The mass media plays an important role in the current society. The information transmitted via media has a huge influence on people's perceptions and decisions and for that matter, it can be seen as the eyes of our society (Champagne 2). Although there are strict guidelines and a code of ethics that governs media reporting, today's media is full of self-aggrandizement and greed (Champagne 2). There is stiff competition in the media industry. There are so many options an audience can choose from, and with increasing competition, every media house has to roll up its sleeves and use every technique at their disposal to attract a huge audience. Nowadays, because of such competition, most media houses care less about ethical standards (Harper and Philo 1). With most constitutions in politically elite countries having minimal limits on media expression, media gets the certificate to report news without blinking an eye; without caring the aftermath of the release, and with the advent of the social media, news can be transmitted to all corners of the earth in seconds. In the modern era, the media has become the channel for expressing political views, as well settling political scores (Floss 1).
For any political agenda or propaganda to be known, any politician has to seek media coverage or else their idea whether valued or not would receive little attention (Harper and Philo 1). For that matter, politicians would use every means to sway the media to propel their political propaganda. With both parties benefiting, the deal is always irresistible. Additionally, the current media cares less about people’ or entity’s privacy, and they would go to any length to have their coverage whether an entity’s or person’s privacy is stumbled on or not, and with the invention of the internet, things have become even worse because of the openness of the cyberspace. This paper argues that the media today is derailing positive social change through irresponsible reporting, particularly on political issues and sabotage of people’s or entity’s privacy.
Firstly, it is necessary to bring into perspective the meaning of social change. Different scholars have attempted to define social change (Paul, Singh and Sunita 34). To some, it denotes a range of typical civic and social outcomes that stem from heightened awareness, as well as understanding. When there is social change, there is a change in attitude and public will. Social change is an indication of changing cultural patterns and social structure, and it takes place all the time in any given society (Paul, Singh and Sunita 34).
There is a great socio-cultural revolution that sweeping the world. Originating from the politically and economically elite societies such as North America, Japan, and Western European nations, it is now extending to other regions in Asia, Africa, Eastern and Central Europe, and the Latin America (Weinstein 20). The rapid change, be it peaceful or violent is a fact of life that virtually everyone across the globe has to expect. The revolution is now boiling near or at the surface of contemporary social relations everywhere. With increasing regularity, it erupts in our daily life affairs taking on many different guises (Weinstein 20). In the USA, for instance, the revolution is evident in the conflict between the defenders and attackers of government regulation and policies. There hot contentions on issues such as immigration, participation in United Nations affairs, how to deal with terrorism, and international policy among others (Weinstein 20). In the USA and other nations, social change is manifested itself in pro and anti-globalization protests, and movements for civil rights on behalf of initially secluded groups such as gays and lesbians, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, children, and senior citizens, government workers among others. There is also evidence of changes in attitude and behaviors in the realm of gender (Weinstein 20).
Common to all these debates, conflicts, challenges, and movements, is the explicit recognition that something is wrong with society as we have known it (Philo 435). Those involved, regardless of their specific views on various issues, acknowledge that serious shortcomings and unwanted costs are now associated with the manner in which people have become accustomed to treating one another (Philo 435). A historical juncture has been reached whereby old ways of managing human affairs, from interpersonal to international levels, are becoming less and less effective. Despite the numerous possible options which we have experimented or merely dreamed, no clear alternatives have emerged to guide us into the highly uncertain future. Just as modernity displaced feudalism as a dominant cultural form over 250 years ago, something is displacing modernity throughout the world today, although its precise dimensions remain unclear, uniformed and unfathomed (Philo 435). One evident feature of this social change is its global character. In one way or another, it is affecting all human society; we live in a society of global change, but people experience the social change in different ways. It might affect some people in a positive way while others may be affected negatively, and both effects have different consequences in different settings (Philo 20).
