The Cost of Bad Media Information

The media continues to represent the country’s attitudes by thrusting immoderates into the limelight. On the Sunday news shows, the freaks like George Wills and Pat Buchanans are lined up beside Dr. Paul Krugman and Sen. Patrick Leahy, as if they had the weight and soundness of real intellects.

The results are dismally predictable. Craziness sounds like sanity, so the careless listener gives it credit. We get opinions that poll as if the entire constituency of the country were gaga. Today’s AP poll results were released, and we who keep pounding out facts and trying to counterbalance the lies are discouraged.

What is the majority convinced of by bad information?

Torture is okay if it gives good results, even though (1) it’s illegal and unconstitutional and (2) the results of torture are known to be unusable as actual intelligence.

Closing Gitmo is okay, but not if it’s hard work.

While the total failures of the ideology that prevailed through disgusting tactics for eight years has had some effect of alienating the afflicted public, continuing media coverage of war criminals that erases their crimes works against their outright rejection.

Folks, we need to be clearer. Prosecution is going to have to follow crime, and the polls show it. While they knew they were being robbed, your average Joes,Janes are just not making the connection that the folks who were robbing them were the ones charged with enforcing the laws. We don’t make the point until we actually do enforce them.

The media doesn’t do its job until we give it no choice.

INTRODUCTION OF MEDIA

One of the most important features of style sheets is that they specify how a document is to be presented on different media: on the screen, on paper, with a speech synthesizer, with a braille device, etc.Certain C S S properties are only designed for certain media On occasion, however, style sheets for different media types may share a property, but require different values for that property. For example, the 'font-size' property is useful both for screen and print media. The two media types are different enough to require different values for the common property; a document will typically need a larger font on a computer screen than on paper. Therefore, it is necessary to express that a style sheet, or a section of a style sheet, applies to certain media types.

MEDIA STUDIES

The most useful way to evaluate and interpret trends in media portrayals studied in the coding project is through theory in communication, psychology, and other related fields, e.g., Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication on modeling and learning; Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory on the impact of media violence; Phillips’ Media Contagion Theory on the spread of suicide.

POWER OF MEDIA

Until recently Murdoch's satellite carried BBC television news. When the Chinese regime complained that unwelcome news was reaching into China, Murdoch obliged and kicked the BBC off the satellite. The American company CNN, which is owned by the billionaire Ted Turner, is the model of the 'information age'. CNN made its reputation with its round the clock coverage of the Gulf War. It was CNN that we saw relayed on the BBC and ITV during the war. Who can forget the lit up skies over Baghdad coming to us live, and the excited commentators describing the accuracy of the new 'smart' weapons and the preciseness of the 'surgical' strikes: so precise that missiles could go round corners and so smart they could distinguish between good people and bad people? And we actually saw it happening on television. Or rather we thought we did. The message was clear: war at last had become a science. And this was a war, according to the Independent newspaper, 'with miraculously few casualties'. Long after the Gulf War I remember vividly one surreal moment from television. It was on the BBC's arts programme, The Late Show, which devoted an edition to foreign correspondents talking about their adventures in the Gulf War. As each one spoke, the background filled with images from the war itself: mostly tanks and artillery and missiles flashing brilliantly in the night. Then suddenly the scene changed to bulldozers at work, and the reporters' monologue was overwhelmed by shocking pictures they couldn't see behind them. Driven by American soldiers, the bulldozers were pushing thousands of bodies into mass graves. Many of the bodies were crushed, as if they'd been run over. To my knowledge, the BBC's subversive blink was the only time the British public was allowed to see the true extent of the slaughter in the Gulf.
The nature of the crime committed in the Gulf was never stated in the media � in the same way that 20 years after the war in Vietnam, it is extremely unusual to see or read in the media the truth that the United States attacked Vietnam, not tried to save it. As in Vietnam, so it was in the Gulf, where the mass murder of people was passed off as 'tragic', at times even 'a mistake'. Both were described as 'noble crusades'. Recently, the Guardian carried a small item that only 8 percent of the weapons used in the Gulf War were so called 'smart' weapons, and that the majority were old fashioned, highly inaccurate 'dump bombs'. And we now know that most of them missed their military targets, killing tens of thousands of men, women and children, including the very Shia and Kurd minorities that the West claimed to be defending. A basic function of the modern hi-tech media is to 'normalise the unthinkable', a term that comes from a fine essay by Edward Herman called The Banality of Evil. Herman wrote, 'Doing terrible things in an organised and systematic way rests on normalisation. There is usually a division of labour in doing and rationalising the unthinkable, with the direct brutalising and killing done by one set of individuals and others working on improving technology [such as new weapons]. But it is the function of the mainstream media to normalise the unthinkable for the general public.' Of course this is not a new concept. At the height of the pointless slaughter known as the First World War, the British prime minister, David Lloyd George, told the editor of the Guardian, C P Scott, 'If the public knew the truth, the war would end tomorrow. But they don't know and can't know.' When President Johnson unleashed American bombers on North Vietnam in 1964, he did so only after the media had helped him sell to Congress a cock-and-bull story that Communist gunboats had attacked American ships in the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam. On the basis of this lie, the greatest bombing in history followed, legitimising the American invasion and the carnage of the next ten years, in which at least 3 million people were killed.

Is the media all powerful?

Politicians and political commentators everywhere are obsessed with the media. Bill Clinton's aides are trying to recruit sympathetic radio talk show hosts in the belief that right wing radio was the key to the recent Republican landslide.³ The Italian political elite is still in awe of Berlusconi's media influence. 'TV is everywhere,' one expert commented recently. 'In the last decade it has literally hypnotised Italians'.⁴ Meanwhile American Republican Newt Gingrich is proclaiming that the new cable technology is the basis of a revolutionary new 'hyper-democracy'.

