Mass Media And The Role Of Media In Society

The role of media in the society is to educate and inform the public. Mass media perform the role of agenda-setting which makes the mass media audience to consider as important any issue which the media concentrate on (Maxwell McCombs & Donald Shaw). Media is the fourth pillar of a democracy and has played a significant role especially in developing countries. In an age of diversified media corporations, we are persuaded to believe that we live in a "global village" - a single, undifferentiated information society (Marshall McLuhan) where every individual can share information regarding any issue. According to (McQuail 1994) there are a set of different roles about media tasks in society, like providing information about events and conditions

Newspaper, Radio, T.V, and Internet are the four main mass media through which a large number of audience can be reached via mass communication process. In the 21st century each broadcasting media like television, radio and internet has its own importance and need in the society with choices available to us.

Print media: remain the leading media over a time now have got competition from television, which has brought a positive change in our society. Apart from these two major media Radio is still providing news as well as entertainment to a larger section of the society. Then comes to new media technologies whose proliferation in the society has changed the every aspects of news, views or entertainment.

Newspaper: Newspapers have educated the masses by informing them of the developments in the field of science and technology. They have also expressed strong views against prejudices which harm the society. Much developmental news has also been aired through the medium of radio. Its comparative low cost and wide acceptance among poorer sections have made it a potent tool for expressing ideas beneficial to the

Internet has provided the opportunity for citizens who are conversant with the medium to express their views about a number of issues. In many cases groups have been formed by likeminded people who discuss and debate over a number of decisions on the part of the government and seek new ideas for way ahead. The power of the internet can be easily judged from the developments in Egypt in recent times. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter were used to garner support against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak (Kuwait Times, 2010). Internet has been used by various public service organizations and N.G.Os to inform people about their objectives and also to make them aware of various initiatives on the part of the government as well as non-government organisations for social upliftment. In internet the barrier to communication is minimal which helps in the formation of a participative environment. There is also greater empowerment of the users through higher level of interactivity and flexibility in choice of media outlets. The potential of the medium lies in its ability to be more personalized by offering user-created content (Flew,