expression, and facilitate communication on a global scale, making it a cornerstone of modern society.

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Student Essays

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Essay on Media | Role of Media Essay For College Level Students

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Media is the important pillar of society. It has great positive and negative impacts of society. In any way we can never deny the role, power, importance, advantages & disadvantages of media in every walk of our life.

List of Topics

For that, we have tried to write short & Long Essays on topic media covering all important points like; power of media, advantages & disadvantages of media, types, role & impacts of media in our lives.

These short & Long essays are quite helpful for Children & students of Primary, middle, high school & college level students in 100, 200, 300 & 500 plus words essay on Media.

Essay on Media | Types & Role of Media in Society

We live in a society that depends on information to keep moving in the right direction. Media has that power to influence peoples’ attitude and perspective about many issues.

It has power to groom the society and lead a country towards success. It would not be wrong to say that media plays an important role in any individual’s life by providing information about anything, from politics to entertainment.

Types of Media

There are two types of media; print media and electronic media. Print media includes newspapers, magazines and books whereas electronic media includes television, radio and radio.

Role of Media in Society

Now a days, our life is surrounded by mass media. We start our day by reading newspaper while having a cup of coffee, we see television to get an idea of what is happening in the world.

>>>>> Related Post:   Speech on Technology & its Importance

We can have access to every information with just a flip of tv channel or turn of newspaper pages. Media covers all categories of our interest including weather, health, politics, science, geography, fashion, entertainment, war etc.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Media

People working in media risk their lives during live coverage of incidents just to update us. They do not care about their own life, they deliver us latest information even if there are floods, earth quakes or protests. If there is no media coverage then this entire world would plunge into ignorance.

Our minds are under the constant influence of media. It can make people change their opinions about many things. We get a lot of ideas about our daily life through advertisements like what we should eat, buy or wear.

We learn about our role models by hearing about their great deeds through media. The electronic media also brings us awareness about political, cultural and religious life of every country. It is because of media that even a domestic woman can learn about cooking, education and important health tips. It helps to build our knowledge and change our perspective about certain things.

Media has much power to criticize the wrong doings of government. We learn about all the policies of government and how is the relationship of our country with other countries. There are various talk shows where government officials are invited and questioned about their role in the improvement of country’s condition.

It forms a link between government and people. Many corrupt people are also exposed because of media. It would be not wrong to say that media has played an important role in strengthening the society. Media plays a huge role in protecting and promoting the cultures and traditions of its country. It spreads happiness and peace through its entertainment programs.

However, there are some flaws in today’s media. Unnecessary coverage of events has now become a trend. Moreover, there are several programs in which media twists the whole story just to gain more audience. They exaggerate certain issues in order to gain more hype for their channel’s benefit.

The ways in which media is contributing for the betterment of society are remarkable. However, media is destroying its image in the eyes of people because of these issues. Therefore, media should deliver true concept-based stories without exaggerating it because media is the only platform which act as a catalyst for bringing a positive change in society.

>>>>>>> Similar Reading:   Essay on Importance of English as an International Language

Media is a platform to update us with true facts and information of the world. Without media, we would have been left far behind in the race of life. However, media should be fair and free in order to bring a change in this society and mindset of people.

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English Essay on “Media and Society” Complete Essay, Paragraph, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Media and Society

The all-round progress that we have achieved in recent times has made our society more complex and dynamic than ever before. One of the most important aspects of this progress is reflected in the versatility of techniques used in communication and information exchange. The combination of these techniques and our imagination has shrunk the world considerably, thereby making interaction among different societies simpler and faster.

Societies, on their part, have responded favourably to all such innovations and are, in fact, craving for more of them. The potential of innovation is such that it can push technology and development further, to the limits of possibility. Societies themselves have developed as a result of the spread of ideas and knowledge, made possible by such innovations.

