Introduction
The media have been known to have profound influences on audience psychology and behavior, but precisely how these effects manifest is still being debated. Today mass media influence substantially the modern society and the formation of an individual’s identity due to the development of mass media, which reach the mass audience and we are able to shape the public opinion. At first glance, the emergence of mass media have a positive impact on society since mass keep people informed and provide larger opportunities for communication.
On the other hand, mass media have rather a negative than positive impact because they do not just shape cultural identity, surveillance, continuity and entertainment, but also promote violence which undermine the normal development of an individual and may have a negative impact on social behavior and psychology of people.
In actuality, the effect of violence is always negative on human psychology because people get used to violence. Consequently, they do not see violence acts as aggressive and unwanted behavior.
They perceive these as a norm. In essence, such violent depiction in television seems to be funny and amusing. Those views on violence formed by media results in the growing violence in real life situations because people lose control over their behavior and they use violence as an effective tool to prove their righteousness of their position, for instance.
Media effects are categorized into a variety of types. Amongst them are Behavioral effects and Planned and unplanned effects. They affect how people interpret media messages. Under behavioral effects are Cognitive, Affective and time-scale effects. Under Planned and unplanned, are propaganda and Media campaigns. These effects affects media users in a short or long time scale.
This assignment will seek to research and evaluate whether mass media do have any noteworthy effect on society or an individual. My stand is that mass media have a big noteworthy effect on the lives of individuals or the society as a collective whole.
In order for experimental research to count as scientific data, they must be done in such a way or method that they make clear the entire sequence of research and exploration. They must stipulate what knowledge, procedures and techniques processes were followed when doing research and what were the resultant experiences and conclusions. All these must be described in such a way that others prepared to carry out the research and procedures may re-enact the entire process.
To fully research whether mass media do have any noteworthy effect on society or an individual, I applied Positivism as a sub-branch Positivist approach to the study of society. The emphasis on Positivism is on scientific method, on knowledge derived from scientifically processed and analysed data about a phenomenon, with the purpose to arrive at scientific description of a phenomenon.
The scientific method requires that all phenomena should be treated in the same way. In a research like this one, does the mass media do have any noteworthy effect on society or an individual, the same rules and requirements had to be applied regardless of the nature of the nature of the phenomena under research or investigation(Fourie:118)
The mass media does have a noteworthy effect or influence in character development on audience, recipients and individual without them noticing. An example of these can be seen through how people, especially children adopt violence as they have seen it in movies. Only a few selected media recipients can easily unpack their analogy of their personalities without them using it on the media presentations on hand and remain germane to it.
The effect there in is a behavioral effect. Although unplanned, this will result in a behavioral change of the media user. With a change in the way the audience conducts him/ herself.
The test of a first rate unaffected individual lies in their ability to hold two opposed ideas being that one seen on television or the mass media, and still vent the ability to remain unaffected.
In this instance, the methods that can be used are through exposing children to violence programs or movies on television and see after a couple of days if they do not practice what he/she saw. The resultant stance could be that they will imitate or reproduce those acts since they saw them on television then they think It is good doing them. In that way, we can say that the mass media does have an effect on society or individual.
Many specialists’ points out that children attempt to follow the models of behavior they acquire while watching TV or playing video games (Tolson, 144)
Moreover, nowadays, in addition to traditional media, such as television, children as the part of the audience, impact of violence in media is the most susceptible to the negative impact of violence in media. Children have access to internet; they play video games which may also contain a lot of violence acts. As a result, they acquire wrong or, to put it more precisely, violent models of behavior.
At the early age they cannot distinguish between such concepts as good and bad. This is why they imitate the models of behavior they learn from television, video games, and movies. As a result, the violence in media contributes to violent and aggressive behavior of children and negatively effects the formation of their personality (Barker, 64)
However the impact of violence on adults may also very significantly since it also stimulates violence as abnormal, anti-social act, instead it is perceived as a norm. in such a situation, the number of those who blame media violence for societal violence and want to censor violent content to protect children.
In this respect, children are particularly vulnerable to the negative impact of violence in mass media. The problem is that children cannot distinguish such concepts as good and evil. Therefore, if they are happy while watching violence on television, they form a positive attitude to violence, to the extent that they can believe that violence is good. Eventually they extrapolate their experiences of viewing media on real life, which leads to the aggressive and violent behavior of children.
Quantifying and evaluating the impacts of the mass media on audiences is not an easy task, with the diversion of personalities and the multitude of conflicting ideologies. The effects tend to be neutralized when applied to a sceptical viewership or readership, but the powerful effects theory, in many cases, still stands. What is more important to remember is that people approach the media with a pre-conceived set of expectations that have been accumulated through a lifetime of experiences. The success of messages’ reception is contingent upon people’s allegiances (known as opinion leaders) and collective buffers.
