Why are americans so influenced by the media?

Question

I cant understand how grown adults can sit and hav there opinions swirled and changed by the latest story on the news.

Do people feel smarter when they rattle off something they heard on cnn the night b4? Is it so hard to weigh views in ur head... do ur own research .. and form an intelligent, justified opinion? Its like we don't think anymore or we don't want to... is this why we are falling behind the world?

Answer 1

well in the last 50 or so years we've gone from having 8 or so channels to choose from to 800......we've gone from watching an hour of TV sparringly using the electricity to keeping the boob tube on all day for "white noise"....most people dont have the time, energy or inclination to pick up a paper or surf the web for accurate information so the  "fast food" version of bullet news in 1/2 hr on the hour is just going to have to do the trick while we heat up our frozen entree and lounge on the lazyboy chair.....now get me a chicken pot pie!!!!!

Answer 2

*turns question around, opens your eyes, stares you in the face with it*

I'd have to agree with some of the other posters that this is pretty biased. But it is sadly true. People can't form thier own opinions. We're too social to be totally free. We feel a need to be labeled and classified, so people throw themselves into what looks easiest for them. For some, its being a hardcore conservative christian pseudo-terrorist. For others, its being a hippie liberal atheist communist lazyass.

Its too much work and too much effort to be a real individual. I don't claim to be one, I KNOW I go along with some societal norms. I form most of my own opinions and such, but its hard to do, and does change based on research and new ideas.

Unfortunately, some people take it too far and either have to be "yes" or "no". Democrat or Republican. We have no middle ground anymore. Why? Because the media won't let us. And here we are.

Answer 3

You sure are judgmental when you have no idea what you're talking about.  Is that all you could find to give your opinion on?

Answer 4

We are not overly influenced.  In some subjects, news media is out only source, so sure, we can be influenced when we have no contrary information.  But in most areas, most of us (I think) don't believe the media automatically or trust it too much.