It is impossible to underestimate the impact of Mass Media on every single person, and a society as a whole. For many centuries, starting with the invention of first printing machine, public opinion was extensively exposed to the influence of mass media. Ideally, mass media should be an independent body, whose main function is to reflect the reality, and provide people with new information, concerning economical, political and cultural aspects of life. But is it true that this is their only goal?
However, as everything in the world is influenced by something, mass media is also being influenced, which makes it lose the main purpose which it serves. It is well-known that by means of mass media people’s behavior and beliefs can be adapted to the goals of certain individuals or organizations. Nevertheless the dramatic effect of mass media may seem small at the first sight, because it is a long slow process of adding up necessary information in order to modify public opinion. With the invention of the Internet the interaction between public opinion and mass media has become even stronger; hence, the influence on public opinion has also become more intense.
As we know news programs on TV provide us with the current events going on worldwide, but it is already a fact that the same events are interpreted and shown differently in different countries. Before the news can be shown on TV they are altered in order to satisfy somebody’s needs. Thus, it is possible to say, that a process of “inventing reality” does really exists.
To sum up we can see that who owns the information he owns the world. In my opinion the main function of mass media should be just the reflection of reality, without any interpretations, adaptations and other means of misleading the people. But unfortunately nowadays mass media is one more way to control people.
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