IMPORTANCE OF MEDIA

By MASSAWE ARKADI
why is media important and what effects does it have on society.

Media is important because it influences society in many different ways. But could we say it changes the way we behave or our attitudes towards things we perceive in the world we live in?
Media is all around us, society is constantly interacting
with social mediums for their own gratification, that gratification could be
keeping in contact with friends and family or it could be sharing your
experiences with the world through pictures and videos. Another gratification
could be finding information easily and quickly using things such as the
internet.

But why does this make media so important?
Media is important because it gives us some sense of being.
We have a sense of being part of something greater then ourselves and that is
why things like twitter and facebook are so popular because they make you feel
that you are part of a wider community always interacting with each other. It
gives individuals the ability to create their own personal identity, through
mediums like facebook people can add details about themselves like what their
hobbies are and who they perceive themselves to be.

Media is important with regards to gathering information. Although
we’ve had the internet for a fair amount of time there have been some major
changes that have revolutionised the way we use this medium. Things like large
data bases full of journals ranging in all areas of information. And the best
part of this media is that it is instant and easy to access.

Mobility is a fairly new way that media has an importance on
society. We are now able to access, comment on and upload information instantly
wherever we are through devices such as smartphones.

Having had a look at the importance of the media, a question
whether media has an affect society
There is a theory by Crouteau
hoynes 1997 “the hypodermic needle “this
theory states that passive audiences are directly influenced by media. For
example a producer creates a text and the meaning is passed almost sub consciously
into the audience and supposedly this influences the audience’s attitudes and behaviours.

This could be said for not only television but for other Medias like
advertising and radio. This view is a very Marxist view another view could be
that it’s not the producers that influence the audience but the opposite where
audiences through media influence the text and the producer with things like social
media. This is a liberalist view.
Although both of these theories have valid points I don’t believe
that society could be classed as either of these concepts because society is so
divers there are too many people with their own habits, hobbies, attitudes and behaviours
that differ from these views.

I believe that media has a huge importance and influence,
there would be no possible way we could live without media and information that
we derive from the media. But we are all unique individuals and have our own
belief systems and backgrounds to be directly influenced by the media.