Plan

Introduction.

I. The Development of Media. 

- Forms of media

II. Media Influence

- Media influences young people

- Effects of violence in the Media

III. Media affecting culture

- How much are we really affected by the media?

IV. Connection between media and public opinion

Conclusion

Introduction.

Media is the most powerful tool for the formation of Public opinion in

contemporary times. It is the Television, the press, the radio and the Internet.

(Films, magazines, posters, studies, reports, theater, art, dance, public speeches,

hearings) Talking about the media is like talking about a mission. A source of

information and education that will shape the daily choices in people’s life. That

will shape the thinking, and the perception of things. But Media is a political

power and tool, occupied in a way by the big powers, international corporations,

big agencies using for their political and economic objectives that control and can

pay. Among the most powerful news agencies in the West are the BBC, CNN,

Euro-news, Monte Carlo, while, Al Jazira, Al Aarabia, LBC, Al Shark El Awsat

are the news agencies in the Middle East. The religious and political leaders of

these media agencies are always around to talk, freely and passing news, stands,

and positions to their communities, to the public using them to serve their political

and economic ends.

It is important that the media redefines its goals and mission, for the rule of the

jungle, “la raison du plus fort” is the world order today. The role and the mission

of the media is to commit itself to values that are imperative for today, and it is

possible to achieve this goal only if civil societies commit themselves into risks

and understand the need for it and encourage agencies that can play this role.

I.The Development of Mass Media. 

The mass media are all those media technologies that are intended to reach a large

audience by mass communication. Broadcast media (also known as electronic

media) transmit their information electronically and comprise television, radio,

film, movies, CDs, DVDs, and other devices such as cameras and video

consoles[citation needed]. Alternatively, print media use a physical object as a

means of sending their information, such as a newspaper, magazines, comics,

books, brochures, newsletters, leaflets, and pamphlets. The organizations that

control these technologies, such as television stations or publishing companies, are

also known as the mass media. Internet media is able to achieve mass media status

in its own right, due to the many mass media services it provides, such as email,

websites, blogging, Internet and television. For this reason, many mass media

outlets have a presence on the web, by such things as having TV ads that link to a

website, or having games in their sites to entice gamers to visit their website. In

this way, they can utilise the easy accessibility that the Internet has, and the

outreach that Internet affords, as information can easily be broadcast to many

different regions of the world simultaneously and cost-efficiently. Outdoor media

is a form of mass media that comprises billboards, signs, placards placed inside

and outside of commercial buildings and objects like shops and buses, flying

billboards (signs in tow of airplanes), blimps, and skywriting. Public speaking and

event organising can also be considered as forms of mass media.

Forms of media

Broadcast

The sequencing of content in a broadcast is called a schedule. With all

technological endeavours a number of technical terms and slang are developed

please see the list of broadcasting terms for a glossary of terms used.

Television and radio programs are distributed through radio broadcasting over

frequency bands that are highly regulated by the Federal Communications

Commission. Such regulation includes determination of the width of the bands,

range, licencing, types of receivers and transmitters used, and acceptable content.

Cable programs are often broadcast simultaneously with radio and television

programs, but have a more limited audience. By coding signals and having a cable

converter box in homes, cable also enables subscription-based channels and pay-

per-view services.

A broadcasting organisation may broadcast several programs at the same time,

through several channels (frequencies), for example BBC One and Two. On the

other hand, two or more organisations may share a channel and each use it during a

fixed part of the day. Digital radio and digital television may also

transmit multiplexed programming, with several channels compressedinto

one ensemble.

When broadcasting is done via the Internet the term webcasting is often used. In

2004 a new phenomenon occurred when a number of technologies combined to

produce podcasting. Podcasting is an asynchronous broadcast/narrowcast medium,

with one of the main proponents being Adam Curry and his associates

the Podshow.

Film

'Film' encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in

general. The name comes from the photographic film (also called filmstock),

historically the primary medium for recording and displaying motion pictures.

