The World of Communication
It is very far from the time where the only means of communication
between two persons or communities was the mail or talking. At
this century's ending, we've got many means of communication.
Those now take an important place in our life in many different
ways. But the rate of their impact on our life style is a scale
which is truly scary. Does the media takes too much importance
in our modern society? Does its influence positive?
First of all, the media plays a very important role in the media and knowledge transmission. In acting like a opinion vehicle for all the members of the different communities, media are an essential player in the human relationship game. Entertainment plays an important part in the media, but it has become more important since 1930's. Actually, we have a lot of things to see and hear on the TV or radio. This mass of entertainment is very good for the moral, especially during the cold winter days. This branch of the industry also creates a lot of very important jobs.
Another positive point concerning the modern media, is the diffusion of information. Some of that information is about politics, economy, sports and culture. Those must inquire to the population about what's going on in their city, country and world. Ideally this search for information must be directed on injustice revealed and opinions diffusied. As a matter of fact, media are often the first to go deeper then the surface of things to reveal some cheating or swindling. This is why the media is essential in our society, without them the cheaters would have all the liberty to do their cheap shots in the back of the population without being caught.
I think that the media look to make profits more than give the population a quality product. This search for money leads the industry to present to the audience low quality products with a content free of credibility. The productions who are made by the cinema industry and the TV channels are filled with what the mercantile suggests. Advertising is one of the biggest factor which influence the people to push them to acquire what they do not really need. The media need for money pushes them to publish a lot of advertising. Those have to influence the listeners to acquire the product they promote. Once again the media puts the priority on money making and doesn't care about the consequences of the acts. We assist in a diversion of reality, at an unreal representation of what's going on in the world. The media puts the focus on what is sensational to increase their rates of listeners and doesn't care about the real problems. This causes a lot of wrong ideas in the population.
What I mean here is that the media, by manipulation reality, influences the listeners' minds. Just compare the physics of Marilyn Monroe and Claudia Shiffer. When Marilyn was very popular the ideal women body wasn't devoid of fat. During the years the fashion creators, through the media, have influenced the thought of an entire part of the population by affirming that the female body must be absent of fat to be esthetic. This belief affects a large part on the population and is caused by the media.
The media can be used as propaganda by the government. It was the case for the ex. USSR like many other communist countries they were using this medium to influence or keep the population controlled. They were manipulating the population in falsely informing it about the reality to promote their ideology. The country's leaders could erase some important facts that they judged un-appropriate for their cause. As we can see, the censorship was and surely still is used in communist and other countries.
The media has a lot of positive points but persons who leads those powerful means of communications don't really care about the negative effects of their product. Yes we love the TV, radio and written media to entertain us, they inform us about what's going on in our world. They help resolving some injustice in giving the possibility to know a lot of important facts. They also allow many people to get a job. But, I believe that they don't do things for the good of their listeners. By being a lucrative aiming organism, the media is always searching to make a profit with their listeners instead of acting for itself. The media is here to stay, as bad as it is, we must try to be conscious of his negative effects and improve it. Then will get to be a very beneficial tool for the human kind.