But this obsession runs deepest on the left. The British Labour Party has been fascinated with the media for years. The leadership have used the notion of an all powerful media as a key justification for shifting the party to the right. Kinnock spent the best part of the 1980s hounding socialists out of the party and ditching radical policies claiming this would make the party 'media friendly'. By the 1992 election shadow ministers were complaining that media consultants were actually setting the party's agenda. When Labour lost in 1992 Kinnock predictably blamed 'the Conservative supporting press'.⁵ Since Blair, 'the media's choice', has taken over, he has been wining and dining the media moguls and his colleagues have been loudly welcoming the commercially led 'communications revolution'.⁶

Their argument is simple. If the media corporations are all powerful, then it is only sensible to mould policy to the media's whims and throw out all principles and all ambition for change. This has been the path taken by the Labour Party and a good deal of the left internationally over the last ten years. The consequence in Britain is that working people no longer have a parliamentary party that even talks in terms of basic working class demands for cheap housing, improved benefits, or comprehensive education.

Meanwhile, those who look for fundamental change are hampered by the suspicion that it is impossible to compete with the media corporations for the hearts and minds of the mass of the population.

That is why it is vital that socialists challenge the often unspoken assumptions of the media pessimists: that the media is always the main source of people's information and understanding about the world, that people religiously believe all it says, and that the mass media itself, the factory for ruling class ideas, can never be disrupted.
OWNER SHIP

The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production.⁷

The British ruling class has always taken the media very seriously. Since the earliest days of capitalism it has sought to establish effective control. During the 19th century the capitalists fought hard to destroy a popular radical press that was a strong focus of working class organisation. In 1836 radical London based newspapers had a readership of more than 2 million. Even the government admitted that the circulation of the radical papers exceeded that of the 'respectable' press.⁸ Papers like the Northern Star, the Poor Man's Guardian and Reynold's News were crucial to organising and generalising the Chartist movement. 'On the day the newspaper the Northern Star ... was due', one activist wrote, 'the people used to line the roadside waiting for its arrival, which was paramount to everything else for the time being'.⁹ As early as 1819 one MP complained:

So called 'independent' broadcasting has always been owned by big business. The government's 1988 white paper on broadcasting declared that 'clear rules will be needed which impose limits on concentration of ownership and on excessive cross media ownership in order to keep the market open for newcomers and to prevent any tendency towards editorial uniformity or domination by a few groups'.²⁰

But, in fact, since the 1990 broadcasting act Central has merged with Carlton, Meridian has acquired Anglia and Granada has taken over London Weekend Television. Carlton now has a 15 percent share in Good Morning Television, a 50 percent stake in London News Network and a 36 percent stake in Independent Television News. Regulations were suspended for satellite ownership, making a complete mockery of the government's commitment to limiting cross media ownership. Rupert Murdoch's Sky television now dominates British satellite.²¹

The situation is little different elsewhere in the world. Berlusconi's domination of the Italian media is legendary. In Germany Leo Kirch presides over 40 media companies including Europe's largest distributor of films and TV programmes, Germany's main film production company and Springer, Germany's biggest newspaper house.²² Everywhere the media industry is well integrated into the wider capitalist economy. In Brazil 63 percent of TV sets are tuned in to market leader TV Globo at any given time. Globo, which makes all five top rated programmes in Brazil, is a business empire, with interests in computers and telecommunications as well as shares in financial, real estate, mineral and manufacturing companies.²³

Meanwhile, media moguls like Murdoch, Berlusconi and Henry Luce with Warner Brothers have created corporate structures and media systems that span continents. Times-Warner, by 1989 the biggest media corporation and valued at $18 billion, has bases in Latin America, Asia, Europe and Australia, and employs over 340,000 staff. In 1990 it modestly changed its motto to, 'The world is our audience'

The Persuasive Press Inference with mass MEDIA effacts

Recent theoretical models propose that mass media, apart from any influence they may have on personal opinions, can also influence an individual's perceptions of what other people are thinking. But how this influence on perceived public opinion might take place remains a question. One answer proposed here—the persuasive press inference—suggests that people infer public opinion from their perceptions of the content of media coverage and their assumptions of the persuasive impact of that coverage on others. Data were gathered in an experiment measuring participant responses to news stories on two current issues, each presented with either a favorable or unfavorable slant. The slant of both news articles had a significant effect on participants' judgments of public opinion on those issues, even when adjusted for the effect of projected personal opinion. Findings supported the hypothesis that people appear to estimate public opinion based on their own reading of press coverage—an indirect effect of mass media that can have significant consequence.

THE EFFECTS OF MASS MEDIA VIOLENCE ON CHILDREN

Our paper presentation aims at the negative effects of media violence on children. As we all know that violent images on television, as well as in the movies, have inspired people to set spouses on fire in their beds, lie down in the middle of highways, extort money by placing bombs in airplanes, rape, steal, murder, and commit numerous other shootings and assaults. Over 1,000 case studies have proven that media violence can have negative affects on children as well. It increases aggressiveness and anti-social behavior, makes them less sensitive to violence and to victims of violence, and it increases their appetite for more violence in entertainment and in real life. Media violence is especially damaging to young children, age 8 and under1, because they cannot tell the difference between real life and fantasy. Violent images on television and in movies may seem real to these children and sometimes viewing these images can even traumatize them. We have done our research on 50 parents having children within the age group of 3 – 9 by asking them the types of programmes mostly watched by their children, their daily habits, their behavior with their friends, family members and teachers etc. so that we are able to assess the real impact on the child and his family. The result came out to be quite negative rather than positive. Finally our conclusion consists of the complete scenario of our research and study. “Monkey see, monkey do” has become a well-known saying in today’s society, but is it correct? Just sixty years ago the invention of the television was viewed as a technological curiosity with black and white ghost-like figures on a screen so small hardly anyone could see them. Today that curiosity has become a constant companion to many, mainly children. From reporting the news and persuading us to buy certain products, to providing programs that depict violence, television has all but replaced written material. Unfortunately, it is these violent programs that are endangering our present-day society. Violent images on television, as well as in the movies, have inspired people to set spouses on fire in their beds, lie down in the middle of highways, extort money by placing bombs in airplanes, rape, steal, murder, and commit numerous other shootings and assaults. Over 1,000 case studies have proven that media violence can have negative affects on children as well. It increases aggressiveness and anti-social behavior, makes them less sensitive to violence and to victims of violence, and it increases their appetite for more violence in entertainment and in real life. Media violence is especially damaging to young children, age 8 and under1, because they cannot tell the difference between real life and fantasy. Violent images on television and in movies may seem real to these children and sometimes viewing these images can even traumatize

MY IDEA AND RESEARCH

An average Indian child spends about 28 hours a week with T.V. and 36 hours a week in a classroom. By the time of his graduation he spends 18000 hours in front of a T.V. set and only 13000 hours in a classroom. So generally observes 200,000 violent acts and 16000 murders through media. Perhaps you’re thinking, Wait a minute, kids are going to learn more from their parents than the TV. I wouldn’t count on it. If your child spends more time in front of TV than talking with you, there’s a good chance the TV is teaching him more than you think.FACTS The American Academy of Child and Adult Psychology, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychological Association all agree that violence in the media is related to real-life aggression. According to IDC , 57% of T.V. program contain violence which any how effects the mind of every child. Children programming like pokemon, bayblade, popeye etc contains 5 times more violence than prime time television. 25% of these violent acts involve handguns and other harmful weapons. Children’s TV shows contain about 20 violent acts each hour.