Many other terms exist—motion pictures (or just pictures and "picture"), the silver

screen, photoplays, the cinema, picture shows, flicks—and commonlymovies.

Films are produced by recording people and objects with cameras, or by creating

them using animation techniques and/or special effects. They comprise a series of

individual frames, but when these images are shown rapidly in succession, the

illusion of motion is given to the viewer. Flickering between frames is not seen due

to an effect known as persistence of vision—whereby the eye retains a visual

image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Also of

relevance is what causes the perception of motion; a psychological effect identified

as beta movement.

Film is considered by many to be an important art form; films entertain, educate,

enlighten and inspire audiences. Any film can become a worldwide attraction,

especially with the addition ofdubbing or subtitles that translate the film message.

Films are also artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures,

and, in turn, affect them.

Internet

The Internet (also known simply as "the Net" or less precisely as "the Web") is a

more interactive medium of mass media, and can be briefly described as "a

network of networks". Specifically, it is the worldwide, publicly accessible

network of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet

switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It consists of millions of

smaller domestic, academic, business, and governmental networks, which together

carry various information and services, such as email, online chat, file transfer, and

the interlinked web pages and other documents of the World Wide Web.

Contrary to some common usage, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not

synonymous: the Internet is the system of interconnected computer networks,

linked by copper wires, fiber-opticcables, wireless connections etc.; the Web is the

contents, or the interconnected documents, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. The

World Wide Web is accessible through the Internet, along with many other

services including e-mail, file sharing and others described below.

Toward the end of the 20th century, the advent of the World Wide Web marked the

first era in which most individuals could have a means of exposure on a scale

comparable to that of mass media. Anyone with a web site has the potential to

address a global audience, although serving to high levels of web traffic is still

relatively expensive. It is possible that the rise of peer-to-peertechnologies may

have begun the process of making the cost of bandwidth manageable. Although a

vast amount of information, imagery, and commentary (i.e. "content") has been

made available, it is often difficult to determine the authenticity and reliability of

information contained in web pages (in many cases, self-published). The invention

of the Internet has also allowed breaking news stories to reach around the globe

within minutes. This rapid growth of instantaneous, decentralized communication

is often deemed likely to change mass media and its relationship to society.

"Cross-media" means the idea of distributing the same message through different

media channels. A similar idea is expressed in the news industry as "convergence".

Many authors understand cross-media publishing to be the ability to publish in

both print and on the web without manual conversion effort. An increasing number

of wireless devices with mutually incompatible data and screen formats make it

even more difficult to achieve the objective “create once, publish many”.

The Internet is quickly becoming the center of mass media. Everything is

becoming accessible via the internet. Instead of picking up a newspaper, or

watching the 10 o'clock news, people can log onto the internet to get the news they

want, when they want it. For example, many workers listen to the radio through the

Internet while sitting at their desk.

Even the education system relies on the Internet. Teachers can contact the entire

class by sending one e-mail. They may have web pages where students can get

another copy of the class outline or assignments. Some classes have class blogs in

which students are required to post weekly, with students graded on their

contributions.

Mobile

Mobile phones were introduced in Japan in 1979 but became a mass media only in

1998 when the first downloadable ringing tones were introduced in Finland. Soon

most forms of media content were introduced on mobile phones, and today the

total value of media consumed on mobile towers over that of internet content, and

was worth over 31 billion dollars in 2007 (source Informa). The mobile media

content includes over 8 billion dollars worth of mobile music (ringing tones,

ringback tones, truetones, MP3 files, karaoke, music videos, music streaming

services etc.); over 5 billion dollars worth of mobile gaming; and various news,

entertainment and advertising services. In Japan mobile phone books are so

popular that five of the ten best-selling printed books were originally released as

mobile phone books.

Similar to the internet, mobile is also an interactive media, but has far wider reach,

with 3.3 billion mobile phone users at the end of 2007 to 1.3 billion internet users

(source ITU). Like email on the internet, the top application on mobile is also a

personal messaging service, but SMS text messaging is used by over 2.4 billion

people. Practically all internet services and applications exist or have similar

cousins on mobile, from search to multiplayer games to virtual worlds to blogs.

