Structural Functionalism In The Media

Media has a big role in today’s society by revealing news to the public who is supposed to respond. The information portrayed by media are usually problems in society that influences the public (Trevino 2015). Katie Rogers talks about living in a world of technology and mentions how news about violence are getting more highlighted than ever (New York Times, 2016). Media tend to exaggerate and often views news that draw an audience (Trevino 2015). The public gets easily affected and most often believes in what they hear from media. As a result, many people get anxious and uncomfortable with the situation (Rogers 2016).
Structural functionalism is defined as a macro perspective. Patterns and trends in society are important factors when creating a functional structure for the people living there (Trevino 2015). When discussing media, functionalists claim that

Meaning, how people communicate and interact with each-other explain how a social problem is being developed (Trevino 2015). When discussing media, Trevino explains that one significant task is to look at how the public responds to the information given by media (2015). Rogers explains again, that the alarming news about violence often become desensitized by the audience (2016). When the intention is to warn the audience about a traumatic event, it seems like the respond becomes undesired. Also, Rogers mentions how the ongoing spread from social media can cause negative effects on the audience. The big amount of information has become a risk of developing stress disorders by the public (Rogers 2016). Research has found that people who view violent events more often and have a more extrovert personality tend to be in a higher risk of developing these kinds of diseases when seeing dangerous images in media (Rogers 2016). The response to media news happens to be influenced by who the audience are and what personalities they