Mass Media Influence On Society

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MASS MEDIA & ITS INFLUENCES ON SOCIETY Courteney Carrillo University of Belize Mass media is one of the greatest forms of socialization as it continues to be one of our greatest and biggest connectors to the outside world. Mass media includes the use of the television, newspapers, posters and mail for the dissemination of information and has advanced tremendously since the introduction of technology (Hadeshian, 2006). We depend heavily on mass media to keep us informed on issues whether it be about politics, social issues, sports, or other topics of interest. As a matter of fact, mass media is one of the most powerful ways a society can use to form opinions (Pakistan Media Commission Review, n.d). Mass media achieves its…show more content…
It is important to bear in mind that mass media is a generalized terms that encompasses television, newspapers, magazines, mail and social media. With the use of technology information is dispersed and accessed in a matter of seconds. Mass media can increase social awareness, help in eradicating illiteracy, and raising the standard of thinking and behavior. Many of us are ignorant to many of the issues in the world simply because it might not get the publicity of media. Unfortunately, almost 2,000 people were killed in Nigeria in January 2015 and it made the headline news of every single major Western media network such as CNN, NBC, ABC and Facebook just to name a few in a matter of seconds (Mark,2015) This continued for weeks until a new trending topic would be discovered. On November 14, 2015 France experienced bombing of its people. It was only a matter of seconds until this too made headline news and would spark a movement. Pictures, hashtags, statuses and well-wishes flooded both broadcasting and social media (Mullen, 2015). After media influences on the events mentioned above individuals were able to draw their own conclusions using their own reasoning and to shape an idea about the world around…show more content…
It was evident though that while many were in solidarity with France there were many that felt that this issues was getting a preference over the other countries that face similar problems on a greater magnitude. However, it is imperative that we remember that even though media bring awareness to issues it also only sheds light on what media houses determine to be of “importance”. That is what they do, that is what they get paid to – media is very subjective. Therefore, there is a great a space for media sensationalism. Sensationalism is the use of shocking stories or language at the expense of accuracy to capture an audience. One such incident of sensationalism occurred in Belize on November 14, 2015. A young mother posted on Facebook that her two year child was kidnapped from her wrongfully because she was granted full custody of her child after separating from her child’s father and she was being harassed and threatened by the officers. Our Belizean public quickly shared the post once again standing in solidarity and sending well wishes that the child would be returned to her. In addition, individuals started sharing pictures of the alleged officers. As a result she was labelled with harsh names such as evil, witch, heartless and being defamed even by those who did not know her. It turns out that the mother had illegally remove the child from

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