MEDIA: ROLE AND INFLUENCE IN OUR LIVES

MEDIA: ROLE AND INFLUENCE IN OUR LIVES

Living in a society with every moment something happening around us, there exists certain and extreme requirement of information about what is happening around us, how it is related to us and how is it going to affect us. The purpose is being served by media right from the beginning of civilization. However, it has and is changing its forms very rapidly and very broadly. Some of the most basic and major forms of media are daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, radio, internet, T.V., magazines etc. Media is a strong force in modern culture. In the last few decades the influence and roles of media has grown many folds covering almost whole world, with the ever growing technology, from telegrams to radio, from radio to newspaper, magazines, T.V. and now the mostly used, the internet. The power of media can be understood from the fact that any innocent man can be proved guilty and any culprit can be proved innocent. When it comes to influence of media nationality, caste, creed, age etc. do not matter. Media, for the society, has been a huge part, acting as a mirror and representing the society as a whole, reflecting every aspect about it. Educating, informing and entertaining being its duties and providing all information that is required is sufficient enough for an individual for his survival in the society.
In the society we live, there is much dependency on media for doing what is right. All our day to day activities, including work, personal relationships, education, entertainment, health care, traveling and many more are dependent on media in a way or another. Most of the decisions we take and values and principles we follow are completely based on our knowledge of the fact that is dependent on our past experiences and some assumptions we make. In our routine life, we believe in media for current facts and news so as to what should be given importance and taken care of. We, in a way or other, trust the media with its news on entertainment, education and all the happenings around the globe (and beyond). The level of media saturation which is exists now, was not present before. In the recent past i.e. 4-5 decades ago, television had three networks primarily, public broadcasting, some local channels. These channels focused the telecasting mainly at middle‐class households. Even so, quite a number of middle‐class families did not even have a television. But in present times, we can find a T.V. in the families having even a very low income, and more than one TVs in most upper middle‐class homes. This does not only shows that the availability has increased and reach of media is expanding but also that shows and programmes are being made keeping in mind the requirements and choices of all classes of the society and all types of people.
Some of the theories related to the influence of media in our lives which discuss some very interesting aspects are:
The limited effects theory: it says that the influence of media is nearly negligible as people generally watch or read on the basis of what they already believe. The class dominant theory: it says that a minority elite class is the one which is reflected and projected by media. This basically deals with the fact that when the ownership of media is limited only few people can control over what others see or hear or read.
The culturist theory which combines the above two and conveys that people generally create their own meanings out of the messages they receive when they interact with media.
On one hand newspapers, magazines and other print media have become an important source of information and on the other hand they are acting as the tools of entertainment also. People eagerly wait for the newspapers every morning and spend some time of the morning reading the news which goes on for the whole day in some or the other form. There are news from sports, in vacancies in various companies, astrology, matrimonial ads, advertisements, animated shows and several other pages and sections that are really tempting to the minds into reading. Television is the most important part of tele-media and has been an indispensible part of our lives. The invention of television and its evolution as a major entertainment source has created a lot of opportunities for the commercial world globally and its development has been more rapid than anything else in all facets. The fact that people can see multimedia content over television and that it’s easier to believe what one sees makes it a possible chance that media can even change people’s perception. It is one of the most powerful forms of media that are available. It has got numerous channels containing informative and educative shows, which can be used as a tool to enhance the overall personality of children. The fact that internet has no limits and it is available uniformly in all the parts of the world makes it the uncrowned emperor of mass communication. Across the world, people using the Internet is increasing exponentially and more than it ever existed. Facebook, linkedin, Twitter and orkut have created a place in lives of people in the society that if someone is not involved in these social media he/she is considered or themselves feel leftovers or outliers in a bunch of people. At the same time the rise and development of speedy Internet, has made it feasible for us to connect to our relatives and to possible to talk to them any time we want, even if they are miles away in different countries, in a matter of seconds through interfaces like Skype and video conferences. Cinema is the other powerful forms of mass media. movies or cinemas pictorise the society in a more glamorous and attractive way. They provide entertainment with some issues which are sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly conveyed to us. The movies made on the lives of some great legends can change someone’s life by adding a lot of value, forever. We can take the example of Mahatma Gandhi our Father of the Nation. He was so moved by a play showing the life of Raja Harishchandra that he always followed and supported truthfulness in his life and also preached to do the same. So media altogether is not leaving any aspect of our lives untouched and we are totally surrounded by media in some or the other form.