The Effects of Mass Media History and Theory of New Media

How much we are realizing about the effects of mass media today? I do not think that we are realizing much, I mean we know some points but we are just ignore that because it has already been part of our life. You can often see a world where media can control and alter human life.

I would like to propose several ways to approach about mass media today using by the case of the commercialization, animations, and media cultures. Animations, television, and computers are facts of life for today's people, especially children. "The effect of TV, as the most recent and spectacular electric ex! tension of our central nervous system, is hard to grasp for various reasons. Since it has affected the totality of our lives, personal and social and political¡ (McLuhan, 317). One reason children are so vulnerable to the messages of television is that they take what they see on television to be reality. Very young children equate all of television with reality.

The first approach about the media cultures today, I will show a case that the young child has been influenced by the mass media which they took advantage of him. Naturally, as children get older they adopt new definitions of television reality; however, I was so surprised that how much the mass media can change their viewpoint in such an early age. The MBC Korean broadcasting television decided to start a program that a famous pop group (called Groove Over Dose- G.O.D.) of five male singers will babysat a nine-month-old baby until the baby (name Jaemin Han) become two years old. The parents of the baby are both working, so the G.O.D. will babysat the baby three days a week. The TV episode (called "The Babydiary") was start on March 5, 2000 and the program shows on every week to show a whole week's diary. They live in a boarding house, so the baby can live with them three days per week. The each group member shares five different parts, which are the father, mother, cook, recreation and fashion coordinator. The group member's ages are from 18 to 27 years old. The oldest member is a father and his role is to take the responsibility for everything. The mother's role is put the baby to sleep and have to take care the baby even though he awakes ! from sleep in the middle of the night. The cook has to figure out how to make the baby food, how many times he has to feed the milk a day and how warm the milk should be, etc. The recreation person's role should entertain him especially when he starts to cry and grumble. At the last but not the least the fashion coordinator's role is not only make him look pretty but also practical. Everything is so new to them too, so it has been took a while to adjust each person's role for couple months.

Visual Media Effects

In the course of our life we meet every day the visual media: we watch television, read magazines, surf on the Internet, play computer games and see smaller or bigger posters everywhere in the city which advertising newer, better and more practical produces. However, these situations have already become so natural, that we usually don’t realise how they impress us. Because of it, we tend to forget all about the next questions: What do we know about the effects of the visual media? How can it influence our way of thinking, deeds and of course our every day life? Is it possible, that more or less the media direct every people’s life? If it is true, isn’t it frightful? On the other hand, is it useful or harmful for us? Can the visual media give good example for young people? All of these questions are very difficult and complex, but if we can squarely answer them, we can easily know the effects of the visual media.

At the beginning of this millennium the European people couldn’t see pictures at all, and if eventually he or she could, the effect was incredible, what is more, according to several notes, it was mind-bending – at the same time, at the end of the same millennium, people next door to see only pictures, discover the world just by lantern lecture.” – wrote Péter Balassa aesthete in the last years of the twentieth century. His words may a bit exaggerate, but they are cut out for show the development of the technology and present each person’s position in the World. Out of the almost countless visual information, we get day by day maybe the most impressive is the data from television. After this machine had spread widely around the world, the use of this mass communication medium became one of the animal needs. It was recognised by the TV channels, and laying hold of it, without too much limitation, they started to relay every kind of programme in order to extend their watching and profit. However, some of them were very harmful for kids. Luckily, scientists started to deal with this problem anymore in the early 1970s, but the opinion of the society’s majority about their research work was sceptical. The first survey, which was concerned expressly with the negative effects of the television watching, was created by an American psychologist, Eli A. Rubinstein, in 1972. The results were very pessimistic, but the average people did not take it seriously. Ten years later Rubinstein repeated the survey, but the conclusion was not better than last time: children, who watched more television than the others, became more aggressive in the course of playing. However, the American and other governments just in the early 1990’s started to deal with this problem. Maybe ever the most extensive study of this topic was made by the Columbia University. It finished in 2007 and the investigators monitored the changes of habits of more than 700 families over 17 years. The director of the project, Jeffry Johnson shortly concluded his experiences. ‘The immoderate television watching can contribute to develop syndromes which cause verbal and physical aggression, sleeping problems, obesity and attention and study difficulties.’ Moreover, according to this survey the time, we spend watching television and our aggression level are directly proportional to one another. For example at the adults, who spent more than 3 hours watching television when they were 14 years old, the number of drastic actions were fivefold, than those people who were watching television at the most 1 hour in the same age. Maybe these results are dumbfounding, but we can’t leave out of consideration the fact, that the environment in which we live, our mental outfit and of course, that when and what kind of programme we are or were watching determine in large, how the television affect on us.

The misinforming television programmes often have a big share in influencing our way of thinking. I don’t think so, that if we can’t find out from a ‘sensationalist show’ (for example Favorit, Aktív or Fókusz), where Győzike spend his holiday with her new girlfriend, our deeds or worldview will change incredibly, but lot of films can very harmful, especially for young people, because they may give bad example for them. What is more, television programmes often dispossess kids of first hand experiences. It is a serious problem, because the observations are very important for the 8-12 year old age-group. It helps them form their own world view, develop relationships, friendships, and try to start their more or less independent life. This period determine how they can fit in the society and of course how they will react later the events of their life, which aren’t always fair or happy. However, the television programmes show children a complete, maybe isn’t exactly true world, in which is easier and more comfortable than in the concrete. Moreover, in these imaginative worlds, usually the reactions of the people are really very different from the real. The ‘bad boys’ are always rude, but instead of getting punishment, they usually get premium from their boss, who is also vulgar. At the same time, it isn’t only the parameter of the ‘bad boys’. Very often ‘good boys’ practice aggression and break the rules in order to catch the offenders. What is more, according to a survey, the aggressive scenes are in the most stressful period of the films. All of these things can issue in, that those children, who watch a lot of television, can become adults, who think, that the world in which we live is as dangerous as those ones we see in the movies. Moreover, these people overrate the chance that they fall prey to crime, and they think that their neighbourhood isn’t safe enough. The last two things emphatically point at the biggest disadvantage of the television aggression: it has very serious character formative effect. However, the governments all over the world try to fight against with several methods the negative effects of the television.

