An Analysis: The Role and Impact of Media in Contemporary Society

This essay delves into the multifaceted role and impact of media in contemporary society, examining its influence on communication, information dissemination, and societal structures. It explores both the positive aspects, such as improved communication, increased knowledge, and enhanced educational opportunities, and the negative impacts, including potential health problems, rising unemployment rates, and the influence of media on individual beliefs and behaviors. The essay also discusses relevant theories like the limited effect theory and normalization social theory to understand how media shapes perceptions and influences the adoption of new technologies. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the transformative impact of media on modern life and its implications for individuals and society as a whole.

Discuss the Role and Impact
of Media in Contemporary
Society

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Role and impact of media in contemporary society....................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Media is a means of communication or some modes that helps in communicating people with
others. All modes of communication includes: internet, television, magazine and others (Havens
and Lotz, 2017). This study is going to show both positive and negative impacts of media on
society and people. Some positive impacts that it has include: improves communication, makes
people updated etc.
Role and impact of media in contemporary society
Media is playing an important role in this modern era and contemporary society. It plays a vital
role in social life. Nowadays people get informed by means of press and television mass media
facilitates spreading the information. Technology is directly associated with media and
technology is the one that creates media. Media refers communication whether written, spoken
or broadcast. It helps people in connecting, communicating and exchanging both private and
professional information. Mass media mainly include: radio, television, improved technology,
newspaper and magazine. Media reflects culture in this contemporary society. In professional
context it can be said that it promotes products, behaviours and attitudes that leads sense of what
is and what is not important. People are making use of media in educational field and with the
help of it they are conveying wide knowledge concerning all aspects of human beings lives
(Lindgren, 2017). The way of using media affects people’s point of view and their attitude to the
surrounding environment.
In addition, it can be said that social media are web based tools that makes people able to share
their views, knowledge, new information and interacting with others. Overall, it can be said that
it has changed the way people live their life and has made communication easier and effective.
Some different roles that media is playing in different fields and in the society include:
Increase peoples knowledge: Mass media keeps people update about information and all things
that are going around them. With the help of social media and news in television and radio,
people come to know about social activities, new lifestyle that people are adopting, crimes that
are happening in areas. It makes them aware, keeps them updated and also protects them against
becoming victims of crimes. The main aim of media is to empower citizens with information.
With the help of community radio, people can also reach to vulnerable people and help them out.
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Improve education system: Social media is playing a vital role in education as with the help of
internet and social media students can gather information related to their field and course. One of
the best examples of role of media in education is online study. Due to current climate change
covid-19, it is not possible for students to go to schools and college and it can impact on their
knowledge and study. But thanks to media and technology that has made able for teachers and
students to continue studies (Lane, 2020). With the help of mass media and technology, students
are increasing their knowledge. So, it can be said that media has several positive impacts on
society.
Increase businesses efficiency: There are different sectors of companies that are making use of
media and it is making their work easier. With the help of media, companies can reach to global
customers and can expand their business easily. It makes communication process easier.
Companies who allow remote working can get work done and can control on remote workers
with the help of media and technology. Some activities that are keys of business success and
have changed the way of functioning are marketing. Digital marketing is one of the best
examples of it that is beneficial for both customers and companies. It saves time as well as cost
of people and increases their experience.
On the other side, there are some negative impacts of media on society such as:
Increasing health problems: Due to increasing use of technology and media, students and
people spend a lot of time in playing games and scrolling updates. It consumes their lot of time
and because of it they cannot perform their other important work. It affects students the most as
students get lower marks because they spend time in media and do not focus on their study. Due
to giving lot of time to media and mobiles, people face problems like back ache, eyesight,
insomnia and others. It also affects their mental health as they become frustrated and this
frustration and irritated behaviour affects the society.
Increase unemployment rate: Due to increasing use of media and technology, companies are
cutting jobs and it is reducing manpower. Most of the works are being getting done with the help
of technology and social media. It increases unemployment rate that is affecting economy of the
country (Siddiqui and Singh, 2016). When people do not get employment opportunities only
because of increasing use of technology and media even after having knowledge then they
become bound to commit crime like kidnapping, theft and others for fostering their family. It
increases fear among society members and also affect quality of life of people.
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Limited effect theory: As per the limited effect theory of roles of media it is believed that
people choose what to watch or read based on belief as what they believe and that is why media
exerts a negligence influence. It is also found that well informed people relied on personal
experience, their prior knowledge and own reasoning. Impacts of media are mainly depending
upon the way of using media and belief of people (Siddiqui and Singh, 2016). It is argued by
some people that this theory ignores actual roles and impacts of media in framing as well as
limiting the discussion of issues.
Normalization social theory: It is a sociological theory in technological study. This theory
mainly deals in adoption of advanced and effective technology that can make companies
innovative. Kit has been built on normalization process model that explains social process that
leads to routine embedding of innovative technologies (Krzyżanowski, 2020). By making use of
this, people and mass media can make use of technologies in an effective manner and can
accomplish goals. It can help media in implementation, embedding and integration of new
technologies from collective set of learning workshop.
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CONCLUSION
It has been summarized from the above study that media plays a vital role in society and
has changed the way of living. It has also discussed some negative impacts that media and
technology is having on society and in different fields such as: increase unemployment rate and
affect mental and physical health.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ayesha, B.B., The Media Reach and Impact. Magna Carta, p.325.
Havens, T. and Lotz, A., 2017. Understanding media industries. Oxford University Press.
Krzyżanowski, M., 2020. Normalization and the discursive construction of “new” norms and
“new” normality: discourse in the paradoxes of populism and neoliberalism.
Lane, D.S., 2020. Social media design for youth political expression: Testing the roles of
identifiability and geo-boundedness. New Media & Society, 22(8), pp.1394-1413.
Lindgren, S., 2017. Digital media and society. Sage.
Siddiqui, S. and Singh, T., 2016. Social media its impact with positive and negative
aspects. International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and
Research, 5(2), pp.71-75.
Siddiqui, S. and Singh, T., 2016. Social media its impact with positive and negative
aspects. International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and
Research. 5(2). pp.71-75.
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