Does The Media Shape Who We Are?

Introduction

The Mass Media is an important feature of modern society; its development has undoubtedly been a core factor to rapid social and technological change and also to the rise in personal income and standard of life as well as the decline of some social traditions. Mass media can be defined as venues for messages that are created for consumption by large numbers of people. It is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state.

The degree to which the mass media has influenced society today has been (and still is) debated upon for decades. It can be argued that the mass media is used as “an instrument”, both more powerful and more flexible than anything in previous existence, for influencing people into certain modes of belief and understanding within society.

This essay will examine the extent to which the media influences us as a society. During the course of this essay I will touch upon media effects and uses in society and evaluate the different theories that have been established to see whether they can help to grasp a better understanding of the phenomenon that is the mass media and its effects.

First I must point out the essentialness of the audience. Without the audience there is no mass media and without audience response to the media then it has failed to fulfil its task. So bearing that in mind, I will be focusing on the effects produced by the media, notably the television and the press on the audience.

The effects on the audience

In recent years there have been many high profile cases in which the media has been named as one the main culprits of influence. The news and newspapers have an impact on the way we think and view certain situations. Although the news is supposed to provide a neutral source of information, it is in fact often biased because it is run by humans so naturally the stories covered will have a certain stance on it from the editor. For most people the news is the only source of information that they get therefore they are more inclined to believe and absorb everything that is said.

Often the mass media in particular written text such as the newspapers will use specific language to create a particular reaction from the audience. Take for instance the war on terrorism; distinct language is used for the opposite sides in order to enhance the image of the British, for example �British troops eliminated their opposition’ whereas to describe the other side, negative words would be used like �Saddam’s army killed or destroyed our troops.’

We must not, however, forget that the media’s aim is to get the highest ratings as possible therefore stories will be slightly altered or various pieces of information will be omitted in order to make the story seem more interesting. The reality is that negative storylines engage the viewer’s attention therefore such stories are more present in the media.

We now live in a society whereby people are very conscious of others around them and this I believe is down to the fact that the media always covers negative stories. For example, people are very wary of pedophiles to the extent where there’s been a significant rise in parents who will no longer let their children play on the streets or walk to the local shop by themselves. People seem to think that the problem of pedophilia has worsened over the years when in fact the actual statistics have not changed in the last thirty years. The only reason for this sudden outburst of fear of the pedophile is because of the amplified mass media coverage over certain cases.

Commercials also have a significant influence over the choices and decisions of its audience. They are a key example of how the media is used to extort or play on the desires of the audience. Companies will target various audiences such as teenagers and manipulate them by persuasive means because they are vulnerable, easily impressionable and always want to have the latest gadget or designer wear.

The Hypodermic Model

In 1923, the Frankfurt school was set up which focused on the possible effects of mass media. The school proposed the hypodermic model of effects. This envisaged the media as a hypodermic syringe that injected the audience with its contents like a drug making them acceptable to the attitudes, opinions and beliefs expressed by the medium about the decisions that they make.

вЂ?The image of mass communication process entertained by researchers had been, firstly, one of “an atomistic mass” of millions of readers, listeners and movie goers, prepared to receive the message; and secondly…every message [was conceived of] as a direct and powerful stimulus to action which would elicit immediate response.’- Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955)

The Inoculation Model

Another theory similar to the last is the Inoculation model, a long term model that is based upon the idea that if we are continuously exposed to certain images, we then become immune to them. This was an argument used in the Jamie Bulger case in which two teenage boys were said to have been obsessed with and therefore influenced by the film Child’s Play 3 and thus drove them to carry out a horrific crime on the toddler.

Television violence has been a hot topic in recent years especially the effects it has on young people. As a result there are censorship guidelines notably in the aim not to influence the minds of the young. For example, in America certain sketches of the animated comedy The Simpsons are censored. It is not evenhanded to say that the media is to blame for people carrying out violent acts on each other. Young people can distinguish between reality and fiction. Those that do go on to commit a crime have often had a history of abuse and violence. A more acceptable explanation is to say that maybe certain films may spark an existing underlying trigger in someone’s subconscious mind; however it is not fair to assume that the action of an individual is exclusively down to the fault of the media.

These two models are a quite a poor attempt at discovering the effects of the media on society as they are inadequate because it does not give way for other influential factors and just assumes that if you watch something on television that you should automatically react to the message that the program sends out.