Negative Effects Of Mass Media Essay

For every outlet of information, there are some who see it as dangerous not because it affects them, but because it might affect the thoughts and opinions of an imaginary third party”(McRaney). The media can have both, a positive and negative impact on how it’s affecting and influencing society. Many people don’t acknowledge how they are being affected, but how others are. The mistake to view this issue in that perspective is inaccurate because it’s affecting us all. Specifically, the groups where they don’t share the same beliefs and ideas are the ones who we think are being influenced and bowled over by the messages through media and the world.

Media’s Importance to Society, In Spite of Adverse Effects It has been said that the media is a bad influence on society. This is true in some cases, but we have to also add this to the statement; society also influences the media by what it chooses to promote or watch. Media is a very important part of society today. Even with its adverse effects, we could not live without it. To start with, it is only fair to ask why society thrives off the media.

Using shock tactics introduces fear into the people, influencing their decisions. “A negative fallout of shock advertising is that continuous exposure to them desensitizes us to them, and they become blind spots” (Manral). There are many pros and cons of the shock advertising method making it a controversial method to advertisers in the United States and around the world. Reasons for most shock advertisements are meant to protect people. Shock advertisements inform people of what could happen to them if they do things like not wear their seatbelt, drink and drive or smoke.

Celebrities entertain us in many ways, but sometimes we do not enjoy what they do yet we still watch them. For instance, many teen idols have had meltdowns. Although it is not fun to... ... middle of paper ... ...positive articles than the usual negative ones. Our society needs to stop the gossip industry because it is only making our culture worse. Our society is headed in the wrong direction, and if we continue on that path, our society will only suffer more in the distant future.

These are like political, economic, socio-cultural and geographic ideologies. Some adverts were politically inclined with a view of winning consumers affiliated to a particular divide. These were rightist or leftists which distorted the image of many entities due to their biases while rolling public awareness programs on their products as noted by Thompson. Adverts were also mostly tailored towards up market consumers, thus discriminating the low-end consumers. This exclusivist view of advertisement alienated many down-market consumers leaving them neglected and betrayed in the society.

This is a result of the current presented means of entertainment. People are now constantly watching TV series and video clips and later start taking the actors, singers and even TV presenters as role models and dressing like them in attempt to stand out and be up to date. Not only do they dress like their role models, but they blindly believe in their opinions no matter how biased and incorrect they are. The media is currently making our decisions for us, such as deciding our own personal preferences. Media is affecting teenagers greatly because it displays abundance of violence, and inappropriate scenes as well as unhealthy living conditions, making teenagers believe that such behaviors are acceptable in our society.

“ A ban on negative political advertising would open the political world up to those who don’t want to be expose themselves to media bullies” (Admin 2). I believe that if people are scared to expose themselves then they must have something to hide. Even though negative things said about those candidates are not true, I believe that negative political advertisement should be allowed because negative advertisement makes people want to look more into that specific candidate and we are emotionally attached to negativity. “Negative ads have the potential to spread not only harmful, but false information as well, leaving the viewer misinformed and voting for the wrong reasons” (Dr. 1). What this is saying is that negative ads just confuse the voters because all of the information they put on billboards and the television is false.

The media provides us with information useful to what consumer are looking for in a product. However, the media is causing people to think badly of themselves, and is giving them an idea of what people are supposed to look like. It gives false impressions how people should really look, causing them to harm themselves, and others; this is something that can be fixed. In ways like this, the media helps limit our ideas, understanding of our worth, and our full potential. People, because of ads, hurt themselves and others because they either want to look like the people in the ads, or because someone else does not reach their own standards.

Advertising is an exaggerated reflection of life and founded in some of the perspectives the audience may have of society. While advertising does have a negative impact upon society by frequently portraying stereotypes, materialism and sex appeal as a method to sell products (Pollay, 1986), it is also true that society shapes these advertisements. Advertisement being a force upon the population is just as true as the statement that advertising is shaped by the population. In admitting that both of these statements are true, it is clear that advertisements inflicting the portrayal of certain negative concepts is caused by a society holding these values and beliefs. As advertising is moving forward it is becoming more filtered to suit the values of an individual as well which holds contention towards Pollay’s statement.

The Media’s Negative Influence on Society There is a lot of controversy about how the media affects people, but in my opinion I think the influence we get is more negative than positive. The media is one of the things that impact people the most because in today’s society it is impossible to ignore. It influences the ways in which we dress, speak, act and think. Media is fed to us through movies, television, radio, social media, music, and magazines. I believe mass media is pressuring the way woman and girls want to look, twists reality, and is sexist towards woman without people even realizing.