Such widespread, uneven impact in now possible because of the expansive growth of bureaucratic organizations, especially multinational corporations, along with developments in electronic communication technologies (Perrons 20). People living in large cities in every part of the world are now connected through automobile and other consumer items they make and buy, the fast food chains that are opening new branches near their homes or offices, and the kinds of music and TV they enjoy. With each passing day, people in more hinterlands are being swept into this world system via roads and communication satellites (Perrons 20). A trend, a movement, a style, or new technology that originates in one place can easily find its way to the farthest places and unlikely adopters in practically no time at all. What is interesting is that media has a huge influence on these developments. It plays a role in each development. TV, online portals, and the press have an important role in communicating to the citizenry about the current happenings in the world. Consequently, in those cases, the receivers of the news, the public for that matter, neither experience the proceedings nor have direct knowledge but are essentially reliant on the media (Perrons 20). Although the media does not tell people what they ought to think about, it is not possible that there is the uncritical absorption of the media. However, the media plays a significant role in setting agendas in the public domain, as well as perspectives that the public learns from (Perrons 20).
The inception of the digital media has revealed that the world is composed of contradictory, disjointed and circulating information (Kumar 12). The influence that mass media initiates social change is cemented at the formation of the content to be transmitted. Different privileged groups take part in the generation of content, and they include political parties or politicians and the social institutions among others (Kumar 12). For that matter, these groups normally intersect with the aim of shaping issues or initiating discussions, and they have control of the information the public has access to. In that case, policy makers have the tendency of feeding the mass media with information in a particular way to initiate a well-calculated response from the public. In other words, these policy makers, and are politicians or aligned to political domains, anticipate the way in which their content will be mediated, as well as reproduced in different media houses (Kumar 12).
A good example is the mediation and reproduction of politician's messages in the ongoing USA party elections as the country gears towards a presidential election. One candidate, Donald Trump has found a way of using the mass media to advance his political propaganda. From what he has been saying, there is no way one can think that things that he says on critical topics such as immigration, international policy, war, and religion are accidental. He together with his political advisers must have thought about them and discussed how he should say them to initiate a given response from the public and media. For example, he said that he is going to review the immigration policy so that those who are illegally in the country at the moment, according to him such as President Barack Obama will be deported. Donald Trump knows very well that President Obama is a legal American citizen without any doubts, but he goes ahead to mock the president's ancestry so that he creates a hype in the media and that would promote his popularity, and it has worked to his advantage. His popularity has been rising in the past few months not because he offers the country any tangible solutions, but because he has found a way to inject his propaganda in the media.
Also, he has given negative comments about the Pope's visit and Muslim-Americans, and his aim is to create religious controversy debates and again benefit from the popularity of his agendas. The mass media has played a huge role in advancing the politician's propaganda. The mass media can refine content and transmit that which cannot cause havoc among the public, but that is not the case. Trump's comments and actions have shown how racism is deeply rooted in the American culture. Once thought to be world's most elite society, America is not progressing in the right direction. Issues of racism are on the rise, and they can lead the country into hostility. The media is playing a huge role in advancing this negative social change. Numerous efforts have been put in place by past leaders to end the division between Whites and Blacks and Christians and Muslims. Through those past efforts, the country had advanced to an elite level and was an example to many. However, thanks to the mass media that trust in the USA is dwindling. The country has numerous media outlets that reproduce careless comments of their top politicians to the international community, and people are now starting to see the country in bad light. At the same time, by airing such propagandas without care, the media is causing racial and religious divisions in the country and the international community at large, and that is derailing positive social change that had been established.
The society is full of controversial issues with different parties championing their ideas (Harper 1). One of the main issues of controversy is political ideology as different parties across the world are competing for space. The mass media is the best channel through which these controversies are transmitted, and this often begins by displaying the available arguments and initiating public participation (Harper 1). When some of the news are viewed with a critical eye, it is astonishing to find that some of the controversial headlines are never referenced, and we have many instances where the media has had to give apologies for making wrong accusations (Harper 1).