Local school officials, Legislatures, media executives, and sociologists, all have raised and debated this controversial question of the role of media on us and it’s aspects. Opinions certainly vary as to the extent of influence the mass media in all its forms is wielding, all agree that media is an inseparable part of modern culture.
Due to its presence in all the sectors whether it is entertainment or sports or news or business or politics it creates a lot of impact socially as well as mentally on all age groups, on all castes, all creeds irrespective of the fact that it was meant to happen or irrespective of the fact that it’s a virtual world which is created only for the purpose of entertainment. It can be seen that people come out of cinema halls with a lot to discuss about society and even children coming over in colours of their favourite superhero spider man or hulk after seeing them on screen. The disappointment and anger that can be seen in fans when their favourite player or team loses a match or disappointment created when a political party loses in any state or the country are all examples of how media which acts as the medium for all this to reach the common man stirs the involvement of people and spills out their emotions. Another aspect which is covered by media to a great extent is the way we live, the standards we follow, the living style we want to have. Customized t-shirts with the names of your favourite teams written on it, the kind of makeup the celebrity use, the dresses they wear and even the products they use including FMCG products to high end products like automobiles, cell phones, jewellery etc. These prospects in turn affect a lot of other factors like business, economy, behaviour etc. let us see how. The kind of environment that reach to media has created in all economies and nations it has become obvious that industries will try to use it to the greatest extent so as to provide satisfaction to the customers and create new customer bases to increase their revenue and profits. It also creates competition among various firms to provide best possible products and services to their customers so s to improve and sustain their market share. Consequently it affects the overall economy of the nation. It has also created a greater sense of awareness among consumers as to what are they buying and using, better comparison options high involvement and hence increasing the effectiveness of businesses.
So having a look on different forms of media and the role it plays in our day to day lives by covering various aspects, we must not forget that what so ever force in this universe has a role to play in our lives affects our lives in some or the other way and it can be positive or negative or sometimes both. Media, similarly, has its some advantages and some disadvantages. On one hand if the dominance of media over the society is undesirable, media becoming a slave of the society and showing transitory choices rather than the real news is equally unethical. A very simple solution to this problem can be increased interaction between media and the common man. Also, any kind of provocative or controversial statements given or published by the media can lead to very negative impact among people and rage among society as our society is multi lingual, multi communal and cultural society. Society, from a long time has been accusing media for enormous number of factors like display of inappropriate content being the most common. Sometimes it is also accused of wrong practices and people regard it as an agent of misinformation or incomplete and biased information.
There are charges against media with emphasizing too much on creating sensational news for people of the society. Television channels and print media are trying to just make out money by showing people news wrong way, sometimes creating wrong sense. Complaints against the television channels that they are just telecasting shows that yield high TRP, and acquisitions that all channels are a mouthpiece of some or the other political party. But covering one aspect of media that it is telecasting shows or is publishing information which are inappropriate for some users or are biased to some entities or are misleading is not fair enough for what media has given to the society. A number of instances can be taken to prove that media has provided a path way for the world at many times which otherwise was not at all possible. Let us take the example of Malala Yusufzai. The kind of sacrifice and the level of bravery that a girl who was not even grown up enough in the eyes of the world would not have gained so much popularity and would not have got so much support from all across the world if media was not there. At the same time the kind of awareness and the level of inspiration that the news created, was overwhelming. So, it makes it quite clear that it is not the media which is having some disadvantages but it is we, the users who are not using it for the desired purpose or in an appropriate manner. When discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the mass media, we can clearly observe that it is no more possible to even think of reducing the use of media in any form. So it makes sense to state that the positive aspects of media is overtaking the negative sides and it is a required tool to help in the betterment society, however the limits, constraints and the apt way to use it remains totally in our hands and how we want our next generation to use it so that it adds positive values to the society.