Media

As a media literate person you should be very well informed about these issues. And not only for being media literate you have to be able to recognize the problem. Now that you have a bigger picture on mass media, and we discussed every big medium in detail and saw different theories on mass communication, after that you probably would agree that mass media have a profound effect on our lives in general and their every aspect in particular. You make decisions based on what you get from mass media, don’t matter if you agree or disagree with me. If you think that most of your knowledge, emotions and other things come from your parents, relatives, friends, coursemates, colleagues or from your own mental processes – you are wrong. Today’s world is much different from what was 1000, 100, 50 or even 10 years ago.
People ceased to acquire first-hand experience, instead most of their knowledge they get from second and third hands – books, magazines, newspapers, television, internet or from people that used these books, magazines, newspapers, television and internet. And at last, even if you oppose everything mass media offers you, if you try to make your own decisions, have your own thoughts and follow your own way, you still have to live in the society that is to a huge degree shaped by mass media. Unless you leave everything and everyone and settle somewhere high in the mountains.
So there should be no question if mass media affects you. But, it’s not so doomed as it seems, you can control the influence of mass media if you know what it is and how it works. And the issues of media freedom and ethics are important, because if we don’t have media freedom then our minds undergo government or corporate brainwash. If media has no ethics, then you get distorted information that can change your lives in a harmful way.
So, what is media freedom? If you remember from the presentation last week, media freedom according to the US Constitution is the right, guaranteed by the... [continues]

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