Effects of Mass Media: Rise or Downfall?

Earl Schexnayder
Survey of Mass Media
4 min readOct 27, 2014

Although a sizable portion of mass media offerings such as news, documentaries, and other informational programs that deal with highly controversial subjects, the major portion of mass media offerings are designed to serve an entertainment-based purpose to the audience in which it is being portrayed to. These specific programs tend to avoid controversial issues and reflect beliefs and values sanctified by the mass audience itself. The public is bribed with popular radio, television and newspapers in ordinance of acceptance of the biased and the misleading. The media is one of the most influential and crude agents of propaganda. They organize public understanding to the point where what is portrayed to the viewer is easily understandable and agreeable. However, the overall interpretations they provide in the long run are those most preferred by, and least challenging to, those with economic power. This is significant due to the fact that the individuals with the most amount of money are the ones with the last say of what should and should not be interpreted through the mass media market. The use of the technology would alter a society’s ideas and values to the point where the world would become influenced by computerized mass mediums. Along with computerization, there are also forms that take a solid visual representation is society that is impacted through mass media.

Another place that has a mass media based impact on societal views can be looked at through the industry of fashion. In fashion, people use to wear variations of their national attire. More and more today, as time progresses, people all over the world use the same exact pieces of clothing. Due to what people view on television, the main dress code is mostly blue jeans, t-shirt, and tennis shoes and even the brand names are starting to become a common ground to the point where citizens are expected to meet the status quo. What is popular in one country can be the trend everywhere else throughout the world. Living in a society which is dependent mostly upon technology for news, entertainment and education, the mass media is one of the greatest influential factors on the opinions and viewpoints of the younger generation. Along with those specific types of programming being as influential as they are, the funds to support these programs plays a significant role in the mass media marketplace as well.

The issue of sponsorship adds to this problem due to the fact that advertising dollars fund most media. Networks aim programming at the largest possible audience because the broader the appeal, the greater the potential purchasing audience and the easier selling air time to advertisers becomes. The result of news organizations may shy away from negative stories about corporations that finance large advertising campaigns in their newspaper or on their stations. Television networks receiving millions of dollars in advertising from companies like Nike and other manufacturing companies were slow to run stories on their news shows about possible human‐rights violations by these companies in foreign countries because of how the public would react to their negative media. Government agencies identify the same problem at the local level where city newspapers will not give new cars poor reviews or run stories on selling a home without an agent because the majority of their funding comes from auto and real estate advertising. This influence also extends to programming through the major media factors because if someone saw a bad review on a specific vehicle on television, there is a slim chance that the individual will decide to go out and purchase that vehicle. There can always be a downlook on a new method such as the uprising of technology through mass media but it does not mean there is a positive impact as well that would help build up a country for the better. For example, the fact that the wide reach offered by mass media is phenomenal because it can target a global audience in order to branch out beyond one’s usual horizons in order to communicate with other countries. This creates a global network bringing ideas to struggling nations in order to create a more stabilized planet bringing technological use to new heights that people have not been able to do in the past. The internet has a big impact due to the fact that any type of knowledge someone is looking for can be looked up at the click of a mouse and in less than a second, the information arrives. The influence of mass media bribes the surrounding community where it is located and begins to spread for better or for worse depending on how the mass mediums are utilized within that community. If the power of mass media is not wasted and taken advantage of, the world could be a better place in order to solve some of the mysteries that have been unsolved due to the lack of technology but now if it is not wasted on social media and video games, this will unlock treasures beyond belief that could put an end to some of the world’s largest current issues.

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