Why study the media

Why study the media

The media in our society is ever growing and changing to new horizons and in turn increasing its influence and hold over everyone especially the younger generation of whom are the easiest to influence. Though before we may have received our information and news from somewhat “trustworthy” sources such as newspapers and newsletters however in the growing digital age everyone can now publish their own opinions and sway people to their side which could be good under the right circumstances however like everything it can lead to controversy.

I believe we should study the media because of its growing hold over our society. For example, consider the fact that long since gone diseases in our developed cities such as measles have been popping back up because many people believed that the commonly used vaccines would lead to autism despite there being increase in cases of autism due to the vaccines. They believed this because of one article published online eluding to the possibility. This demonstrates the power the media has over our ideals as a society. The reason the media have this sway over us is because as of mid-2019 digital news sites have roughly 46% of all digital traffic on the internet.

As stated above the media has great influence over everyone however this influence is strongest when it comes to the younger generation. An example of this would be the slender man stabbing case on may 31^st,2014. This consisted of two twelve-year-old girls stabbing one of their classmates 19 times in order to appease the fictional character of Slenderman which was popularised by the successful videogames and web series (as the film had not yet been released). Similar to this there have been many other cases of increased violence allegedly due to the increase of violent videogames that near enough anyone can get a hold of. However, one could also argue that the violence could be linked to music videos more specifically rap videos which glorify the criminal high life.

One major controversy surrounding the media is that of censorship where the media can pick and choose what information they release to the public and what information they withhold from the public which could be crucial to society nut we will never know. This can be seen in countries such as China most significantly as they have heavy censorship of major national events as well as global events that China would want their citizens to not know of and be associated with. This is why we should study the media as it gives us an insight as to what is being withheld from us.

The media has changed a lot throughout the years as in the past we would only have analogue versions (written form) from somewhat limited suppliers. Now, however we have evolved into the digital age where everyone can publish their opinion corrupting other people’s views. I believe that in the future it is one possibility, that with large corporations buying other companies, that one company buys the majority of news outlets and force feed the public only what suits them instead of providing them with the truth.

To answer the question “Why study the media?”, we should study the media because it will give us an insight into how our society revolves around the media and how it can shape our opinions of not only events and products but also people within our society. We also need to study the media so that we understand how the media can affect a whole generation such as what videos we “choose” to watch, the music we “choose” to listen to, what we “choose” to wear etc.