The Profound Effects of Media on Individuals and Society: A Study

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of the effects of media on both individuals and society. It begins by highlighting the significant influence media has on various aspects of life, including voting choices and personal beliefs, and notes the increasing impact of social media. The essay discusses the CNN coverage of the Gulf War as a turning point in media's influence and how media has helped break down stereotypes related to culture, ethnicity, and race. Furthermore, it explores the positive and negative impacts of media on children and youth, including new employment opportunities and addiction to phones. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of utilizing the positive effects of media and learning from the negative influences to help society flourish and for individuals to make good use of media.

EFFECTS OF MEDIA ON INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY

INTRODUCTION
It is an evident and visible fact that the media has had and
continues to have a remarkable influence on the society and
the individuals. The effects have been visible in every sphere
of life including the voting choices people make, their
personal views and beliefs. With the rise in technology, the
new media or the social media, also has exerted an
unimaginable influence. The presentation will focus on the
effects of media on society and individual.

Turning point in media’s influence on society
The CNN coverage of the Gulf War
during the 1990s was a turning point in
the discussion regarding the influence
of the media on the society. After that,
the media came to be known as the
fourth pillar in the growing democracies
across the world

The CNN Coverage of the
Gulf War

The media became the fourth
pillar of democracy across the
world.

Media breaking stereotypes in society
The media’s influence on society started
becoming visible when the boundaries
began to blur and people came to know
about other cultures and traditions
through the media. The influence could
be seen in the breaking of stereotypes
related to culture, ethnicity and race
(Scharrer & Ramasubramanian, 2015).

Media’s influence in bringing different
cultures of the world together and
connecting societies has been remarkable
visible over the past few decades.

Atwell Seate and Mastro (2016) talk about
media’s influence on society from a negative
point of view. According to the authors,
although the media has played a crucial role
in bringing societies together, it has also
caused the powerful societies to dominate
over the weaker ones.

With the emergence of the
social media, the influence
of media on individual
started to be visible. The
social media empowered
the individual in a way the
mainstream media could
never do. Individuals now
had access to every
information, true or false,
fact or gossip, a click away.

Hajli (2014) sheds light on the
influence of the social media
on individuals as customers.
the author states that social
media has “provided new
opportunities to consumers to
engage in social interaction on
the internet”. This power has
allowed the consumers to
influence the decision of the
companies as well.

The media has had great influence on the children and youth especially
even prior to the rise of social media. The television programs especially
animated shows reached billions of children across the globe, which had
an effect on their way of thinking. Then, the social media emerged and
shaped the life of the youth. In a positive perspective, it provided the
youth with new employment opportunities and let them connect with
people around the world (Xenos, Vromen & Loader, 2014). in negative
perspective, it made them addicted to their phones thus hampering their
health and education.
Influence of media and social media on children and youth