How much do you believe your TV?

Source Type: Personal Reflection & YouTube

Have you ever wondered about the reasons behind the great amount of attention you pay on certain issues? Why are you more anxious on the upcoming reports of particular events and not the others? Well, you bet what I’m going to write about in this post. Yes, we can safely attribute these answers to the pervasive influence of the mass media. We may not be such powerless creatures that succumb to the Powerful Effects Theory nor are we totally resistive to the influence of the media according to the Limited Effects Theory. However, we are somewhere in the continuum of the power of media influence, where we hold the perspective of Moderate Effects Theory. It says that although audiences are not totally manipulated by the media, similarly, the media also do not have total control of our thoughts. Continuing on, I will show the application of the different functions of the media to substantiate my perspective. Enjoy reading on!

Question: Who owns the media?
Answer: The rich and powerful.
You do not buy this statement? Watch the YouTube below!

It features that 95% of the media in United States is dominated by 5 major companies; Time Warner, VIACOM, Vivendi Universal, Walt Disney, and News Corp! They have tremendous monetary resources to extensively inform and educate the public through news and print media. These companies are very self-sufficient as they fund their own production, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and sales. Media Hegemony is more than convincing to account for the ownership of the media. This theory explains that the media represent views of those who hold economic power. When these companies have the capital to market their products through advertisement and feature their success through broadcast news, they gradually influence the audiences’ attitudes. Through the mainstreaming effect of the Cultivation Theory, the media create a way for us to comprehend the world which eventually affects our beliefs about social reality. In this case, through the cumulative deliverance of the information about themselves, it makes us feel that the products they sell are one of the finest. Their marketing strategy becomes a success when viewers like us are compelled to purchase their product. Also, the medium of the message has great potential to change the way we experience the world. This is governed by the theory of Media Determinism. Our perspective will be swayed depending on status of the source which is bringing the message across. If a piece of news originates from an entity like News Corp, whose reputation is well-established, most of us will trust the message even though it may be distorted.

Question: What makes you more concern about a certain issue?
Answer: The media.
Take a look at the YouTube below!

It shows that at one point of time, there was large amount of media coverage on environmental problems like global warming, wilderness destruction, air and soil pollution, water pollution. When media coverage was pervasive, poll shows that the public concerns were very elevated. As the new media lost its interest on that issue, even though these environmental problems were at its pits, the poll study shows that public concern decreased accordingly. Again, this reflects the Agenda Setting Function of the media where through repeated news coverage; it raises the importance of an issue in the public’s mind. Even though in reality, the environmental problems are worthy of our attention, just because the media lessen its coverage, the public’s focus was altered by the media.

Ironically, these analyses that I’ve presented are from a source of media. So has the media set my agenda upon this discussion? Or does it just confirm the fact that we are vulnerable to the information offered by the media?
To you, how much has the mass media affected your way of looking at the world?