Mobile has several unique benefits which many mobile media pundits claim make

mobile a more powerful media than either TV or the internet, starting with mobile

being permanently carried and always connected. Mobile has the best audience

accuracy and is the only mass media with a built-in payment channel available to

every user without any credit cards or PayPal accounts or even an age limit.

Mobile is often called the 7th Mass Medium and either the fourth screen (if

counting cinema, TV and PC screens) or the third screen (counting only TV and

PC).

Print media:

Magazine

A magazine is a periodical publication containing a variety of articles, generally

financed by advertising and/or purchase by readers.

Magazines are typically

published weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly or quarterly, with a date on the

cover that is in advance of the date it is actually published. They are often printed

in color on coated paper, and are bound with a soft cover.

Magazines fall into two broad categories: consumer magazines and business

magazines. In practice, magazines are a subset of periodicals, distinct from those

periodicals produced by scientific, artistic, academic or special interest publishers

which are subscription-only, more expensive, narrowly limited in circulation, and

often have little or no advertising.

Magazines can be classified as:

General interest magazines (e.g. Frontline, India Today, The Week, The

Sunday Times etc.)

Special interest magazines (women's, sports, business, scuba diving, etc.)

Newspaper

A newspaper is a publication containing news and information and advertising,

usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint. It may be general or special

interest, most often published daily or weekly. The first printed newspaper was

published in 1605, and the form has thrived even in the face of competition from

technologies such as radio and television. Recent developments on the Internet are

posing major threats to its business model, however. Paid circulation is declining

in most countries, and advertising revenue, which makes up the bulk of a

newspaper's income, is shifting from print to online; some commentators,

nevertheless, point out that historically new media such as radio and television did

not entirely supplant existing.

Outdoor media

Outdoor media is a form of mass media which comprises billboards, signs,

placards placed inside and outside of commercial buildings/objects like

shops/buses, flying billboards (signs in tow of airplanes), blimps, and skywriting.

Many commercial advertisers use this form of mass media when advertising in

sports stadiums. Tobacco and alcohol manufacturers used billboards and other

outdoor media extensively. However, in 1998, the Master Settlement Agreement

between the US and the tobacco industries prohibited the billboard advertising of

cigarettes. In a 1994 Chicago-based study, Diana Hackbarth and her colleagues

revealed how tobacco- and alcohol-based billboards were concentrated in poor

neighbourhoods. In other urban centers, alcohol and tobacco billboards were much

more concentrated in African-American neighborhoods than in white

neighborhoods.

II. Media Influence

In the last 50 years the media influence has grown exponentially with the advance

of technology, first there was the telegraph, then the radio, the newspaper,

magazines, television and now the internet.

We live in a society that depends on information and communication to keep

moving in the right direction and do our daily activities like work, entertainment,

health care, education, personal relationships, traveling and anything else that we

have to do.

A common person in the city usually wakes up checks the TV news or newspaper,

goes to work, makes a few phone calls, eats with their family when possible and

makes his decisions based on the information that he has either from their co

workers, news, tv, friends, family, financial reports, etc.

What we need to be aware is that most of our decisions, beliefs and values are

based on what we know for a fact, our assumptions and our own experience. In our

work we usually know what we have to do based on our experience and studies,

however on our daily lives we rely on the media to get the current news and facts

about what is important and what we should be aware of.

We have put our trust on the media as an authority to give us news, entertainment

and education. However, the influence of mass media on our kids, teenagers and

society is so big that we should know how it really works.

How does mass media influence young people?

The media makes billions of dollars with the advertising they sell and that we are

exposed to. We buy what we are told to be good, after seeing thousands of

advertisings we make our buying decisions based on what we saw on Tv,

newspapers or magazines to be a product we can trust and also based on what

everyone else that we know is buying and their decision are also base don the

media.

These are the effects of mass media in teenagers, they buy what they see on TV,

what their favorite celebrity advertise and what is acceptable by society based on

the fashion that the media has imposed them.