Also, the mass media has of late been criticized of sabotaging people's and other entity's privacy, and in that way, the media limits the social change progress that was fought for by our predecessors. This phenomenon is mostly common in the online portals of media. Because of the permissiveness of the cyberspace, there is minimal accountability from media houses (Tardanico 2). They are in a race to publish news that would attract as many visitors as possible to their news portals at the expense of other people's privacy. There have been many instances where the privacy of high-ranking personalities and public figures has been stumbled upon by the media. Nowadays, popular people have to watch where they go, what they put on, what they say, whom they talk to or move around with, and even what they eat (Tardanico 2). They are always in the glare of the mass media. We had instances where public figures have succumbed to the pressure from the mass media. The mass media fuels speculations over such people's social and marital lives and couples that are not strong often find themselves being driven apart by the media (Tardanico 2). Most of the time, those speculations are unfounded or are too small, but the media makes them appear so big that the world can come to a standstill because a given public figure is having issues with their lover or their boss. In that case, the media has had an impact on how these public figures conduct themselves in the public. For fear of victimization, even if they are having problems, they will pretend to be okay, yet they are not. Because of pressure from the media, some of them even commit suicide or begin to abuse drugs, or become psychologically affected and have to be taken to mental care institutions (Tardanico 2). If we had reasonable media reporting, such stances would be very few, and the affected group would lead a normal life.
Conversely, Paul, Singh and Sunita indicate that social awareness helps us know what is socially acceptable in the society and we ought to act in that manner (36). They further state that the media has a significant role to play in the current society because it can generate radical changes and improve social situations. They see modernization to have made media such an important aspect of the society (Paul, Singh and Sunita 34). Without it, the society cannot function effectively. Both consciously and unconsciously, the media has been made to become an essential aspect of the community because it drives people’s choices, behaviors, and thoughts. The media helps communities and individuals stay informed with current developments both locally and internationally, and at the same time, educate them on important announcements, impeding changes in government, and new policies and regulations (Paul, Singh and Sunita 35). Through that, communities and individuals get acquainted with the latest fashion and events that shape their way of life and thus contributing to social change. Different pieces of information transmitted via media may influence a viewer positively or negatively. Essentially, the media influences how a person perceived the world and how they should relate to the outside world. Paul, Singh and Sunita believe that the media is positively shaping developments in different communities and that those that have issues with the media are blind (36).
In conclusion, this paper has noted that the mass media is swaying away from what is expected to do; report responsibly and help initiate positive social change. On the contrary, the media, through irresponsible reporting and lack of accountability, is limiting the positive gains of social change that had been created. The information transmitted via media has a huge influence on people's perceptions and decisions and for that matter, it can be seen as the eyes of our society. Although there are strict guidelines and a code of ethics that governs media reporting, today's media is full of self-aggrandizement and greed. There is stiff competition in the media industry; there so many options an audience can choose from, and with increasing competition, every media house has to roll up its sleeves and use every technique at their disposal to attract a huge audience.
A historical juncture has been reached whereby old ways of managing human affairs, from interpersonal to international levels, are becoming less and less effective. Despite the numerous possible options which we have experimented or merely dreamed, no clear alternatives have emerged to guide us into the highly uncertain future. Common to all these debates, conflicts, challenges, and movements, is the explicit recognition that something is wrong with society as we have known it. With each passing day, people in more hinterlands are being swept into this world system via roads and communication satellites. A trend, a movement, a style, or new technology that originates in one place can easily find its way to the farthest places and unlikely adopters in practically no time at all. When there is social change, there is a change in attitude and public will. Social change is an indication of changing cultural patterns and social structure, and it takes place all the time in any given society. What is interesting is that media has a huge influence on these developments. It plays a role in each development. The mass media has of late been criticized of sabotaging people’s and other entity’s privacy, and in that way, the media limits the social change progress that was fought for by our predecessors. Nowadays, popular people have to watch where they go, what they put on, what they say, whom they talk to or move around with, and even what they eat. They are always in the glare of the mass media. The mass media can inject positive social change into the society through effective, accurate, responsible and accountable reporting.
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