MEDIA AND SOCIETY
Question 1
Introduction
In the modern era, most people live in a world so dominated by the media that it can be called a media-world (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016). This “media-world” opens up discussions about the relationship between humans and the media (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016). This is because the media portrays certain ideas of society and the human way of living is greatly influenced by the media (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016).
The purpose of this essay is to discuss the media’s role in influencing and reflecting society. Firstly, the concept of ‘media’ will be defined after which its functions in society will be explained. Then, the role of the media in influencing and reflecting on society will be discussed. Lastly, the conclusion will summarise the main findings of the discussion.
The media defined
The media can be defined as mediums or communication channels through which information is transmitted to large audiences (Livesey, 2011). The commercial media industry is technologically advanced and provide worldwide audiences with information and entertainment with little regard to time and geographic boundaries (Livesey, 2011).
The media fulfils certain basic functions in society (Mughal, 2011). The media provides information and news that can be used to formulate opinions and make informed decisions (Mughal, 2011). The media entertains people and educates them about societal obligations (Mughal, 2011). Furthermore, they act as a ‘watchdog’ for the democratic public against the state (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016). In their role as the ‘fourth estate’, they can comment on and critique the actions of other institutions (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016).
The role of the media: influencing and reflecting society
In the globalised world, society largely depends on communication and information for connectivity and daily tasks (Mughal, 2011). However, the media’s potential power and issues of regulation and control poses many concerns to modern society (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016). The researcher found that the media has an important role in both influencing and reflecting society.
The media is a complex tool with the power to influence society (Gruber-Magitot, 2013). Advertising in the media can even influence the buying behaviour of people (Mughal, 2011). Thousands of messages from various media sources are distributed to society (Cliffnotes, undated). These messages are not only advertising messages that promote goods - they encourage certain feelings, attitudes and creates an idea of what is important and what is not (Cliffnotes, undated).
In an article written by Lawson (2014) about the Mirrors or Movers conference that Media CSR held in London in 2014, the chair, Simon Hodgson, was quoted saying that the media certainly plays a role in shaping society. He said that the media does this by through “questioning, campaigning, inspiring, silencing or amplifying certain voices, and normalising” (Lawson, 2014).
Results from effect research are generally inconclusive (Fourie, 2007). Pro-effects research often labels individuals as vulnerable consumers of media who have no control over its affects (Fourie, 2007). However, the reality is that media users are not passive in their media use (Fourie, 2007). The fact that South Africa is a developing country with less exposure to the mass media than people in developed countries, also means that the effects of the media may be substantially different (Fourie, 2007).
The media influences the thinking and behaviour of people (Fourie, 2007). The media impacts greatly on society by means of influencing public opinion (Mughal, 2011). The media creates public opinion, it does not simply just reflect it (Gruber-Magitot, 2013). The media is part of society as it gives direction to isolated people and give the public a fair overview of the world (Gruber-Magitot, 2013). For this reason, the media in a sense reflect on public opinion on important issues so that the public stays interested in the media (Gruber-Magitot, 2013).
People’s worldviews are influenced by the media (Fourie, 2007). This is because the media provides people with a frame of reference – a window through which people see the world (Fourie, 2007). The media influence what we know and how we come to know of it (Gruber-Magitot, 2013). The media had a huge impact on the society’s thinking when it comes to religion, politics and ethics (Gruber-Magitot, 2013).
Media such as television and cinema are the channels through which people get most of their information about the world and not from actual experience (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016). Then, the media takes an interpretive role to help people make sense of the world around them (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016). In doing this, the media presents a judgmental view of the world where some issues and identities are always placed above others (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016). In this way, the media reflects society by showing the different people and cultures in the world and influences society by means of teaching others about the different places and cultures in the world.
The ideas and pictures people have of the outside world is affected by the media but this could lead to misrepresentation (Gruber-Magitot, 2013). Developing countries in Africa are often misrepresented in international media (Mheta, 2015). This is because the media only portrays some, usually negative aspects such as the poverty, crime and disease, but do not cover the civilised parts of the continent (Mheta, 2015). The international audience then learns that Africa is a hopeless continent that is only poor and full of illness, which is not the case (Mheta, 2015).
The mass media plays a role in keeping society informed and updated about events and news happening throughout the world (Biswas, 2016). For example, you can be located in India and receive news updates from the United Kingdom and America (Biswas, 2016).
Society is also influenced by changes that are facilitated by the media (Mehraj, Bhat & Mehraj, 2014). The media has the power to change situations by means of changing the attitude or behaviour of people towards that situation (Mehraj et al., 2014). Even though many fear the moral effects of high sexual content present in the media, this exposure allowed society to be more educated on sexual matters than ever before (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016). This facilitation of change by the media can also be seen when looking at how the media portrayed HIV so that people are educated about it and change their attitudes towards people with HIV (Mehraj et al., 2014). It also facilitated the changes to South Africa’s democracy and educated the masses on the voting procedures that would take place on the first democratic voting day in 1994 (Mehraj et al., 2014).