There are some positive and negative influences in young people.

Here is a positive influence example, if there is a sport that is getting a lot of

attention by the media and gains popularity among your friends and society, you

will more likely want to practice the sport and be cool with all your friends. The

result is that you will have fun with your friends and be more healthy because of

the exercise your are doing.

However a negative influence in teenagers is the use of cigars by celebrity movie

stars, the constant exposure of sex images, the excessive images of violence and

exposure to thousands of junk food ads.

Young people are in a stage of life where they want to be accepted by their peers,

they want to be loved and be successful. The media creates the ideal image of a

beautiful men and women and tells you what are the characteristics of a successful

person, you can see it in movies and tv. Its a subliminal way to tell you that if you

are not like them you are not cool yet so its time to buy the stuff they buy and look

like they look.

Another negative influence in teenagers that has grown over the last years are

anorexia and obesity. There are millions of adolescents fighting obesity, but at the

same time they are exposed to thousands of advertisements of junk food, while the

ideas image of a successful person is told to be thin and wealthy.

Also more women are obsessive with losing weight even when they are not obese,

there are many thin women that want to look like the super models and thin

celebrities so they engage in eating disorders which leads to severe health issues

and even death.

Effects of violence in the Media

When we watch TV or a movie we usually see many images of violence and

people hurting others. The problem with this is that it can become traumatic

especially in our children as we see it more and more. Our kids that are starting to

grow and are shaping their personality values and beliefs can become aggressive or

they can lose a sense of reality and fiction of what they are seeing.

In the past years there have been some cases of kids carrying a gun at school and

even hurting others with it. Those kids have been linked to excessive use of violent

video games and war images.

Another problem is that real war is used as a form of entertainment by the media,

we should make our kids and teen aware that war is not a form of entertainment

and that there is no win or lose like in video games, in real war everyone lose.

III. Media Affecting Culture

How is culture affected by media? We can analyze how media impacts culture, but

since forms of media are abundant everywhere we turn, and media in some form or

another has been around for thousands of years, it’s impossible to analyze how the

absence of media impacts culture. For a mature and healthy culture, however, can

media play a role in its development? For the purposes of this question it should

be understood that a mature and healthy culture is media literate. With that

understanding, the question of whether or not this kind of culture exists is derived.

The News

The news gives us information of everything that’s happening from local to

international scales. Some news is good and some is bad. The news lets us people

that live in colder climates no how long a snow emergency is going to last so we

know if we have to park on a certain side of the street or not (Dec. 5, 2010,

Wisconsin State Journal Online). We also are provided with horrible news like 23

fur seals being clubbed to death in New Zealand (Dec. 5, 2010, Yahoo! News). No

matter what the news is, it’s there so that we know what is happening everywhere

in the world.

Other Forms of Media

The news isn’t the only form of media that informs us. Documentaries, news radio,

and even blockbuster movies are educating. Documentaries, obviously, are

nonfiction and they provide informative accounts of a situation. News radio keeps

us up to date on local, national, and world-wide events. A lot of movies do provide

us with useable information, as well; “The Day After Tomorrow” lays out a very

real possibility of what might happen in our future (2004).

In the textbook, Media & Culture, Scott Lehigh of the Boston Globe is quoted, “If

we’re a nation possessed of murderous imagination, we didn’t start the

bloodletting. Look at Shakespeare… His plays are written in blood.” This brings

about the point that horror, blood, and violence aren’t a product of media in the

free world; they’re a product of humanity. Blame for the things that are wrong with

our culture always seems to shift to television, music, and books, but the things

that are wrong have always been there. Media is just an easy scapegoat to point a

finger at because people that would otherwise not be exposed to these things that

are wrong see them on the news, and relate them to scenes that they saw on T.V. or

lyrics they heard in a song. What the media is actually doing by exposing the

public to things that are considered wrong and bad, is informing us on the way

things are or could be, giving us knowledge that we can use to protect ourselves

and even change the way that things are. A fictional movie that portrays the

assassination of a foreign dignitary on U.S. soil plotted by corrupt government

officials doesn’t mean that someone who saw that movie is going to play it out

(2007, Hunter, S., & Lemkin, L.). What it does mean is that someone out there

thought of this as a movie plot, the idea didn’t originate from the movie. It’s easier

to think of a movie as a page in history that has never been written. It’s something

that we can be educated from even if it is fictional.

