Media is known as 4th pillar of democracy. The influence of Media has created a tremendous impact on people’s beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours. The media is vital in providing information, communicating, and expressing our views. Thanks to the media, we are up-to-date with current events and important information across the globe. It is one of the primary sources of information that is easily accessible to the public. Educating citizens, Advertising, Sharing Necessary Information, Expressing Opinions, and whatnot. Media combines everything we term Communication.
However, despite its crucial role, Media is also creating a massive societal concern. Nowadays, the role has shifted away from important topics in the direction of propaganda and pointless discussions. Understanding media culture aims to educate, instruct, and encourage the public as a whole. On the contrary, it sometimes reflects an endless cycle of rumours, division, and ignorance in important societal issues.
Therefore, in the next section of this article, we will discuss some significant impacts of media in our society, along with some bitter truths about them.
Negative Role of Media in Society
- One of the major negatives of media is they declare a person criminal before the actual judgment.
- Media nowadays cover unnecessary news and do not pay any attention to some serious concerns like unemployment, poverty, pollution and government policy.
- Most media houses are either owned by politicians and businessmen or they operate as per their instructions.
- With the increased popularity of social media, the fake news spread is also increasing.
- Too much media content consumption makes our attention span time is too low.
- The major problem with media is someone who controls the media can control the information and manipulate the people. Facebook faces allegations of manipulation of voters during the US presidential elections.
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Positive Role of Media
- It circulates all the required information to all over the world.
- Media has the power to ask questions to anyone whether it’s a prime minister or a common man.
- It is helping to make people educated about things such as global culture, climates, news, geoplotilcial situations and more.
- Media has helped in serving justice by providing the right information. Like Recently in the Pune accident case when a 17-year-old boy killed two people by hitting them with his Porsche running at 240 mph in a drunk situation. The juleline board granted bail to him within 15 hours by saying to write a 300-word essay. Its social media and media channel shows the truth and asks questions again and again which leads to the court withdrawing the bail of that boy and asking for further investigation as an adult.
- Media actually help people grow as we can see from many content creators like Mr. Beast, and Ranveer Allahabadia, who are earning crores.
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The Power of Media Towards Social Change
Undoubtedly, the media can profoundly impact how society develops and grows due to its power to shape viewpoints, affect public opinion, and bring a transformation that has never been seen before. Look at some well-known incidents that demonstrate the influence of the media on social movements, uncovering injustices and promoting change.
Jessica Lal Murder Case
Jessica Lal was a Model cum celebrity barmaid at a renowned restaurant in Mehrauli, South Delhi. One of the politician’s sons, Manu Sharma, shot Jessica to death because she refused to serve alcohol to him and his buddies.
This incident has gained immense popularity and become one of the top cases among youth. One of the primary accused, Manu Sharma, first accepted a plea of not guilty in 2006 after the Delhi police could not provide sufficient evidence.
However, the media made the effort to secure Jessica’s justice. They started investigating the facts exactly where the police had left off the case. The public’s outcry for justice forced the government, the police, and the judicial system to act quickly to solve the matter. In the end, Manu Sharma was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Delhi Rape Case
The brutal gang rape on the night of 16 December 2012 in which a 23-year-old girl has shocked the nation. Across the nation, people knew her as ‘Nirbhaya’ (fearless). A lot of national and international media attention was sparked due to this tragic incident. The government has faced much criticism at both domestic and international levels. There were lots of protests in different states of the country for not providing adequate security to women.
The matter has received extensive media coverage, which has increased awareness of it across different sections of society. As a result, one of the laws of the Juvenile Justice Act has changed. They lowered the age limit for committing such horrible acts from eighteen to sixteen.
Conclusion
The role of media in society is like a lethal weapon; if used correctly, it will save us from various threats, but if it’s in the wrong hands, the situation will worsen. Media help us in education, communication and development. When utilising properly it will take humanity to go next level. On the other hand, we have witnessed the negatives of media where it has been used to manipulate our knowledge and thinking. People trust the information shared on the media and it’s the responsibility of people who are sharing information that it should be authentic and not harmful to anyone.
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