Another important role of the mass media today is connecting people all over the world (Mehraj et al., 2014). With new media and the internet enabling communication across great distances, people are now more connected than ever (Biswas, 2016). The media acts as a link between oneself and the rest of the world as it brings people in the world closer together with little consideration to language and ethical barriers (Gruber-Magitot, 2013). The term ‘global village’ means that the world is becoming so interconnected that it becomes like a village (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016). This is evident as we see advertisements of the same products all over the world (Mehraj et al., 2014).
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Social media changed society in many ways, especially in the fact that is changed our concept of ‘community’ (Silva, 2012). Communities used to be restricted to geographical locations but today’s virtual communities stretch across geographical borders and bring people from all over the world together (Silva, 2012). Social networks such as Facebook brought people closer to each other in the sense that they can now stay in contact with friends and family that reside in other regions or countries (Biswas, 2016).
Social media also impacted on the behaviour and appearance of people since these channels give people access to pictures and videos of the inside life of celebrities and role models (Flynn, 2012). People then change to look and act more like social media role models (Flynn, 2012). This is also referred to as status aspiration created by the media (Fourie, 2007). Social media has immense power in its potential to bring people together to create a mass movement (Biswas, 2016). This was seen in South Africa during the Fees Must Fall protests. Twitter feeds using #FeesMustFall were used to get people involved in the movement to protest the high fees of tertiary studies (South African History Online, 2017).
The media allows for the transmission of free speech; however, some argue that the media controls how we think (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016). The media can have both positive and negative influences on the minds and lives of people (Biswas, 2016). The media gives a voice to different cultural groups (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016). At the same time, this cultural representation can lead to cultural imperialism of dominant cultures on less dominant cultures (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016). Western countries dominate the production of media and, as such, western cultural products spread all over the world (Kamalipour, 2007). This media effect can especially be seen in the world of fashion (Studymoose, 2016). In the back cover of The Cosmopolitan magazine (October, 2018), the fashion brand, Guess, is advertised using American celebrity, Jennifer Lopez. With Western-focused advertisements like these, it is no surprise that when walking in South African shopping centres, the majority of people can be seen wearing Western-style clothes.
The media can lead to orientation and integration of people within their respective societies as well as educate them (Fourie, 2007). The media also plays an important role in socialisation learning of people as it leads to people developing knowledge of and respect for other cultures (Fourie, 2007). Media impacted on global cultures as people generally mirror what others do and the media provides society with pictures of different cultures and their way of life (Biswas, 2016). Socialists refer to a concept called a mediated culture in which the media reflects and constructs culture (Cliffsnotes, undated). Even entertainment media can contribute to this as the content generally allows members of society to orient themselves in relation to certain behaviours, values and norms (Fourie, 2007).
The media can lead to the decay of or adoption of moral and social values (Fourie, 2007). It is argued, for example, that the media contributed to the wide acceptance of homosexuals and the adoption of gay rights within societies (Fourie, 2007). The media can educate and create awareness in societies (Biswas, 2016). For example, Carte Blanche is a television show that exposes wrongdoings of companies and people (Biswas, 2016).
The influence of state-owned media is one that is particularly feared (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016). There is concern that governments can use state-owned media for political ends as a manner to control people (O’Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2016). This effect was evident during the Apartheid years in South Africa where the government-controlled media painted a picture of Apartheid to be seen as good and fair (Bird & Garda, undated). The same example, however, can point out how the media can act as ‘watchdogs’ for the state (the fourth estate) as the media turned the minds of the masses around in 1994 when South Africa had its first democratic election (Armoudian, 2013). The political reflection in the media seems to be flawed as political coverage is limited, does not occur systematically and usually only concerns ‘breakthrough’ stories (Juznic, 2013). The reason for this might be that profit-seeking media companies will retain more audience members when reporting on scandals rather than political processes (Juznic, 2013).
People in today’s world are highly reliant on the media and it is not easy to avoid exposure to the media (Flynn, 2012). However, people can choose to limit their exposure and the extent to which they allow the media to impact on their lives (Flynn, 2012). For this reason, the researcher argues that the media only influences individuals to the extent that individuals want to be influenced by the media. Mehraj et al. (2014) summarised the role of the media adequately in saying that the media plays both constructive and deconstructive roles in terms of influencing society and that, in the end, it is the members of society that decides which one to use.
It can thus be seen that the media does not directly influence society but may influence their opinions, attitudes and behaviour in indirect ways and that the media does reflect society but not in a complete manner. This is because, as can be seen in the above information, the media constructs meaning and events portrayed in the media are only glimpses of the full events.
Conclusion
From the evidence presented in the essay, it is clear that the media plays a major role in both reflecting and influencing society. In this essay, the concept of the media was defined. Thereafter the researcher discussed the role of the media in influencing and reflecting society. It was found that the media plays both positive and negatives roles in society and that it is up to the media users to decide on the extent to which they will allow the media to influence them.
2000 words (excluding in-text referencing)