What influences does the media have over the way people view the issues going on in the world today?

Question

What influences does the media have over the way people view the issues going on in the world today?

Answer 1

The American media is predominantly biased in favor of the liberals, namely democrats

Answer 2

none if you have enough sense to turn off the tv and think for yourself.

Answer 3

it has a lot of control! more than you can ever imagine. information they broadcast may not always be fair and balanced as it can always be biased. Things that people see through the media are used to base their decisions on and depending how its portrayed can have a big effect. Take a look at 'bowling for Columbine' the producer Mike Moor is very cunning in the way he manipulates peoples emotions by showing only what he wants them to see to take side with him point of view.

hope that helps (i pretty bad at explaining, i just go round and round in circles!)

Answer 4

media have bought people's mind and now they are controlling it. dont trust anything that media dishes out. make urself a judgment and act.

Answer 5

The media has a TON of influence on the way us normal people look at the world. When things are bad, they make them seem worse. Even your celebrity media makes people want them, or want to be them. The media influences a ton of aspects of the normal world. Even though I follow the celebrity gossip as much as I can, because it interests me..the world would be better without it. We wouldn't have some many people with eating disorders/ suicides..etc. Everyone just wants to be something their not, and the media makes it worse!

Answer 6

It's primarily the media that choose what issues we focus attention on. (For instance, the increasing concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few, and diminishing standard of living for everyone else, is arguably among the very most important problems today. Mass media are completely silent about it.)

Media also tend to define the issues, in the sense of framing them, putting them into a particular set of words in a particular way, and defining the "sides" -- especially the "sides that matter." (Brilliant ideas that aren't in the pre-defined sides don't exist, according to mainstream media.)

Thus, WHAT we consider issues, how they're defined, and what possible resolutions we consider, are all media-constructed and chosen for us.

And the way the mainstream US media does these things is much narrower, and more corporate-serving than it is in civilized countries.

On the other hand, there IS this web thingy. People now can consider the issues of THEIR choice, and have access to a much broader range of framings and responses.

Answer 7

I think the media has a major impact. I remember seeing a headline in "The Onion" that said "Viewers Await Their Next Instructions from Oprah" and I thought "boy, is that about right." Sometimes, however, it's hard to tell if the media is playing to it's audience, or if the audience is molded by the media.

The recent disasters in Myanmar and China are a good example. Does the apparent apathy have to do with the lack of media coverage, or does the media not provide the coverage because the audience is apathetic? I think they perpetuate one another. The media doesn't take an empathetic approach to Myanmar or China, so the audience is less empathetic, and seeing that the audience is more interested in Paris Hilton, they tell you about her instead... leading to even more disinterest in Myanmar and China.

The Tsunami in Indonesia had a lot of pictures. Not only a lot of pictures, but a lot of pictures of wealthy white people on vacation crying over the loss of their loved ones. I'd like to believe the lack of donations to China and Myanmar isn't about race, but about the economy. However, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans when the U.S. was under similar economic conditions as the tsunami, but it seemed the U.S. in general (not just politicians) were less empathetic toward Katrina victims than they were about the victims of the Tsunami. Does the media perpetuate that lingering bit of racism in America? I think it does. Don't even get me started on Sudan.