Nowadays everybody has more or less information about the negative effects of the aggressive, rude and misinforming television programmes, and luckily the governments try to do something against these immoral movies. After our country joined to the EU (European Union) in 2001, the Hungarian ORTT (National Radio and Television Establishment) in order to reduce these effects (and keep the general direction which was made by the EEC (European Economic Community) in 1989 and renewed by the EU in 1997), expanded a symbol system which has to use every television channel in Hungary. It means that every television programmes are in four categories: without age limit, age limit 12, age limit 16 and age limit 18. Moreover, before a programme, its category has to be shown in words and in writing, and until the number, a symbol have to be marked in one of the nooks of the screen. The American government had set earlier a symbol system, which was similar to the inland, but it wasn’t so successful than it was expected. Because of it in 1999 the V-chip was inducted in the USA. This is a small machine, which is attachable to the television, and it can filter out the drastic programmes having a special code. However, the

V-chips lived up to expectations neither. According to a survey, ‘the 40% of the American families have V-chip, but only the 17% of them use it’. What is more, some of them didn’t know how to use it. Now it seems, that the violence-chip wasn’t a successful try, but who knows what the future may hold in store? The American scientists and politicians may try to expand a new method, with which they can reduce the television aggression. On the other hand, the governments and television channels aren’t only responsible for the children’s more and more aggressive behaviour. According to professionals, the parents should better hark to what kind of media content their children run against. ‘The huge amount of stimuli, which the children’s minds get from the television, without elaboration and exploration is very harmful. If the family talks about the seen things, a brutal scene can’t cause any problem’ says Bettina Füleki psychologist. She believes that the parents try to devolve their own responsibility when they blame television companies for their children’s rising aggression level. However, after the computers spread and became daily incredibly fast, the brutal computer games may cause more serious problems than television programmes.

An 18 year old man, Devin Moore, was promoted to a police station in Alabama, because he had stolen a car. First he was co-operate, but some minutes later he got a gun from a policeman and shot down three people and he ran away with a police car. After his interception he said, that the life was like a video game; sometime everyone had to die. According to the lawyers of the victims, Moore isn’t the only one amenable of the murders. They think that the Take-Two Interactive Inc., the Walmart and GameStop shops and the Sony Computer Entertainment have to assume one part of the responsibility, because Moore was infatuated of the Grand Theft Auto computer game, and he merely tried out a situation with which he has already managed countless in the virtual world. This tragic story shows, that how dangerous can be a computer game. Moreover, we can’t leave out of consideration the fact, that in these days companies produce more and more games, like GTA. Luckily, similar to the television programmes a symbol system was expanded for computer games too.

An American company, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) setting the children’s interests before its own financial success, try to help the parents to make head of the labyrinth of video games. It is a ’non-profit, self-regulatory body that independently assigns ratings, enforces advertising guidelines, and helps ensure responsible online privacy practices for the interactive entertainment software industry.’ This frame rates into 7 classes the games: EC (Early Childhood), E (Everyone), E10+ (Everyone 10 and older), T (Teen), M (Mature), AO (Adults Only) and RP (Rating Pending). These classes are determined by 32 main aspects, in this way the rates accurately reveal what the game is in truth. So this symbol system helps the parents to find the best games for their children’s age.

After these negative effects we have to see, that the visual media has positive effects too. According to Steven Johnson, who has already written some books in this topic, we become cleverer, because the more complex a media content, the more complex thinking procession is necessary. Moreover the researchers of the Rochester University determined, that the people, who play video games can take more information and can better hark to the fast changing or far-away things. What is more, according to an other study, the women, who haven’t got as good visual abilities as men, after a short game with a three dimensional video game, can execute a visual test as good as men. Besides this, the visual media has very many other kinds of effects.

Mass media interventions: effects on health services utilisation.

The mass media frequently cover health related topics, are the leading source of information about important health issues, and are targeted by those who aim to influence the behaviour of health professionals and patients. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of mass media on the utilisation of health services. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group specialised register (1996 to 1999), MEDLINE, EMBASE, Eric, PsycLit (to 1999), and reference lists of articles. We hand searched the journals Communication Research (February 1987 to August 1996), European Journal of Communication (1986 to 1994), Journal of Communication (winter 1986 to summer 1996), Communication Theory (February 1991 to August 1996), Critical Studies in Mass Communication (March 1984 to March 1995) and Journalism Quarterly (1986 to summer 1996). SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised trials, controlled clinical trials, controlled before-and-after studies and interrupted time series analyses of mass media interventions. The participants were health care professionals, patients and the general public. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed study quality. MAIN RESULTS: Twenty studies were included. All used interrupted time series designs. Fifteen evaluated the impact of formal mass media campaigns, and five of media coverage of health-related issues. The overall methodological quality was variable. Six studies did not perform any statistical analysis, and nine used inappropriate statistical tests (ie not taking into account the effect of time trend). All of the studies apart from one concluded that mass media was effective. These positive findings were confirmed by our re-analysis in seven studies. The direction of effect was consistent across studies towards the expected change. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS: Despite the limited information about key aspects of mass media interventions and the poor quality of the available primary research there is evidence that these channels of communication may have an important role in influencing the use of health care interventions. Although the findings of this review may be affected by publication bias, those engaged in promoting better uptake of research information in clinical practice should consider mass media as one of the tools that may encourage the use of effective services and discourage those of unproven effectiveness.

