Media Influences in our Society

Over the years media has had an intense effect on society, an effect so immense we don’t even notice its presence sometimes. Media is crucial to any society; we are all surrounded by media. Each and every day people interact with media of many forms. Media is generally defined as being a channel of communication. We as a society absorb media from a wide variety of forms such as television, radio, magazines, newspapers, billboards and the internet. These are referred to as ‘mass’ media, because they communicate to a mass audience comprised of very large numbers of people (Giddens, 2009, p.724). Mass media affects people differently because of diverse amounts of exposure and formats. It is a form of socialization, having a long-term effect on each member of society. Since numerous people use media very recurrently, it is evident to assume that it has effects on people. There are more than one theoretical dispute discussing the extent of how media influences individuals and our society. I will look at theories of media exposure and different theories such as cultivation theory, social action theory and agenda setting theory that determine and explore the effects of today’s society.

Canadian media, theorist, Marshall McLuhan (1964), argued that different types of media have very different effects on society. His famous dictum is that, ‘the medium is the message’. That is to say, society is influenced much more by the type of the media than by its content, or messages, which are conveyed by it (Giddens, 2009, p.724). We live in a society that solely depends on information and communication to keep moving in the right path and do our daily performances like work, entertainment, health care, education, travelling and other things tha...

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...edia can be in forming people’s agenda. Agenda setting is very popular with prominent people as it is a prognostic power, if people are receptive to the same media they will feel the same issues are important. This can be interpreted as receivers of information need to have a structured, well-defined scheme of information. This structured, well-defined scheme of information causes the media to pick and choose information that it feels is relevant to the audience. This is where agenda setting presents itself.

In conclusion the media affects us in many ways. Everything we do is a result of the media such as watching TV, reading the newspaper, surfing the internet just to mention a few.

The media feeds us information and fundamentally tells us what is precise. It is the only one aspect which affects what we do in society, although it is an impressive aspect.