The information revolution which made its humble start in the middle of the fifteenth century, with Gutenberg’s invention of printing, has now moved, with the help of technology, into the era of satellite communications and computer networking. The first step in information exchange and mass communication was made through the print media, which, with varying importance, remained in the forefront of mass communication until the beginning of the twentieth century. Newspapers and periodicals, as the major forms of the print media, not only publish information about current events, but also help people develop their own thoughts and opinions.

The potential of the print media is evident from the fact that the behaviour and thinking of people have changed drastically with their arrival on the social scene. The great revolutions and upheavals that took place in the twentieth century can be attributed to the popularity and patronage the print media provided them. As a journalist, Karl Marx probably used the newspaper to popularise his views, which in later years affected the lives of almost half the world’s population. Furthermore, by enabling the international community to hear the voice of the oppressed and the deprived, the print media has played an important role in wiping off colonialism from the face of the earth. It will be interesting to speculate how Gandhiji would have managed to achieve the success and popularity he did, if the print media had not played an encouraging role in India’s freedom struggle.

Matching the print media in versatility and the power to influence public opinion is the audio-visual media, symbolized by, radio and television. Though compared to the print media, the electronic media is a new entrant in the field of communication, its potential for growth far exceeds that of the print media. Owing to its special characteristics, the electronic media is able to access larger sections of society, including the illiterate, than the print media. Moreover, the personalized approach of the audio-visual media makes them more attractive and popular than the print media. The prospects of future growth are also brighter in the case of audio-visual media, because, whereas the popularity of the print media is dependent on the literacy of the population, the electronic media can access the entire population, irrespective of its literary level or caliber.

Besides its utility to spread information and to provide entertainment, the audio-visual media is also a powerful tool in educating the people. Countrywide classrooms, while being an efficient way to reach scattered and isolated populations, is also a cheap and relatively trouble-free means of education. But just as all media have the ability to meet the cultural, educational, social and political needs of society, so they have the potential to create mischief in it. As people depend on the media to judge events and to frame personal opinions, it is easy for anyone, capable of manipulating the media, to mislead the public. Misinformation is one of the worst banes of the media, which can be effectively used by vested interests to serve their ends and to harm the society. All media are, therefore, at once advantageous and dangerous. Nevertheless, the role of media in society cannot be ignored or discouraged. Judicious use of their potential can work wonders in the society.

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I want 1 page paragraph pls provide that also on topic media and society for class 9

Have you founded it If you have founded then can you share to me pls

Write first 2 paragraphs dimwit

Please send me topic of meadia and socity for assighnment atleast 6page

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6 facts about americans and tiktok.

Increasing shares of U.S. adults are turning to the short-form video sharing platform TikTok in general and for news .

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to better understand Americans’ use and perceptions of TikTok. The data for this analysis comes from several Center surveys conducted in 2023.

More information about the surveys and their methodologies, including the sample sizes and field dates, can be found at the links in the text.

Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This is the latest analysis in Pew Research Center’s ongoing investigation of the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

This analysis draws from several Pew Research Center reports on Americans’ use of and attitudes about social media, based on surveys conducted in 2023. For more information, read:

Americans’ Social Media Use

How u.s. adults use tiktok.

• Social Media and News Fact Sheet
• Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023

At the same time, some Americans have concerns about the Chinese-owned platform’s approach to data privacy and its potential impact on national security. Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a bill that, if passed in the Senate and signed into law, would restrict TikTok’s ability to operate in the United States.

Here are six key facts about Americans and TikTok, drawn from Pew Research Center surveys.

A third of U.S. adults – including a majority of adults under 30 – use TikTok. Around six-in-ten U.S. adults under 30 (62%) say they use TikTok, compared with 39% of those ages 30 to 49, 24% of those 50 to 64, and 10% of those 65 and older.

In a 2023 Center survey , TikTok stood out from other platforms we asked about for the rapid growth of its user base. Just two years earlier, 21% of U.S. adults used the platform.