Positive Effects of our Media

Media has served as a boon to mankind. It has provided us with an exposure to the world outside our cozy homes. It has resulted in an exchange of views on a variety of subjects of a wide variety of people from all around the world, thereby leading to a global sharing of knowledge. Mass media has given each of us a platform to voice our opinions on all sorts of social and political issues and share information with one another. It has brought out easy ways of communication and provided us with easily accessible means to reach out to people on the other side of the planet. Thanks to the technological development, we have been able to achieve a platform that enables us to present ourselves to the rest of the world. The negative influences of media that are a result of an overexposure to it, are most often talked about. It is true to a certain extent that media has affected the society in a negative manner. But, undoubtedly, media has proved being a bliss. To know how, look at the wide range of the positive effects of the media. Positive Effects of the Media The media like television, radio and the Internet increase an overall awareness of the masses. They enhance the general knowledge by providing us with information from all over the world. News broadcasted through different media helps us know about the day-to-day events in the world. News, telefilms and documentaries revolving around social issues increase a social awareness in children and develop their concern towards society. Newspapers, apart from updating us with the latest news and new information, also contribute to the enhancement of our vocabulary. Newspapers are the best beginners in developing reading habits in children. Through the print media, they provide the general public with a platform to give updates about their parts of the city, exchange their views over different issues that the society faces and share their thoughts on a larger scale. Media serve as the best means for a speedy spread of news about important incidents or events taking place. What has happened in the remotest corner of the world can reach us within minutes, thanks to media. The speed that technology has achieved is helpful in times of crisis when media is to be used for reporting news needing immediate attention. Research has revealed that media is responsible for influencing a major part of our daily life. Media contribute to a transformation in the cultural and social values of the masses. Media can bring about a change in the attitudes and beliefs of the common man. The persuasive nature of the content presented over media influences the thoughts and behavior of the general public. Media has a direct impact over the lifestyle of society. The recent advent of blogging in the media world and practices like public polls and citizen journalism, have led to the achievement of a social control. These concepts have strengthened the relationship between the media and the common man. They have brought the general masses closer to their society. Media has brought about a major transformation in the way the masses think. Media has given them an excellent platform to present themselves before the world and contribute in their own way to the changing world scenario. Media has been responsible for making the world a smaller place to live.

Media Effects & Propaganda

October 30th 1938 was one of the most important dates in the history of mass media and its impact on society. Produced by Orson Welles, the radio broadcast of ???War of the Worlds??? created nationwide panic and thus allowed anyone to see the social effects that were made possible by the media. Interestingly, while panic was observed during the broadcast, some people were still able to remain calm and collected. Two years later, this led physiologists Hadley Cantril, Hazel Gaudet, and Herta Herzog to study the phenomenon where some people seemed more susceptible to the effects of the radio broadcast as compared to others. What they found out was that those who were not frightened were not suggestible because they displayed what psychologists called a ???critical faculty??? (pg. 589). The lack of critical faculty was the lack of the ability to create a framework in which to check if the information were true. People who lacked critical faculty included those in the lower income bracket or educational level, as they would have considerably limited sources of information to refer to (pg. 582). Radio was the most accessible media for them and would be a reason why they seemed to exhibit the most panic. The psychologists behind this paper could be likened to early communication researchers who delved into the mind in order to better understand ones behaviors. They performed standard research methodology including interviewing 135 persons as their sample size, and created a working framework of four psychological conditions in which to classify people???s behaviors. This was in a sense an early study of media effects on society.

There seems to be a natural call to study the effects of media that was considered new to the time. Be it radio, motion picture, television, people do realize that the introduction of ???new??? media creates some kind of change. It would be normal for one to desire better understanding of the media effect, and eventually control it if possible. The Payne Fund Studies on the effects of movies on children was a classic example of how important it is to study media effects. Parents of children who frequented movies were concerned over the effects of the content of motion pictures towards their children. While the pressure mounted whether movies were having a negative effect on their children, it became increasingly clear that research was needed (pg. 23). This need gave birth to the scientific study of mass communication and scholars saw this as the perfect opportunity to go deeper into their research. Instead of merely discovering the influential source of propaganda, communication scientists took the first major steps in defining the cause-effect relationships within the framework of science (pg. 24). Of all the scientific work conducted, Herbert Blumer produced the most interesting research consisting of autobiographical accounts from more then 1,800 young men and women, adolescents and children. His work revealed two processes, namely the meaning theory and modeling theory, which accounted for how movies influenced children. With the idea that his research was mostly qualitative, not quantitative, Blumer shows us scholars that there is room for detailed and analytical research in exploratory studies in place of scientific studies alone.

Although these two studies focus on the effects of media on our everyday life, the same research could be applied to the study of propaganda. According to web's???Propaganda is a specific type of message presentation, aimed at serving an agenda. Even if the message conveys true information, it may be partisan and fail to paint a complete and balanced picture. The primary use of the term is in political contexts and generally refers to efforts sponsored by governments and political parties.??? With the study of media effects in mind, governments worldwide employ widespread tactics in order to influence the people of their enemy. On the left, we see the US Marines 350th PSYOPS Company passing out leaflets and broadcasting messages in Al Kut, Iraq on May 2nd, 2003. Note that in place of the heavy weaponry on the top of the vehicle, there is a series of loudhailers instead. The study of media effects has spawned many functional theories today, including Agenda-Setting theory, Cultivation theory, Cultural Imperialism theory, Diffusion theory, Functional Approach to Mass Communication, Human Action Approach theory, Media Dependency, Media Equation, Rules-Based theory, Spiral of Silence theory, Technological Determinism theory, and the Uses and Gratifications theory. The compatibility of such theories to more recent media such as the Internet showcases the utility of these theories. Similar to the two studies mentioned in our readings, media effects research has been conducted on the Internet covering ranges of topics such as Internet censorship and online interest groups. In conclusion, I believe that the study of media effects is an interesting and evolving field with high utilitarian value.

Research on the Effects of Media Violence

Whether or not exposure to media violence causes increased levels of aggression and violence in young people is the perennial question of media effects research. Some experts, like University of Michigan professor L. Rowell Huesmann, argue that fifty years of evidence show "that exposure to media violence causes children to behave more aggressively and affects them as adults years later." Others, like Jonathan Freedman of the University of Toronto, maintain that "the scientific evidence simply does not show that watching violence either produces violence in people, or desensitizes them to it."