How Much Are We Really Affected by the Media?

All of the forms of media would be useless if we didn’t understand them. If we

believed the first thing we heard from the news all the time, we wouldn’t be able to

form an educated opinion or response. If we reenacted what we saw in movies or

T.V. shows because we thought that by watching someone else do something it’s

okay for to do it too, then we wouldn’t be allowing ourselves to make our own

decisions; it goes along with that excuse you made when you were a kid: “But my

friends do that.” Your mother would then respond, “And if all of your friends

jumped off a cliff would you do that too?”

Media in all forms is there to help us better understand the world, form educated

opinions, and learn from others. According to Pew Research in June of 2010 the

average American spent 70 minutes a day listening, watching, or reading up on the

news (Sep. 12, 2010). That’s over 17 solid days of learning every year! Yes, there

is some entertainment in the news, but mainly it’s there for reporting what’s

happening, and even presenting some forms of research. There’s always going to

be some form of media out there that may be harmful to certain groups or even to

the vast majority of recipients, but in a mature and healthy culture we should be

smart enough to understand what is for entertainment and what is important to

know. With proper understanding, laws, and ethics media serves a large role in a

flourishing society.

IV. Connection between media and public opinion

The public responsibility and controlling power of the mass media are organized

for the benefit of the citizens and by protecting universal rights both through the

Constitution and the regulations. The right of the individual to obtain information

is under constitutional guarantee. The related articles of the Constitution envisage

the freedom and the privacy of the communication. The expression and

dissemination of thoughts, to be able to learn and disseminate science and art

freely is also a constitutional right for the citizens of Turkey. The publication and

distribution of foreign publications in Turkey are organized under the control of

the law. In addition to all of these, Article 28 of the Constitution has the decree,

"the press is free and cannot be censored." Again Article 29 of the Constitution is

related to the right of periodical or non-periodical publications, and Article 30 is

related to the protection of printing facilities, and Article 32 is related to the right

of reply and rectification.

Conclusion

The media is actually very powerful because it can influence and shape the

perception of the public. This is the main reason why there are a lot of

responsibilities involved with the press because of the big impact that they have on

the minds of different individuals. But a lot of people ask, does the press or the

online media truly have a great effect on millions of people? How do they

influence the opinions and perception of the public? If you watch the news, you

will definitely get a lot of information and updates on various fields of interests.

The media has the power to present all of the reports regarding a specific event,

which is the main source of information for millions of people from around the

world. If you want to understand what happened during a particular event, then you

can simply watch some news and media updates regarding that event.

If you take a very close look at television shows and news reports, you will

probably notice that some of these outlets have a narrow message that can be

etched within the minds of people. In previous years, news reports were highly

limited to presenting the different facts and information surrounding a specific

event. It was considered to be irresponsible for reports and news anchors to

incorporate their own thoughts and ideas regarding a certain situation. But things

are quite different these days. More and more anchors and news presenters already

give in their own opinions and interjections, which can also strongly influence how

one perceives a specific news item. Some of news reports are also based according

to how the press TV wants the public to perceive a specific person. For example, a

show may present all of the possibilities of a suspected murdered to be guilty, but

fails to present the other side of the story. This is truly one of the most important

topics that most experts discuss about media bias, press release and other media

matters.

On the other hand, there is another side to the story because mass media can also

have a very positive effect on people. It can evoke feelings of love, national pride

and patriotism, especially in situations involving national difficulties or

catastrophes. Mass media definitely has a great impact on how people get the

message regarding a specific news item.

Based on the above points, media definitely has a great responsibility in shaping

the perception and opinions of different people.