A majority of U.S. teens use TikTok. About six-in-ten teens ages 13 to 17 (63%) say they use the platform. More than half of teens (58%) use it daily, including 17% who say they’re on it “almost constantly.”

A higher share of teen girls than teen boys say they use TikTok almost constantly (22% vs. 12%). Hispanic teens also stand out: Around a third (32%) say they’re on TikTok almost constantly, compared with 20% of Black teens and 10% of White teens.

In fall 2023, support for a U.S. TikTok ban had declined. Around four-in-ten Americans (38%) said that they would support the U.S. government banning TikTok, down from 50% in March 2023. A slightly smaller share (27%) said they would oppose a ban, while 35% were not sure. This question was asked before the House of Representatives passed the bill that could ban the app.

Republicans and Republican-leaning independents were far more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to support a TikTok ban (50% vs. 29%), but support had declined across both parties since earlier in the year.

Adults under 30 were less likely to support a ban than their older counterparts. About three-in-ten adults under 30 (29%) supported a ban, compared with 36% of those ages 30 to 49, 39% of those ages 50 to 64, and 49% of those ages 65 and older.

In a separate fall 2023 survey, only 18% of U.S. teens said they supported a ban. 

A relatively small share of users produce most of TikTok’s content. About half of U.S. adult TikTok users (52%) have ever posted a video on the platform. In fact, of all the TikTok content posted by American adults, 98% of publicly accessible videos come from the most active 25% of users .

Those who have posted TikTok content are more active on the site overall. These users follow more accounts, have more followers and are more likely to have filled out an account bio.

Although younger U.S. adults are more likely to use TikTok, their posting behaviors don’t look much different from those of older age groups.

About four-in-ten U.S. TikTok users (43%) say they regularly get news there. While news consumption on other social media sites has declined or remained stagnant in recent years, the share of U.S. TikTok users who get news on the site has doubled since 2020, when 22% got news there.

Related: Social Media and News Fact Sheet

TikTok news consumers are especially likely to be:

• Young. The vast majority of U.S. adults who regularly get news on TikTok are under 50: 44% are ages 18 to 29 and 38% are 30 to 49. Just 4% of TikTok news consumers are ages 65 and older.
• Women. A majority of regular TikTok news consumers in the U.S. are women (58%), while 39% are men. These gender differences are similar to those among news consumers on Instagram and Facebook.
• Democrats. Six-in-ten regular news consumers on TikTok are Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents, while a third are Republicans or GOP leaners.
• Hispanic or Black. Three-in-ten regular TikTok news users in the U.S. are Hispanic, while 19% are Black. Both shares are higher than these groups’ share of the adult population. Around four-in-ten (39%) TikTok news consumers are White, although this group makes up 59% of U.S. adults overall .

A majority of Americans (59%) see TikTok as a major or minor threat to U.S. national security, including 29% who see the app as a major threat. Our May 2023 survey also found that opinions vary across several groups:

• About four-in-ten Republicans (41%) see TikTok as a major threat to national security, compared with 19% of Democrats.
• Older adults are more likely to see TikTok as a major threat: 46% of Americans ages 65 and older say this, compared with 13% of those ages 18 to 29.
• U.S. adults who do not use TikTok are far more likely than TikTok users to believe TikTok is a major threat (36% vs. 9%).

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About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

• Solar Eclipse 2024

What the World Has Learned From Past Eclipses

C louds scudded over the small volcanic island of Principe, off the western coast of Africa, on the afternoon of May 29, 1919. Arthur Eddington, director of the Cambridge Observatory in the U.K., waited for the Sun to emerge. The remains of a morning thunderstorm could ruin everything.

The island was about to experience the rare and overwhelming sight of a total solar eclipse. For six minutes, the longest eclipse since 1416, the Moon would completely block the face of the Sun, pulling a curtain of darkness over a thin stripe of Earth. Eddington traveled into the eclipse path to try and prove one of the most consequential ideas of his age: Albert Einstein’s new theory of general relativity.

