Role and Impact of Media in Contemporary Society

This essay discusses the role and impact of media in contemporary society, including its positive and negative effects. It explores how media influences society and updates people about important changes and events. It also examines the impact of media on social awareness and the spread of fake news. Overall, media plays a crucial role in shaping contemporary society.

ASSESSMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION 1.....................................................................................................................................1
Qualitative and Quantitative research..........................................................................................1
Alienation....................................................................................................................................1
Mechanical and organic solidarity...............................................................................................2
Health and well-being..................................................................................................................2
SECTION 2.....................................................................................................................................3
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
Main Body...................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

SECTION 1
Qualitative and Quantitative research
Qualitative research can be defined as a kind of market research method that helps the
researcher in understand and collect data though interview, open ended questions, focus group,
secondary data, natural setting documents etc. It helps in understanding human behaviour rom
informant’s perspective. In other words, it helps people in understanding meaning of terms that
people bring to them (Chambliss and Schutt, 2018). So, it can be said that qualitative research
helps in understanding social world in many ways. It majorly helps in understanding and
identifying psychological and behavioural characteristics of human beings. It further helps in
testing experiences of individuals within specific social settings. In other words, it provides a
deep understanding of ways in which people see their social realities, consequences of ways in
which they act in social world.
Quantitative research can be defined a kind of research strategy that helps in quantifying
collection and analysis of numerical data. This research helps in identifying patterns make
predictions, generalize results for wider population and test causal relationship. This research
helps in identifying features of population on the basis of analysis of large number of
measurements of individuals. It helps in identifying characteristics of population and patterns
associated with the population (Shareia, 2016). Both type of research can help in understanding
social world in a much better manner. Qualitative research helps in understanding ways in which
a person would react in social settings whereas quantitative research helps in understanding
different kinds of patterns associated with people like features of inequality, racial attitude of
people and many more.
Alienation
Alienation is a way through which a person’s affection is separated or withdrawn from an
object. It can also be defined as a kind of condition in which a person is isolated from their
environment or from other people. It is a kind of subject and object relationship in terms of both
process and structure. Social Alienation can directly help in understanding social world. It helps
in understanding experience of people or a group of individual when they feel disconnected from
their values, practices, social relationships while living in the society. This concept can be used
to understand how a person feels when they feel Alienated. It can be used as a way towards
making a better society (Lavalette and Ferguson, 2018). When a person or an individual feels
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alienated then variety of negative feeling can be developed within them like they might feel
helpless, might spere themselves from others, feel that world is meaningless for them. If this
feeing is not reduced or eliminated within people then it can result in development of feeling that
they are unsafe when they interact with others and they might refuse to obey the rules. In simple
words, it can be said that this alienation concept helps in understand how an individual feel when
feeling of Alienation is developed within them and what are the initiatives that can be taken by
society to reduce feeling of alienation and feel that they are a part of the society or not be
separated from their closed one’s.
Mechanical and organic solidarity
Mechanical solidarity is a kind of state in which people of a community bond in
traditional societies in which they share their values and beliefs and perform common activities.
It can also be said that it is a kind of social interaction of society members whose beliefs and
values are common. It helps in understanding how people feel when they connect to others with
similar world, religion, training, lifestyle, beliefs and values. It basically helps in understanding
life of people within societies in which they live. It says that people get affected deeply and are
affected because of collective consequences. Whereas organic solidarity can be defined as a kind
of social cohesion which is based upon interdependence when diverse division of labour that
forces people to depend upon one another in order to survive. In this people who live in society
has different beliefs and values but depend or rely upon others for performance or completion of
a specific task (Rozakou, 2020). It can directly be used to understand social world by
understanding division of labour and ways in which needs, required and desire of people are
fulfilled. Both the solidarity helps in understanding that society in which people live. Like if
people share same belief and values they do get affected from others, but if people do not share
any kind of belief and values then in such case, they hardly get affected by others but fulfilment
of their needs is definitely dependent upon others.
Health and well-being
Health can be defined as a state of physical, social and metal wellbeing of a person when
any kind of disease, illness or injury is absent. Whereas, wellbeing can be defined as a condition
of an individual when they are happy, healthy and comfortable. Health and wellbeing help in
identifying that people are fit to handle stress, live free from anxiety and can live a lot more
active life. Health and wellbeing are inter-related to each other. If wellbeing or wellness of an
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individual is high then it can enhance their physical outcome, enhance their immune system and
can slower disease progression within an individual. physical, functional, psychological, and
cognitive health of an individual directly influences their social wellbeing. A person who is
healthy and has high wellness then that person has high participation level in social activities of
society, they take an initiative to build and maintain relationship with others (World Health
Organization, 2016). It has been observed that a person who is healthy has high contribution
within society. They have an ability to manage their own task and activities. An individual with
high health and wellness status can adopt themselves in any kind of situation. Various kinds of
research in this area, has clearly explained that health and wellbeing of a society is important not
only for healthy people but it also helps in increasing GDP of a country and takes a country
forward on the path of growth and development.
