These days, the media have turned from a simple tool of searching, processing, and transmitting information into means that control and transform a person’s inner, mental world. Instead of expanding the horizons of the development of human awareness, giving it sovereignty and independence in judgments, modern media are increasingly manipulating the masses’ consciousness with replicated standards of behavior. The media shapes society’s culture by exerting behavioral and intellectual influence on the lifestyle of individuals.
Forms of Media
The United States is a country of information pluralism and a free press guaranteed by the constitution. The traditional media forms are newspapers, magazines, radio, and television (Ginsberg et al., 2018). The media’s main objectives are collecting, processing, and opening public transmission of various information to the general public using unique technical means (Ginsberg et al., 2018). In recent decades, the US media industry has seen changes associated with an increase in electronic media’s role and, consequently, with a redistribution of audience attention and interests.
Most Powerful Forms of Media
Digital journalism is the fourth largest mass media channel after the press, radio, and television. However, it is becoming almost the first in popularity; TV remains the closest and the only competitor to Internet media (Weaver & Willnat, 2016). Digital media ranks first in terms of audience growth, and by 2020 its absolute leadership is predicted as more than 2 billion people worldwide have access to the Internet (Weaver & Willnat, 2016). This journalism is already superior to radio and TV in the efficiency of delivering news to the mass audience. Information on media sites is transmitted non-stop with an update interval of 1-5 minutes (Weaver & Willnat, 2016). It is ahead of its competitors in interactivity, which has acquired an unprecedented scale globally, embracing social networks. Despite benefits, at the end of 2016, the fake news phenomenon appeared on Facebook and Twitter (Ginsberg et al., 2018). It leads to deliberating misinformation in the media to mislead to obtain financial or political gain.
How Has the Media Changed Over Time?
By the end of the last century, 11 news sources completely dominated the United States. There were three television networks, such as ABC, CBS, and NBC (Ginsberg et al., 2018). Besides, Time, Newsweek, US News, and World Report were the only popular magazines (Ginsberg et al., 2018). Concerning newspapers, these were The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal (Ginsberg et al., 2018). There are no state-owned media in the country, except for those broadcasting only to foreign countries, such as the Voice of America or Radio Marty radio stations, the Marty TV station (Ginsberg et al., 2018). All other media outlets operate on a commercial basis; their primary purpose is to make a profit. However, in the past ten years, the Internet has become an influential source of information in the United States compared to daily newspapers. Most of the population use Internet sources to read the news, such as electronic versions of regular newspapers or specialized news sites.
Media and Public Opinion
The media are fulfilling their most important task – to ensure that the information evokes reactions that meet society’s requirements. For instance, the British media have acted as a platform for political debates and discussions on the critical issue of Britain’s membership in the EU in 2016 (Khabaz, 2018). While most media in the UK remain a liberal opinion platform with a corresponding political orientation, they have successfully contributed to the people’s polarization, making Brexit possible. The mainstream and the trend-following mass media communities quickly divided the UK citizens into supporters and EU membership opponents: the In / Out and Stay / Leave camps (Khabaz, 2018). The general tabloidization and showy coverage of the referendum in the media deepened the British population’s polarization (Khabaz, 2018). It worked to increase the number of supporters of the country’s secession from the European Union.
Conclusion
The current situation gives rise to an ambiguous assessment of the media. On the one hand, mass communication development positively affects individuals’ awareness of the world around them. Still, at the same time, behind their progress, there is a factor that manipulates the consciousness of the masses. The media and mass communication standardize people’s views and behavior and develop the uniformity of their reactions.
References
Ginsberg, B., Lowi, T., J., Campbell, A., L., Weir, M., & Tolbert, C., J (2018). We the People (12th ed.). W W NORTON & Company.
Khabaz, D. (2018). Framing Brexit: The role, and the impact, of the national newspapers on the EU Referendum. Newspaper Research Journal, 39(4), 496-508.
Weaver, D. H., & Willnat, L. (2016). Changes in US journalism: How do journalists think about social media?. Journalism Practice, 10(7), 844-855. Web.