Media's Influence

Introduction

Today, the media are a persuasive tool to allow us to stay in constant communication with the various social, political and economic events, both nationally and internationally. Mass media like press, television and the Internet is an indispensable part of our society today. The media play a major political role to monitor and control the different branches of government (judicial, legislative and executive) information. The fact that media puts different priorities in their reporting and does not judge events or decisions in politics the same way, is an important factor in shaping public opinion.

It is clear that nobody is free from the influence of media in modern society as it is vital to be well informed, exposed or manipulated in a more or less indirect way. The primary objective of media is to shape public opinion so as to generate support for corporate issues. Public television and the Internet represent the greatest threat to that process. Both provide divergent sources of information which remain outside of the filtering process friendly to business.

Through media we can understand global connections, for example, in business and politics, without having to be on site. In addition, the media informs us about the profiles and programs of political parties and thus take control of our political opinions. Media manipulation refers to the manipulation of opinion through the media, for example, by biased reporting. Because of the large number of the world's events happen every day, it is impossible to be informed about everything. The journalists must, therefore, sort out all their news from a few. Thus, the journalists will come to a remarkable power: the selection of the contributions, the length and position as well as interview partners and guests. By doing so, they can intervene decisively in the opinion makers of the viewer.

Discussion

A detailed article on the front page of a newspaper, for example, automatically gives you more attention than a small, hidden on the last page report. Another method of manipulation is the manipulation of language, for example, by using words with positive or negative connotations in translation or rotation of word meanings (such as "freedom fighters" instead of "terrorists"). Furthermore, we saw a massive coverage by the media of the 9/11 attacks and Osama Bin Laden was pronounced responsible for the attacks. This message shaped the public opinion of supporting the government in the war on terrorism. The same thing happened ...