SECTION 2
Discuss role and impact of media in contemporary society.
Introduction
Media is a kind of communication outlet or a tool which is used to deliver information to
large number of people (Gordon, 2018). There are various kinds of media that can be used to
deliver or distribute information like print media, newspaper, advertisements, news channels,
cinema, radio, broadcasting and many more. Today media plays a vital role in society and has
impacted society in both positive and negative manner. This essay will lay emphasis on
discussion of role and impact of media in contemporary society.
Main Body
Role of media in Society
Media plays a vital role in society. In fact, it is considered as the fourth pillar of modern
society. It helps society and people living in the society about getting latest information about
what’s happening around the world, latest trends, and get any other information about current
happening or changes taking place. With increasing needs, requirement and dependency upon
media, various different kinds of media sources are being developed that has increased use of
media frequency (Segura and Waisbord, 2016). In today’s contemporary world media is not only
used as a source of information communication it is also used as a n influential source to
influence society. In fact, it is one of the most important truth or a fact that today media is used
as a source to influence thought’s viewpoint of others as well as bring changes within attitude of
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people for their surrounding environment. One of the main roles of media in today’s
contemporary society is to update people living in the society about important updates or
changes within law, rules, regulations and legislation that can directly affect people living in the
society (Xu, 2019). Media helps people to remain updated with change in governing parties or
government, part of society in which violence and intolerance is increasing. So, it can be said
that in today’s contemporary society main role of media is to continuously update people about
different kinds of changes that are occurring within the society, ways in which those updates can
impact lives of people living in society. Influence individuals and update them about the way in
which people living in the society need to bring changes (both positive and negative) within their
life and adopt changes in society, country and world accordingly.
Impact of media on contemporary society
In today’s contemporary society media has a vital role and can impact society and people
living in society in both positive and negative manner. One of the main positive impact of media
in contemporary society is that it has helped people in staying in touch with each other and
remain updated about things that are going on within an individual’s life (Singh and Pandey,
2017). It provides a platform to others so that they can share facts, important information or any
kind of news with others. But importantly it has impacted the way or manner in which
information is shared with others. Today various individuals or groups like political parties,
leaders etc. use it as a platform to reach society and its members. It has also helped in
strengthening social empathy and awareness among people. People are slowing getting aware of
some serious global issues like increasing green- house gases, global warning, increasing sea
level etc. Media has successfully helped in generating awareness about environment among
people and ways in which those issues are impacting society, health of people etc. Media also
has impacted contemporary society in negative manner as well. There is no doubt that media is
one of the best platforms for sharing information with large group of people but this platform is
also used for spreading fake news or modified news in which only partial information is correct.
Most importantly it has become one of the main reasons which has impacted political parties
because due to media either overall image of political parties has been improved or has been
destroyed completely (Lindgren, 2017). Many times, political parties use it as a platform to
destroy changes of winning of other parties. But on a positive not it has played a vital role in
generating awareness about major issues like human trafficking, drugs so that crime rate of these
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issues can be controlled. Spreading news on social media. Many people in society are dependent
upon media in order to update themselves with changes within social world and due to spreading
of fake news or information which is partially true impact attitude, behaviour and thinking of
people.
So, from this analysis it can be said that media has an important role in contemporary
society. Whether it has positive or negative impact on society, it has become an important part of
people living in the society. It is also used by global organizations, political leaders as well for
reaching large number of people simultaneously for increasing social awareness, issues that are
required to be focused upon (Lindgren, 2017). For example, in the current pandemic situation of
Covid-19, media has played an important role. It has helped in increasing awareness about
current situation, ways in which Coronavirus was spreading globally and ways in which people
can remain safe and continue their work by taking safety measures. It has helped in making
people realise importance of current situation and bring changes within their behaviour in order
to remains safe and lower its spreading rate.
Conclusion
From the above essay it has been summarized that media has an important role within
today’s contemporary society and has impacted this society in both positive and negative
manner. To has been summarized that today media has become in important source of
information which is used and accessed by everyone in the society. Due to its increasing
accessibility, media is used as a platform to spread important formation and generate awareness
about an issue. It is also used as a medium by leaders or political parties to influence people, ring
changes within their behaviour and attitude. Not only this, it further helps in increasing
awareness about social issues.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chambliss, D.F. and Schutt, R.K., 2018. Making sense of the social world: Methods of
investigation. Sage Publications.
Gordon, F., 2018. The Significance and Impact of the Media in Contemporary Society.
In Children, Young People and the Press in a Transitioning Society (pp. 17-46).
Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Lavalette, M. and Ferguson, I., 2018. Marx: alienation, commodity fetishism and the world of
contemporary social work. Critical and Radical Social Work, 6(2), pp.197-213.
Lindgren, S., 2017. Digital media and society. Sage.
Rozakou, K., 2020. Solidarity. In Humanitarianism: Keywords (pp. 197-199). Brill.
Segura, M.S. and Waisbord, S., 2016. Media movements: civil society and media policy reform
in Latin America. Zed Books Ltd..
Shareia, B.F., 2016. Qualitative and quantitative case study research method on social science:
Accounting perspective. International Journal of Economics and Management
Engineering. 10(12). pp.3849-3854.
Singh, G. and Pandey, N., 2017. Role and Impact of Media on Society: A Sociological Approach
With Respect to Demonetisation. IMPACT: International Journal of Research in
Humanities, Arts and Literature. 5(10). pp.127-136.
World Health Organization, 2016. Growing up unequal: Gender and socioeconomic differences
in young people's health and well-being.
Xu, X.E., 2019. Impacts of mobile use and experience on contemporary society. Information
Science Reference/IGI Global.
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