Mass Media and Its Influence in Shaping Ideas
Dramatic advances in mass communication and transportation during the past 50 years have truly created a global village; a mass society. Things occurring anywhere are now quickly known everywhere. Mass media both overwhelm us with information and help us to sort it out. The development of mass media has had a great influence on our lives. We have come to depend on it for information and so forth. In doing so, we allowed it to affect important aspects of our lives.
Media, why is it has been a hot topic of discussion in our nowadays society? We find that in our country, Malaysia, the mass media plays a very crucial role in influencing and changing the thinking of our current society. Taking this one issue as an example; the issue that has been a viral recently, which is Public Resurrection Rally or also known as Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat. Apart of being famously spread through media in internet such as online news and videos, surely the main mass media including television, radio and newspaper also made a wide coverage on this issue no matter they are supporting it or not. However, for sure when they differ in their goals and interests, hence the way they report about the issues also differ. This different ways of reporting thus causes varying acceptance in society. Quoting one finding by Shanto Iyengar in his book entitle ‘Is Anyone Responsible?’ while he was doing an evaluation on the effects brought by news on television concerning political issues, he found that the carriage of the issue through the news on the TV has developed an understanding of the general public towards the political problems occurred. Meaning to say here, it could be the media who the one creating the issue permitted, or it could be media too who provides the solution for it.
We cannot deny the enormity of the power and influence of the media in shaping the flow of thinking of our society. When there is only one issue raised by the media, then the issue will also be followed by the
Media, why is it has been a hot topic of discussion in our nowadays society? We find that in our country, Malaysia, the mass media plays a very crucial role in influencing and changing the thinking of our current society. Taking this one issue as an example; the issue that has been a viral recently, which is Public Resurrection Rally or also known as Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat. Apart of being famously spread through media in internet such as online news and videos, surely the main mass media including television, radio and newspaper also made a wide coverage on this issue no matter they are supporting it or not. However, for sure when they differ in their goals and interests, hence the way they report about the issues also differ. This different ways of reporting thus causes varying acceptance in society. Quoting one finding by Shanto Iyengar in his book entitle ‘Is Anyone Responsible?’ while he was doing an evaluation on the effects brought by news on television concerning political issues, he found that the carriage of the issue through the news on the TV has developed an understanding of the general public towards the political problems occurred. Meaning to say here, it could be the media who the one creating the issue permitted, or it could be media too who provides the solution for it.
We cannot deny the enormity of the power and influence of the media in shaping the flow of thinking of our society. When there is only one issue raised by the media, then the issue will also be followed by the