It’s a common and shared knowledge that children personally replicate what they see on television. The resultant stance will be that they will believe that because they saw such acts on television or the media they believe it’s good doing it. Mass media permanently influence people. In fact, people are constantly exposed to this impact, which they cannot avoid because mass media are everywhere
The question of mass media effectson society and individuals has remained very much at the center of debate. It should be studied objectively with no side taken. The critical-cultural developments of the mass media mentioned have made some contribution to a reconceptualization of the problem and to the adoption of new researchstrategies that pay more attention to long-term, institutional effects of media.
All these means that the audience or receivers of media content should also focus on the positive part mass media has played in the development.
The effect that mass media have on society is difficult to discern. Many media theorists are proponents of the Hypodermic needle model, which asserts that media messages and values are “injected” into the audience, and that the penetration of these biases has a direct impact on individuals’ behaviour and motivations. Recently however, this theory has been reconsidered and even disproven.
The Role of Media in our daily life Media has a huge role in our lives it influences our daily activities and also shapes our history. One of the most important roles of mass media is the news and announcement broadcasting. It keeps us up to date about the latest news, trends and even the weather reports every day. The media is a very powerful socializing agent almost 90 of all household have TV sets in their houses a larger percent has their own radio.
Media is also used for trade and advertising. Many business groups use the television as their main advertising system. It is also used for traffic updates so that we can avoid that long and stressing line of cars. The media is also our window to other countries and is the chief agent of globalization. Because it is very powerful, it is also the responsibility of those people working in the media to use it carefully and wisely
The mass media influences cultural change. The mass media can be used for and against us, depending on how we use it individually. With this point in mind, how mass media influences our culture should give one an idea on just how powerful a tool it is in our present day and age.
Hence blaming the mass media for societal change and moral degeneration is a misguided strategy. Mass media has played a big positive role in formation of cultural and personal identity, thus mass media is an important part of our daily lives.
The range of social issues associated with the effect of the mass media has widened. Taking into consideration the positive influence or effect of the mass media albeit of the bigger negative part, researcher should also consider the positive part mass media plays in the lives of people.
Mass media plays a much proper role in societal development. Today people are able to fully understand environmental concepts and other things that contribute to the well-being of their communities.
Today people are able to fully participate on matters that concern them, be it political or social issues, thanks to the growing impact of mass media. Mass media has also played a big positive role on how people practice their cultures. People are able to learn from television how their cultures were practised in the past.
Conclusion.
Thus, taking into consideration, all the above-mentioned, it is possible to conclude that mass media does have a negative impact on society, which is manifested through the excessive violence that is present in mass media. In fact, violence in media is a serious problem, but it only uncovers the full extent to which mass media can have a negative Impact on society since they shape the public opinion and identity of the audience that is very dangerous because it opens the way to manipulations with public consciousness.
From a methodological point of view, effects research is difficult to undertake and must usually be done over a long period of time. Research is conducted mainly by means of surveys (questionnaires), interviews and experimental methods, therefore observing and concluding that mass media do have an effect on people is void, it should be done through asking the audience if they are really affected.
However, it must be kept in mind that human beings and their media experiences are not easily quantifiable or measurable by only quantitative and experimental methods. So far these methods have had bad difficulties conclusively establishing a direct casual relation between mass media, societal and people’s behavioural change (Gauntlet:1998)
It is also evident that given the variety of mass medium, programming will come and go presenting different content to the audience or society as a body. This means that such programming will pose different elements to the audience, being it violence, educational elements and also entertainment.
From the above overview of mass media effects it is clear that the media may have some effects and influence on our thinking and in most instances on our behaviour.
SECTION 02
2.1
The media is an enormous entity that presides over our daily decisions, our sense of the world, and exposes us to things we have experienced. People have, since the existence of mass media been influenced by media content. These relates to the fact that we adopt what we see on the media as reality. Today mass media influence substantially the modern society and the formation of an individual’s identity.
We humans are bunch of manipulatable species where the media feeds off this ever-growing trait that lies within us all. It affects us in so many ways both consciously and otherwise, where half the time we are not aware of what it is doing to us. The mass media plays a paramount role in our lives. It stands as a model to which as people we base our lives in. It plays a big role on how we get knowledge. Mass media provides us with knowledge of our surroundings.
We see reality as portrayed by the mass media. We believe whatever we see on television. We hold ideas that the mass media shows to us how things are done in the real life. We don’t understand that we are the ones who should paint reality as it is and gives to the mass media to present.
The mass media has its own way of showing us constructive information when it comes to news channels, travel and other educational shows. Kids benefit from watching these, since it can boost self-esteem, heighten interest levels in particular subject or encourage them to ask relevant questions.
We have a sense of what is happening around us, with far insights about how things work elsewhere on the globe. We can view the world through the television, even if we are rooted in one spot the whole time. It is a gateway to places unknown foreign and magical with knowledge of what goes on around us without being physically present in that place.