Media And Its Negative Effects

Media and the Negative Effects on Body Image Many things contribute to how a woman feels about her body. Peer pressure, family history, and age all play important roles in how people feel about how they look. The media can also play a dominant role on body image, as it almost always ties success, health, and happiness with being thin. To clarify body image, it is how you see yourself when you look in the mirror or picture yourself in your mind. With the constant exposure to media images of the “ideal” female body it is presenting an unrealistic “ideal” difficult to achieve and maintain it can lead to depression, lower self-esteem, and increases unhealthy eating habits. The average model portrayed in the media is approximately 5'11" and 110 pounds while the average American woman is 5'4" and 140 pounds (Holmstrom, 2004). The portrayal of the ’ideal’ body size for women has changed in the media from the 1950’s of the full-figured, curved figure of Marilyn Monroe to the more modern thinner “stick-like” look of Kate Moss (Almond, 2000). Young girls look at these women as role models. As a result, Instead of realizing the distortion that these models have undergone like touch-ups, airbrushing, and digital editing these girls spend time worrying about how to lose weight. There are several ways that an individual may cope with the situation. They may attempt to modify their body to match the ideal through diet pills or extreme diet fads. They may conceal their body with loose clothing or avoid the situation by avoiding playing sports or participating in gym class. These individuals may also compensate by pursuing more attainable ideals on other valued dimensions of appearance such as a new hair style. While these various strategies serve to manage distress in the short term, they do little to produce body acceptance. If anything, avoidance and concealment simply reinforce one’s sense of physical unacceptability. Opponents may...

Negative Effects of False Media Images:

Since the birth of communication, media has been used to convey information to those willing to absorb it. Beginning with publications and simple spoken words, and soaring to new heights in the twentieth century with radio, television, and the internet, media have been made accessible to people in every aspect of their daily lives. With such a strong hold on modern society, mass media have been able to shape popular culture and often influence PUBLIC opinion. However, when abused, the power of media can harm the general population. Biased media tend to make people strive to be someone else's idea of perfect while subconsciously ignoring their own goals. Stereotypes formed by the media that include thin, tanned women, and wealthy, muscular men have led to a decline in self-acceptance. The majority of media today often present the perfect body to the public, hoping that consumers will strive to achieve fitness using a certain product or idea. While this form of advertising may somewhat increase a product's market share, many people suffer from inner conflicts as a result of failure to achieve the body of a top athlete or fashion model. Along with emotional conflicts, those influenced by the media have encountered physical problems, including bulimia, anorexia, and the employment of harmful dietary plans. Unless reality is discerned from what is presented in certain media, some people will continue to suffer. Consumers could find the truth more easily if media offered products advertised by normal people without all the extra glamor. In addition to this, if the public could view advertising only as something to get one's attention and not a portrayal of how one should look, there would be fewer problems. Until either is accomplished, the negative effects will be felt by the vulnerable, and companies will continue to make their money. Those consumers given a false impression about a product through various forms of media are the ones who suffer most from our society's portrayal of the perfect body. After being influenced by a television commercial or a magazine pictorial, certain people in this world will purchase an item hoping that the same success shown in the medium will be had by them as well. The truth of the matter is that this hardly ever happens. Every day, ugly people wear sensual cologne, and slow runners wear Carl Lewis track shoes. Mentally, some may feel an improvement but in reality nothing has changed. Realization of this leads to the demise of many individuals' self - pride. The severity of both the MENTAL and physical damage done to the person depends on the case. Some may resort to extreme diets, more unnecessary spending, or a decline in social activity. After being rejected at a local bar despite the bath he took in Polo Sport, Jerry might finally understand that his appearance or personality is the problem -- not his cologne. The mental effects of the mass media's portrayal of the perfect body can cause people to resort to unhealthy methods of losing weight to attain that athletic look that so many desire. Such conditions that can occur from trying to lose weight too fast are bulimia and anorexia. Bulimia is a food disorder caused by mental insecurities (Larsen 2). Doctors recommend that bulimic people see a psychiatrist because the illness's symptoms, including compulsive exercise, taking laxatives, and throwing up, can cause one's body to become short on electrolytes, which is extremely unhealthy (2). Anorexia is a similar condition in which one loses exorbitant amounts of weight often by eating very little and vomiting what minute amount of food that is actually consumed (3). In one extreme case, a young woman lost an incredible thirty pounds in a period of a month (3). Because of the constant binging and purging, one's metabolism becomes abnormal and one puts on large amounts of weight by hardly eating anything (3,4). Although these conditions are more common in women, men have diet problems as well. In the past, both men and women (predominately men) who were slightly overweight used a fat burning drug known as Redux. It was designed for obese individuals, but the off-label use of such drugs began rampant due to advertising techniques by the manufacturers (Lawsuit 1). Many people, including doctors, who were slightly overweight used the drug and have experienced pulmonary hypertension, valvular heart disease, and neurotoxicity (1). Other drugs, such as steroids, have been widely proven to cause brain cancer, stunted growth, and shrinkage of the testes (Mathias 2). Many student-athletes use these performance enhancers in an attempt to become as muscular as the men often portrayed by media. This problem is also present in female teenagers as well. To some girls, steroid use is comparable to diet pills and laxatives (3). The abuse of these drugs is partly a result of inaccurate advertising as well as the young person's desire to look and perform as well as the superstars shown in various forms of media. How can a fifteen year-old "be like Mike" without shooting up a performance enhancing steroid into his arm? The bottom line is that he can not. Something needs to be done to halt this problem. If media were encouraged to present products in ordinary situations by ordinary people, there would be fewer negative effects as a result of advertising. Consumers might realize that an article of clothing is not meant solely for slender women but can be enjoyed by people of all sizes. The products may not necessarily sell because of their sexy advertisements, but rather because of the appearance of the items themselves. In the long run more customers would buy the product simply because it appeals to them. There would not be as many disillusioned people, and possibly some of the harmful activities done to lose weight could cease. If manufacturers would agree to this, it could help them financially as well. For example, in the Redux case, glamorous advertising cost the company millions of dollars in lawsuits and brand name recognition. If the product had been aimed only at seriously overweight people as the drug was originally intended, less money would have been lost, and the company could still have its good name. The bottom line is that people should make up their minds that they will not be negatively influenced by the media. In doing this, the public can view media for what it truly is-a means of conveying information or supplying entertainment. Good common sense should tell a woman that the overly attractive person in an advertisement is a model and should be admired for her beauty; all women are not required to look like her to be attractive. The process of differentiating fact from fiction in advertising can not be described on paper. It can only happen in people's minds, one at a time. It is true that some messages are sent subliminally, but if consumers would appreciate the advertisement for what it actually is, much of the ordeal could be avoided. As long as this method of advertising continues to sell products for companies, there will still be the gorgeous woman bouncing around one's television screen with a Marlboro in her hand and a Versace evening gown covering very little of her body. Although there is no direct solution to ending personal suffering due to the images put in front of the American population, there is a starting point. Companies can still successfully sell products without beautiful babes. Also, if certain media can be viewed for entertainment purposes only, people can enjoy the beautiful bodies before them. However, if some still model themselves after Cindy Crawford or Tom Cruise, they will keep failing to meet their extremely high personal goals. The media's negative grip on society can be greatly decreased if people remember just one thing--what is on television is only an advertisement.

