powerful effect of the media

With the advent of the internet, the world cannot be any smaller, and media matters more and more in our lives. It brings us the latest news, which might be good. And it would share information within the world. Yet the problem now is that despite the good effects, we have to pay attention to those bad impacts. Here are two effects of the media that I am concerned about.

When we watch TV or a movie we usually see many images of violence and people hurting others. The problem with this is that it can become traumatic especially in little children as we see it more and more. The kids that are starting to grow and are shaping their personality values and beliefs can become aggressive or they can lose a sense of reality and fiction of what they are seeing. In the past years there have been some cases of kids carrying a gun at school and even hurting others with it. Those kids have been linked to excessive use of violent video games and war images. Another problem is that real war is used as a form of entertainment by the media, we should make kids and teens aware that war is not a form of entertainment and that there is no win or lose like in video games, in real war everyone lose.

Besides, the media has a huge impact on society and also in public opinion. They can shape the public opinion in different ways depending of what is the objective. For example, after the attacks of 911 the media gave a huge coverage of the event and exposed Osama guilty for the attack as they were told by the authorities. This shaped the public opinion to support the war on terrorism, the same happened with the war on Iraq. The problem is that if media received inaccurate information then the public opinion supported a wrong cause, this is the power of public opinion influence. The public is bribed with good radio, television and newspapers into an acceptance of the biased, the misleading, and the status. The media are not, according to this approach, crude agents of propaganda. They organize public understanding. However, the overall interpretations they provide in the long run are those most preferred by, and least challenging to, those with economic power.

These two effects have profound impact on the development of the society. If the media is used wisely, people can have great positive potential for learning and development. But if not, the results would be rather upset. So pay attention to your TV and your computer. Who knows what they would bring to you.