Eddington, a physicist, was one of the few people at the time who understood the theory, which Einstein proposed in 1915. But many other scientists were stymied by the bizarre idea that gravity is not a mutual attraction, but a warping of spacetime. Light itself would be subject to this warping, too. So an eclipse would be the best way to prove whether the theory was true, because with the Sun’s light blocked by the Moon, astronomers would be able to see whether the Sun’s gravity bent the light of distant stars behind it.

Two teams of astronomers boarded ships steaming from Liverpool, England, in March 1919 to watch the eclipse and take the measure of the stars. Eddington and his team went to Principe, and another team led by Frank Dyson of the Greenwich Observatory went to Sobral, Brazil.

Totality, the complete obscuration of the Sun, would be at 2:13 local time in Principe. Moments before the Moon slid in front of the Sun, the clouds finally began breaking up. For a moment, it was totally clear. Eddington and his group hastily captured images of a star cluster found near the Sun that day, called the Hyades, found in the constellation of Taurus. The astronomers were using the best astronomical technology of the time, photographic plates, which are large exposures taken on glass instead of film. Stars appeared on seven of the plates, and solar “prominences,” filaments of gas streaming from the Sun, appeared on others.

Eddington wanted to stay in Principe to measure the Hyades when there was no eclipse, but a ship workers’ strike made him leave early. Later, Eddington and Dyson both compared the glass plates taken during the eclipse to other glass plates captured of the Hyades in a different part of the sky, when there was no eclipse. On the images from Eddington’s and Dyson’s expeditions, the stars were not aligned. The 40-year-old Einstein was right.

“Lights All Askew In the Heavens,” the New York Times proclaimed when the scientific papers were published. The eclipse was the key to the discovery—as so many solar eclipses before and since have illuminated new findings about our universe.

To understand why Eddington and Dyson traveled such distances to watch the eclipse, we need to talk about gravity.

Since at least the days of Isaac Newton, who wrote in 1687, scientists thought gravity was a simple force of mutual attraction. Newton proposed that every object in the universe attracts every other object in the universe, and that the strength of this attraction is related to the size of the objects and the distances among them. This is mostly true, actually, but it’s a little more nuanced than that.

On much larger scales, like among black holes or galaxy clusters, Newtonian gravity falls short. It also can’t accurately account for the movement of large objects that are close together, such as how the orbit of Mercury is affected by its proximity the Sun.

Albert Einstein’s most consequential breakthrough solved these problems. General relativity holds that gravity is not really an invisible force of mutual attraction, but a distortion. Rather than some kind of mutual tug-of-war, large objects like the Sun and other stars respond relative to each other because the space they are in has been altered. Their mass is so great that they bend the fabric of space and time around themselves.

Read More: 10 Surprising Facts About the 2024 Solar Eclipse

This was a weird concept, and many scientists thought Einstein’s ideas and equations were ridiculous. But others thought it sounded reasonable. Einstein and others knew that if the theory was correct, and the fabric of reality is bending around large objects, then light itself would have to follow that bend. The light of a star in the great distance, for instance, would seem to curve around a large object in front of it, nearer to us—like our Sun. But normally, it’s impossible to study stars behind the Sun to measure this effect. Enter an eclipse.

Einstein’s theory gives an equation for how much the Sun’s gravity would displace the images of background stars. Newton’s theory predicts only half that amount of displacement.

Eddington and Dyson measured the Hyades cluster because it contains many stars; the more stars to distort, the better the comparison. Both teams of scientists encountered strange political and natural obstacles in making the discovery, which are chronicled beautifully in the book No Shadow of a Doubt: The 1919 Eclipse That Confirmed Einstein's Theory of Relativity , by the physicist Daniel Kennefick. But the confirmation of Einstein’s ideas was worth it. Eddington said as much in a letter to his mother: “The one good plate that I measured gave a result agreeing with Einstein,” he wrote , “and I think I have got a little confirmation from a second plate.”