Negative Effects of Media with Music and etc-

AN ISSUE

For kids with a healthy self-image and varied interests, music probably has little or no influence on their values and lifestyle choices. However, parents should be aware that violent, racist, homophobic or sexist lyrics in much of today's popular music could have an impact on impressionable young people who are just developing a sense of identity and self-worth. Parents should challenge these kinds of negative representations and discuss them with their kids.

Music preferences can be a warning sign of a distressed teen. Isolated, angry or depressed youth may be attracted to music that feeds their feelings of despair and hostility.

Numerous studies indicate that a preference for heavy metal music may be a significant marker for alienation, substance abuse, psychiatric disorders, suicide risk, sex-role stereotyping or risk-taking behaviours during adolescence. (Source: American Academy of Pediatrics, 1999)

If your child is withdrawn and alienated from peers, or shows violent tendencies towards self or others, pay attention to what music is being listened to. Use the Checklist for Violent Youth (on the right-hand side of this page) for identifying signs of potential violence. Make sure the child's mental health needs are being addressed through appropriate school, medical or social-service counselling.

Social media - Protecting your brand against negative buzz

A third of the population has reviewed something online and any one of those reviews can be read by millions of people,” according to Andy Sernovitz of Fast Company. This is the power of social media: user-generated comments and conversation that can build or destroy a brand. Ignoring a conversation in social media and not responding effectively could impact your company’s bottom line.

Scenario: Your client tweets about a bad customer service experience, immediately alerting his or her social graph (all their connections within social media) to the issue; or if they blog, they document the bad experience and publish the post. Through the multiplier effect this information is spread on the web often unedited and/or commented by new authors. These headlines appear on sites such as Digg or Technorati and are indexed by Google. The news is fanned by Twitter and citizen journalists, resulting in a full-blown reputation crisis within a few hours – are you prepared?

The above example is extreme, but if the cost is simply to monitor the conversation with a few search engines, social networks, forums, blogs and respond to negative buzz when/where appropriate then it would make sense to do so. The cost benefits of monitoring social media far outweigh the damage to your brand if you choose not to.

Start by listening to social media
You need to track down the entire buzz around your brand within social media to get an idea of what the negativity landscape looks like. Free tools such as whostalkin.com or socialmention.com can help you to identify the conversations around your brand. Simply list relevant keywords to search – for example brand, product, model number or CEO name. The tools will then return results and categorise them by channels i.e. blogs, forums, networks, news and video. If your company is global with a huge web presence, it is best to use a social media agency to produce an audit – manually searching the voicescape is very labour intensive. Do not forget that Google alerts are a great way of monitoring the conversation based on brand mentions.

Join the conversation
If you discover negative or factually incorrect buzz, it is important to react quickly so the information is not spread further via blogs or micro-blogging sites such as Twitter.

Simply by responding to the post/comment or contacting the detractor directly shows that your brand is open to dialogue and portrays that your business is listening and values the customer. Do not be defensive as it will encourage further negativity – instead explain your position and invite feedback.

Transparent communications
Social media within any marketing context is all about being open and honest. If something goes wrong – such as your server crashes, or the development and delivery of a product is delayed – then tell your customers. Let your customers know how you are rectifying a situation. Failure to communicate will open your brand up to the mercy of social media.

Social media strategy
If you have a company blog, you can respond with a formal blog post making sure that its title features keywords that match the negative posts or content. This will help to add positive search engine results, pushing down negative posts indexed by search engines.

Also, counteract anonymous and negative comments by highlighting testimonials from some of your best customers. In support of the blog post you can use your Twitter account to raise awareness of your response. Depending on the scale of the negative reaction you can respond via video or audio in the form of webcasts and podcasts. If you have an online community, you can host the conversation on your own website, confining the negativity to one area and allowing you to respond immediately.

Make it a habit
Remember marketing 101: a recipient of good customer service will tell five others on average. Yet a recipient of bad service will tell ten people and many more – maybe even hundreds if they are a blogger or active on social networks. It may not prevent a crisis from occurring, but the earlier you learn of dissatisfaction the faster you can react.

Key to managing and maintaining your reputation within social media is to be part of the conversation and for your brand to have a voice that is respected. This comes only through investing time in engaging with customers through social media, building relationships and in turn developing trust.

Negative Influences of Media on the our Society

There is no doubt that the media influences us. To state some examples to prove this claim, try answering the questions that follow. Do you feel like attempting a stunt from a movie? Do you base your fashion on what you see the celebrities are wearing? Do you copy the hairstyle of your favorite famous personalities? Have you ever attempted to walk model-like in an attempt to imitate those ramp models in fashion shows? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it is accepting the influence on media in your life. However, it is important to dwell on the negative influences of media because these can change the dynamics of the society for the worse.

The media affects the way we act and think. It has a profound influence on the behavior of its audience. When people try to imitate something we had seen or heard, are they capable enough to distinguish between right from wrong? Young people often imitate their role models blindly. What is being highlighted in the entertainment industry is the wrongdoings of these celebrities whom the young people idolize. And because they are heroes in the youth’s minds, they are still celebrated despite the bad behavior they have been showing to the public.

