The Impact of Mass Media on Society

This research essay explores the characteristics and impact of mass media on society. It discusses the importance of mass media in providing information to the public and shaping public opinion. The essay also examines the different purposes of mass media, such as advocacy, entertainment, and public service announcements. Additionally, it delves into the effects of mass media, including the knowledge gap, agenda setting, and cultivation of perception. The essay concludes by discussing the pros and cons of mass media and the emergence of digital media.

Running Head: Sociology
Sociology
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SystemJP
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Sociology 1
“Mass Media”
Thesis Statement: The purpose of the research essay is to enlighten the reader about the mass
media, its characteristics and its impact on people in the society. It explains the importance of
Mass Media and how it affects the interest of people in society.
Mass media refers to diverse range of media technologies that help in reaching to the large
audience through mass communication. There are different types of technologies introduced in
the environment that helps the organization in implementing the theory of mass media. Various
tools like television, radio, websites etc. are a form of mass media because it helps the
organizations to provide information to the mass. Further, it should be noted that mass media can
be classified under nine characteristics that are books, movies, internet, radio, magazines,
television, newspaper, recordings and digital media. Digital media came late in this industry but
definitely a worthy one.
A sociologist named John Thompson of Cambridge University developed five characteristics of
mass communication that have been widely implemented in the industry. First characteristic
explain that mass media comprise of both technical and institutional methods of production and
distribution. This characteristic can be clearly understood by taking an example of internet
because post information on internet requires both skills and methods. Further, it also involves
commodification of symbolic forms that means, the production of qualitative information relies
on its ability to sell the stock in large quantities. Like in case of newspaper, the organization
relies on the number of copies sold by them in the environment. Third characteristic is that it
separate context between production and reception of information. Fourth characteristic is that
mass media reaches to people present far from the geographical boundations of an organization.
Lastly, the process of mass media distributes information from one to many form of
communication whereby the products are mass produced (Leitner, 2017).
The fact should be noted that mass media is not just an industry or kind of work but it is much
more than that because it is a source through which information is passed in the community. The
purpose of mass media is to encompass the things that are right and things that are important for
people to know. There are specifically three purposes of mass media that are advocacy,
entertainment and public service announcement. Mass media advocate for both business and

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social concern as this aspect include advertising, marketing, public communication and relations
as well (Sterin, & Winston, 2017). Through mass media, people communicate their views and
opinions to other and comment on the crucial judgments made by the superior authorities.
Second purpose of mass media is entertainment as it is also used as a source of performing arts,
music and acting skills in the environment. People also make use of mass media to entertain
themselves. Thirdly, mass media is also used as a public service announcement and emergency
alerts. As this source is used to deliver information to large number of people, at once due to
which the political group mass use of such media to express their wordings to the people
publically (Kannan, 2017).
The fact should be noted that mass media is tool to generate information and supply it to the
whole public. So, it become difficult for the institutions to find the right type of information that
is actually reliable and authentic and circulate it to the public. As a single miscommunication of
information can lead to major issues, confusions and riots among people. Thus, it is crucial to
examine the reliability of the information and then communicate it in its original form so that
people also attain same picture about the scenario in their minds. Mass media is the link between
the real source of information and the public.
The stance should be noted that three major effects of mass media were identified in the
community that are the knowledge gap, agenda setting and cultivation of perception. The
knowledge gap means that mass media influences the knowledge of people by providing them
appealing knowledge and information extracted from the environment. The effect of mass media
is that it either creates or fills the gap of knowledge. It can create the gap of knowledge by
providing ineffective or partial information to the people in the environment. Such information
can create confusion among people that can make them question their personal skills and
knowledge which can negatively affect their behavior (Geber, Scherer, & Hefner, 2016). Further,
it fills the knowledge gap by providing original and true information in the environment. Further,
the second effect of mass media in the environment is agenda setting. People in the environment
are influenced on how they think about the issues to due to selective nature of what media
choose for public consumption.
For instance, Malala Yousafzai was shot in her head for protesting against Taliban to read and
study. Her story was spread all over the world and people highly got inspired by it as well. This

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activity created a spark in the community for the zeal of girls to educate and its importance in the
environment as well (Cheng, 2016). This act also influenced many other girls to fight for their
rights in the environment. So, it can be said that it is the ability of the mass media to change the
view and perception of people against certain things and help them to create the right goal as
well. The third effect of mass media in the environment is cultivation of perception (Bertrand,
2018). The extent to which media shapes the perception of audience with time is known as
cultivation. Television is a source that is used as homogenizing agent. Mass media is not just
used for entertainment but it is also creates an impression on the beliefs of people. Resulting in
which, this effect can also change the perception of people towards socioeconomic factors. It is
good if the people are getting clarity in their economic knowledge, however, negative or wrong
news can also affect their belief in a wrong way. Exposure to violence can also actively affect the
viewer’s interest and create violence in their minds as well (Alley, et. al., 2017).
Thus, the fact should be noted that mass media can be a great source of attaining information in
the environment but mass media has its own pros and cons as well. Mass media can negatively
influence the interest of people and can make them belief in wrong information as well. Mass
media industry also attains criticism in the environment due to its work structure. The work of
the institutions present in mass media is to provide the right source of information to the people
in its purest form. Earlier, the institutions used to provide the original form of information to the
people but with emerging time, the companies have started putting filters on the information and
mold it according to the way they want to present the information. Tampering the information
can lead to major changes in the environment.
Further, talking about the digital media it should be noted that it has emerged in recent year only
in mass media industry. Digital media has currently more influence on the lives of people than
any other form of media (Head, et. Al., 2015). It can also be said that the other forms of media
like newspaper, radio etc. have various limitations in the environment but digital media is an
open platform where people post information about what they believe about things. This open
platform provides opportunity to all the people worldwide to share their views and opinion and
communicate it with other people as well. Digital media can also be regarded as one of the
fastest ways through which information can travel worldwide. It helps people to connect living in
different parts of the world.

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Thus, it can be said that mass media is one of the major revolutions that has occurred in the
world as it provided speech to people, it helped them in learning and it also helped them in the
getting the right knowledge about the issues. It is important for the mass media industry to
effectively make use of information and deliver it to the people in the way it is and not according
to their views and perception (Ngai, Moon, Chin, & Tao, 2015). Thus, in the limelight of above
mentioned events, the fact should be noted that the research paper represent information about
the mass media, its pros and cons present in the environment. Mass media can be seen as a tool
to circulate the true and authentic information among the people. The paper elaborated
characteristics and effect of mass media in the environment as well.

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Cheng, M. (2016). Sharing economy: A review and agenda for future research. International
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Geber, S., Scherer, H., & Hefner, D. (2016). Social capital in media societies: The impact of
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Kannan, P. K. (2017). Digital marketing: A framework, review and research
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Leitner, G. (2017). The sociolinguistics of communication media. The handbook of
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Ngai, E. W., Moon, K. L. K., Lam, S. S., Chin, E. S., & Tao, S. S. (2015). Social media models,
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