The Eddington-Dyson experiments were hardly the first time scientists used eclipses to make profound new discoveries. The idea dates to the beginnings of human civilization.

Careful records of lunar and solar eclipses are one of the greatest legacies of ancient Babylon. Astronomers—or astrologers, really, but the goal was the same—were able to predict both lunar and solar eclipses with impressive accuracy. They worked out what we now call the Saros Cycle, a repeating period of 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours in which eclipses appear to repeat. One Saros cycle is equal to 223 synodic months, which is the time it takes the Moon to return to the same phase as seen from Earth. They also figured out, though may not have understood it completely, the geometry that enables eclipses to happen.

The path we trace around the Sun is called the ecliptic. Our planet’s axis is tilted with respect to the ecliptic plane, which is why we have seasons, and why the other celestial bodies seem to cross the same general path in our sky.

As the Moon goes around Earth, it, too, crosses the plane of the ecliptic twice in a year. The ascending node is where the Moon moves into the northern ecliptic. The descending node is where the Moon enters the southern ecliptic. When the Moon crosses a node, a total solar eclipse can happen. Ancient astronomers were aware of these points in the sky, and by the apex of Babylonian civilization, they were very good at predicting when eclipses would occur.

Two and a half millennia later, in 2016, astronomers used these same ancient records to measure the change in the rate at which Earth’s rotation is slowing—which is to say, the amount by which are days are lengthening, over thousands of years.

By the middle of the 19 th century, scientific discoveries came at a frenetic pace, and eclipses powered many of them. In October 1868, two astronomers, Pierre Jules César Janssen and Joseph Norman Lockyer, separately measured the colors of sunlight during a total eclipse. Each found evidence of an unknown element, indicating a new discovery: Helium, named for the Greek god of the Sun. In another eclipse in 1869, astronomers found convincing evidence of another new element, which they nicknamed coronium—before learning a few decades later that it was not a new element, but highly ionized iron, indicating that the Sun’s atmosphere is exceptionally, bizarrely hot. This oddity led to the prediction, in the 1950s, of a continual outflow that we now call the solar wind.

And during solar eclipses between 1878 and 1908, astronomers searched in vain for a proposed extra planet within the orbit of Mercury. Provisionally named Vulcan, this planet was thought to exist because Newtonian gravity could not fully describe Mercury’s strange orbit. The matter of the innermost planet’s path was settled, finally, in 1915, when Einstein used general relativity equations to explain it.

Many eclipse expeditions were intended to learn something new, or to prove an idea right—or wrong. But many of these discoveries have major practical effects on us. Understanding the Sun, and why its atmosphere gets so hot, can help us predict solar outbursts that could disrupt the power grid and communications satellites. Understanding gravity, at all scales, allows us to know and to navigate the cosmos.

GPS satellites, for instance, provide accurate measurements down to inches on Earth. Relativity equations account for the effects of the Earth’s gravity and the distances between the satellites and their receivers on the ground. Special relativity holds that the clocks on satellites, which experience weaker gravity, seem to run slower than clocks under the stronger force of gravity on Earth. From the point of view of the satellite, Earth clocks seem to run faster. We can use different satellites in different positions, and different ground stations, to accurately triangulate our positions on Earth down to inches. Without those calculations, GPS satellites would be far less precise.

This year, scientists fanned out across North America and in the skies above it will continue the legacy of eclipse science. Scientists from NASA and several universities and other research institutions will study Earth’s atmosphere; the Sun’s atmosphere; the Sun’s magnetic fields; and the Sun’s atmospheric outbursts, called coronal mass ejections.

When you look up at the Sun and Moon on the eclipse , the Moon’s day — or just observe its shadow darkening the ground beneath the clouds, which seems more likely — think about all the discoveries still yet waiting to happen, just behind the shadow of the Moon.

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