This highlighting of the media is a negative effect on society. They satiate the people’s hunger for trivial information and rumors. They create buzz by hyping the issues with flowery words and provoking descriptions. Controversies are created left and right to get the attention of people.

Another negative influence of media is eating disorders. A significant number of youth nowadays are suffering from eating disorders attributable to unhealthy lifestyles that are emerging. The television programs, movies, and even print materials often showcase this lifestyle as fun activities despite their negative effect on health. Media hypes the acceptability of vices.

It has also been observed that children nowadays do not do the same activities as children of before. Instead of reading books, studying, playing outdoors with other children, and engaging in social activities, they end up being cooped up in their rooms watching television. And because of technological advancements and the availability of gadgets to young people, these children end up spending a significant amount of time in front of their computers and handheld video games.

Because Internet is readily available to children, they end up reading and learning things, which are not suitable for their age. They get exposed to indecency and inappropriate acts. They become wrapped up in a different world—a world of fantasy.

The changes in the behavior and outlook of people towards life are attributable to the negative psychological effects of media. Changes in cultural and moral values have been observed. Many people believe that what is depicted by the media is true and acceptable, altering their judgment and causing altercations.

The negative influences of media are vast. It affects the physical self, the emotions, the psychological aspect, and even the spiritual stand of many people. One negative influence can trigger another negative effect and this can cause a chain of reaction leading to destruction of relationships in society.

People must be vigilant to minimize these negative influences by being responsible towards oneself and other people especially the youth who are easy targets by the media.

Negative Influences of Media on the Society

There is no doubt that the media influences us. To state some examples to prove this claim, try answering the questions that follow. Do you feel like attempting a stunt from a movie? Do you base your fashion on what you see the celebrities are wearing? Do you copy the hairstyle of your favorite famous personalities? Have you ever attempted to walk model-like in an attempt to imitate those ramp models in fashion shows? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it is accepting the influence on media in your life. However, it is important to dwell on the negative influences of media because these can change the dynamics of the society for the worse. The media affects the way we act and think. It has a profound influence on the behavior of its audience. When people try to imitate something we had seen or heard, are they capable enough to distinguish between right from wrong? Young people often imitate their role models blindly. What is being highlighted in the entertainment industry is the wrongdoings of these celebrities whom the young people idolize. And because they are heroes in the youth’s minds, they are still celebrated despite the bad behavior they have been showing to the public. This highlighting of the media is a negative effect on society. They satiate the people’s hunger for trivial information and rumors. They create buzz by hyping the issues with flowery words and provoking descriptions. Controversies are created left and right to get the attention of people. Another negative influence of media is eating disorders. A significant number of youth nowadays are suffering from eating disorders attributable to unhealthy lifestyles that are emerging. The television programs, movies, and even print materials often showcase this lifestyle as fun activities despite their negative effect on health. Media hypes the acceptability of vices. It has also been observed that children nowadays do not do the same activities as children of before. Instead of reading books, studying, playing outdoors with other children, and engaging in social activities, they end up being cooped up in their rooms watching television. And because of technological advancements and the availability of gadgets to young people, these children end up spending a significant amount of time in front of their computers and handheld video games. Because Internet is readily available to children, they end up reading and learning things, which are not suitable for their age. They get exposed to indecency and inappropriate acts. They become wrapped up in a different world—a world of fantasy. The changes in the behavior and outlook of people towards life are attributable to the negative psychological effects of media. Changes in cultural and moral values have been observed. Many people believe that what is depicted by the media is true and acceptable, altering their judgment and causing altercations. The negative influences of media are vast. It affects the physical self, the emotions, the psychological aspect, and even the spiritual stand of many people. One negative influence can trigger another negative effect and this can cause a chain of reaction leading to destruction of relationships in society. People must be vigilant to minimize these negative influences by being responsible towards oneself and other people especially the youth who are easy targets by the media.

Negative Influences of Media

When you see some stunt in a movie, do you feel like doing it? Do you always feel like being as fashionable as your favorite film actress? Do you often feel like copying the hairstyle that your favorite television actor sports? I am sure some of the girls among you have often made attempts to walk like some famous ramp models. I am sure some of you guys have always wanted to wear what some of the top actors of the industry do! And now, do you say the media does not influence you? Sure it does! Mass media affects the ways in which the masses think and act. It influences the behavior of its audiences both positively and negatively. The positive effects are surely celebrated by one and all. But there is a need to prevent the media from having a negative influence on society. Let us try to explore some of the negative influences of media.
INFLUENCE NEGATIVE FROM MEDIA
When you try to imitate your role models of the glamor industry, are you thoughtful enough to distinguish between the right and the wrong? It is often seen that young girls and boys imitate their role models blindly. The negative things the celebrities do are often talked about. The controversies in the lives of the celebrities are often highlighted by the media. This leads to a blind imitation of what appears in the news. Media often hypes the scintillating things about the celebrities. The negatives in society are highlighted with an intent to awaken the people about the society of the modern days. But this hype is actually having a negative effect on society. Masses are seeing only the negatives around them. Controversies are constantly being bombarded on them. All this is responsible for influencing the society negatively. Some say that it is media to be blamed for the eating disorders in the youths of society as also for the unhealthy lifestyle that has recently emerged. Be it television, magazines or the Internet, media is almost omnipresent, affecting various aspects of our life. The products advertised by the media and the ways they are advertised are bound to affect the practices of the youths. The negative effects of media on children are manifested in terms of their changing mental setup and the declining quality of their lifestyle. Children, who should invest their time in reading good books, studying, playing outdoors, exercising and engaging in social activities, today, spend their evenings glued to the television. The Internet that is easily accessible to even small children, exposes them to things they need not know and will not understand. Media affects the physical well-being of individuals to a certain extent. People spending hours in front of a television or surfing the Internet have to suffer from eye problems and obesity. Long hours of media exposure add to the sedentary nature of your lifestyle. The negative psychological effects of media are seen in terms of media changing the people's outlook of looking towards life. Media being one of the prominent sources of looking at the outside world has changed the cultural and moral values of society. A majority of the audiences believe in what is depicted by the media. Many think all of it as true. Youngsters and children are bound to mix the reel and the real world and get highly influence by the mass media. While a certain amount of exposure to the ever-evolving media is essential for introducing ourselves to the world outside, an excessive one is detrimental to the overall well-being of society.