Mass media, over the years, has had a profound effect on society, on its culture, and on the individuals exposed to the media. Mass media effects people differently because of varied amounts of exposure and formats.
The speed of media has resulted in bringing people across the world closer. Events, happy or sad, happening anywhere can be seen live. Sometimes we feel that the entire world is one big family. You might have heard the term “global village”. It means that the whole world is shrinking and becoming a village. Similarly, the world wide web and internet have brought people and countries much closer.
Using mass media, people’s attitudes and habits can be changed. For example, all of us have mistaken or wrong notions about various disceases like leprosy or HIV/AIDS. Many of us think that by touching people suffering from these diseases we would be infected. You might have heard on radio or watched television programmes or read messages which tell us that by touching an HIV/AIDS patient we do not get infected.
Mass media are used by the consumer industry to inform people about their products and services through advertising. Without advertising, the public will not know about various products (ranging from soup to oil, television sets to cars) and services (banking, insurance, hospitals etc.) which are available in the market as well as their prices. Thus mass media help the industries and consumers.
Positive effects of media: media provide news and information required by the people. Media can educate the public. Media helps a democracy function effectively. They inform the public about government policies and programmes and how these programmes can be useful to them. This helps the people voice their feelings and helps the government to make necessary changes in their policies or programmes. Media can entertain people. Media can act as an agent of change in development. Media has brought people of the world closer to each other. Media promote trade and industry through advertisement. Media can help the political and democratic processes of a country. Media can bring in positive social changes.
Negative effects of media: The traditional culture of a country is adversely affected by mass media. Entertainment has become the main component of mass media. This affects the primary objectives of media to inform and educate the people. Media promote violence. Studies have proved that violence shown on television and cinema have negative effects on children. Mass media promote the desire in people to buy and own products that are advertised through the media but which may not be essential for them.
