Mass Media Influence
In the last 50 years the media influence
has grown exponentially with the advance of technology, first there was
the telegraph, then the radio, the newspaper, magazines, television and
now the internet.
We live in a society that depends on
information and communication to keep moving in the right direction and
do our daily activities like work, entertainment, health care,
education, personal relationships, traveling and anything else that we
have to do.
A common person in the city usually
wakes up checks the tv news or newspaper, goes to work, makes a few
phone calls, eats with their family when possible and makes his
decisions based on the information that he has either from their co
workers, news, tv, friends, family, financial reports, etc.
What we need to be aware is that most of our decisions, beliefs and values
are based on what we know for a fact, our assumptions and our own
experience. In our work we usually know what we have to do based on our
experience and studies, however on our daily lives we rely on the media
to get the current news and facts about what is important and what we should be aware of.
We have put our trust on the media as an
authority to give us news, entertainment and education. However, the
influence of mass media on our kids, teenagers and society is so big
that we should know how it really works.
How mass Media Influence works
Of all the media distribution
channels the most influential has been the television, we are
constantly exposed to thousands of images of violence, advertising, sex,
celebrities and much more, in fact a its known that a child is exposed
to about 40,000 ads a year.
But who owns the media, which are the
companies or people that shape our values, beliefs and decisions? The
media is basically dominated by five major companies they are:
- Time Warner
- VIACOM
- Vivendi Universal
- Walt Disney
- News Corp
Those 5 companies own 95% of all the media that we get every day. They own the major entertainment theme parks, entertainment movie studios, television and radio broadcast networks and programing, video news and sports entertainment.
They also own integrated
telecommunications, wireless phones, video games softwares, electronic
media, the music industry and more.
Years ago there was more diversity in
companies, but they have merged so now they are just a few and they have
the power to shape the opinion and beliefs of us and our kids. So its
important to be aware of what your kids are exposed to every day and you
should also try to look at things from different perspectives and not
just from the one the media gives you.
How does mass media influence young people?
The media makes billions of dollars with
the advertising they sell and that we are exposed to. We buy what we
are told to be good, after seeing thousands of advertisings
we make our buying decisions based on what we saw on Tv, newspapers or
magazines to be a product we can trust and also based on what everyone
else that we know is buying and their decision are also base don the
media.
These are the effects of mass media in
teenagers, they buy what they see on Tv, what their favorite celebrity
advertise and what is acceptable by society based on the fashion that
the media has imposed them.
There are some positive and negative influences in young people.
Here is a positive influence example, if
there is a sport that is getting a lot of attention by the media and
gains popularity among your friends and society, you will more likely
want to practice the sport and be cool with all your friends. The result
is that you will have fun with your friends and be more healthy because
of the exercise your are doing.
However a negative influence in
teenagers is the use of cigars by celebrity movie stars, the constant
exposure of sex images, the excessive images of violence and exposure to
thousands of junk food ads.
Young people are in a stage of life where they want to be accepted by their peers, they want to be loved and be successful. The media creates the ideal image of a beautiful men and women and tells you what are the characteristics of a successful person, you can see it in movies and tv. Its a subliminal
way to tell you that if you are not like them you are not cool yet so
its time to buy the stuff they buy and look like they look.
Another negative influence in teenagers
that has grown over the last years are anorexia and obesity. There are
millions of adolescents fighting obesity, but at the same time they are
exposed to thousands of advertisements of junk food, while the ideas
image of a successful person is told to be thin and wealthy.
Also more women are obsessive with
losing weight even when they are not obese, there are many thin women
that want to look like the super models and thin celebrities so they
engage in eating disorders which leads to severe health issues and even death