The media in all forms can introduce us to creative outlets that can help better ourselves in different ways, be it in our personal or work lives. It can change our perspectives and push us to do more than what we limit ourselves to. It can also help us to engage with other people around the world, and be more open and understanding towards other cultures.
2.2
It is true that political celebrities like Barack Obama and cultural celebrities like David Beckham became what they are today through the media. The emergence of Barack Obama to the political landscape was so massive that even who knew less or none about him were exposed to him. Although he was known in his place of birth, Kenya, people from Africa and across the world did not know him. This was a perfect example of the power of the mass media to build an individual.
The media as a model have power to build and destroy an individual. This is evident through how celebrities or other media personalities have been modeled to be big and powerful people throughout the world.The media does this through continuous report on a certain individual, sometimes with a motive to build that person.
This notion lies on the study of Spiral of Silence Theory. Spiral of Silence is about how the media create a specific image of what the public opinion is and how media users accept that to be the public opinion. (Fourie 2007:46)
This means that the media creates a certain ideology or belief about certain individuals and that people o adhere to that opinion and not go against it. Any individual who will see the certain individuals as wrong will be seen as being deviated from the norms of the society.
Spiral of Silence argues that although the media pretends and claims to represent the view of the collective society or majority, these may not always be the case. Should one person who holds or in charge of the media speak well about a bad person then the other media platforms will corroborate and report on that, as a result a certain ideology or image of how that person is will be created to the people.
There an element of Modelling Theory on the fact that those celebrities are made by the mass media to be what they are on the eyes of people. The mass media models these people as good people who media users should look to as their role models and examples of achievers. If the mass media can decide to report on such people repeatedly then the audience will regard them as good role models or celebrities. It also helps to builds the people as a brand.
2.3
I agree with the above-mentioned statement. The media have power to decide on us what the reality is. This is done through Agenda Setting as a theory. The assumption of agenda setting theory is that consciously or unconsciously, the media create a particular image of reality to media recipients. The media confront people on a daily basis with events according to them, are important. (Fourie 2007:244)
What the media does is that they will concentrate on certain issues to which they believe consumers should take as important. A perfect example of this is how they covered issues involving Minister of Communications, Dina Pule. The issue was given much attention until the Guptagate saga came to the light.
Then the media turned its focus to the Guptagate saga. This is a clear indication that the media undermines the audience’s power and consciousness to choose what should be covered. The Dina Pule issue was now silenced, much attention was given to the Guptasaga.
Although the Guptasaga in essence was more important to cover than the first covered issue, the media does not have power to choose for the audience what news events are more important than others. Hence I am saying the media decides for us what we should consume.
Fourie (2007: 244) argues that the omission of certain events and issues, and the overemphasis of others, establishes a particular way for media users to think about reality. This means that passive media users will treat the issues differently resulting in them having a certain pictures of reality in their heads. This is an agenda that the media plays consciously or unconsciously to news events and programming.As people we do not have a platform through which we can present what we think and believe is real, that is why the mass media decides for us.
The attention given in news coverage influences the public awareness of the significance of an issue. (McQual 2000:426)
People have no option but to cease to media proposed issues as if they are really important to them. That is the power of the mass media in choosing for people what to treat as more important than the others.
2.4.
Since mass media messages are seen as a model to which life should be based, media users have ever since adopted whatever they see on media as how life should be or how they are supposed to look. Young ladies aspire to attain the perfect bodies of celebrities like Paris Hilton and Beyoncé as shown in magazines.
This concept of media presentations relates to the Modelling Theory. Modelling Theory argues that in some cases some people can adopt media-portrayed behavior as a model for their own behavior. This is the same thing that happens to women in comparing themselves to television personalities. We see on television adverts how companies use slim ladies as their models. As a result ladies believe that for them to be beautiful then they should be slim like them.
Women with petite bodies and girls with Barbie figure are always shown to be more popular or attractive while the overweight are portrayed as less popular, having less friends and being bulled. This leads to a notion that thin is sexy and fat is not. When .this thought grips the mind of youngsters, they take to fad diets or turn to cosmetic surgeries to get that so-called perfect body. The craze for models or actors and actresses, make teenagers want bodies and facial features like theirs. To get rid of a big nose or to get those big pouty lips, teenagers are ready to even go under the knife.
Another mistake the mass media does is that they make women believe that for one to be beautiful you have to be slim, whereas there are people who are fat or thick but beautiful.The media mislead ladies and they end up losing confidence on themselves because of what the media show them. The media should move its focus on beauty and concentrate more on building society and acting as a watchdog for them. Instead of them showing ladies that if they are not slim they are beautiful, they should at least show them that irrespective of them not being slim they are beautiful.
Defining beauty by being slim is a misguided strategy to media consumers. The media should reinforce self-acceptance to the recipients for them to accept that being not slim does not make them less human. The mass media in a case like should be criticized to the illusion they created in the minds of its audience. Another thing is that mass media divided a certain people to certain level such as nice and ugly. It focuses on human itself other than lots of unnecessary things
