This research paper is about the power of media on the contemporary values in America. The paper focuses on the influence that media has to the general American public and how the values of this population are eroded or dictated by information from the media. It goes further to give a brief recommendation of how to manage the negative influence that media may have on the society.
Power of Media in American Values
Contemporary
Discuss the power of the media in shaping contemporary American values.
The online oxford dictionary defines media as "the main means of mass communication (television, radio, and newspapers) regarded collectively" (oxforddictionaries.com). This implies that the public globally are highly dependent on media to get information regarding what surrounds them, so is the American public (Edwards, 2001;9). In any case, the most efficient way of transmitting information to a large population almost instantly is the media. Media has been present since the beginning of man, all that has been changing and improving is the means of disseminating the information to the masses with the result being significant. For instance, the arrival of television in the early 1950's revolutionized the media industry and its efficiency to providing information to Americans has been undoubtedly superb. Just like any other technological advancements, the changes in media have had both negative and positive effects on the masses.
Public opinion on what they receive on media can be shaped and formed due to the following two aspects: the media can rightfully choose what to report to the public and what to ignore; and the nature of media may be subjective with regard to covering events rather than objective, which should not be the case (McCombs and Renolds, 2002). These two aspects may create a form of biasness which may greatly influence the attitudes and perceptions of the American public. Such influence plays a major role in shaping the values that are upheld by the general public. It is commonly knowledge that the people in America subscribe to varied values to a great extent, however, the media tends to choose which values to display to the masses and in essence advocating for and promoting such values. This is not always wrong but when not properly thought out the impact may be negative on the society.
One such case is the advocacy on gay rights that is spread all over the media each day. Despite the fact that the government is not against gay rights and the media is promoting the same, a larger section of the American community still hold the opinion that it is sinful and wrong to be gay. Even among those who believe so, media puts pressure on them to understand and accept people living the gay lifestyle. Once this group of individuals have been accepted and supported within the society the process of influencing the society begins. Most people who had viewed gay as sinful eventually start tolerating it and may end up being gay themselves. This is especially common when prominent personalities within the society who subscribe to this lifestyle are supported by the media and their campaigns aired day in day out.
In other words, the agenda of the media is giving information to the public, but in the process of trying to achieve this agenda they end up, maybe inadvertently, directing the public on what to think. Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw (1972) in their Agenda setting theory indicate that the public opinion is influenced by the news media in a cause and effect chain. To elaborate this further, Seasons (2005; 29) in her thesis gives an example of an experiment that was carried out in Yale by some researchers, this experiment involved three groups of people. These three groups followed news broadcasts from three different news programs focusing on issues including economic inflation, national defense, and the environment respectively for four consecutive days. Each individual was then provided with a questionnaire trying to find out their own opinions and were asked to fill them out. In the resulting analysis it was realized that the concerns expressed by each group tallied with the issues addressed by the programs that they had been following. This is a clear indication that the public is much concerned with the issues that they see or read more often. Whenever such issues that are received through media touch on values then the direct effect is seen on the opinions held by individuals exposed to such information (Bennet, 1994;14). Another significant and perfect example is the period preceding the 2004 election in the United States. During this period, there was wide and in-depth discussion of moral values and discussions touching on United States moral values soared up in all media platforms (DeBeer, 2004). This made Americans to think of moral values as a very important aspect of the society since they heard more about it. The coverage of the exit polls also reinforced this agenda.
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