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ROLE OF MEDIA IN PUBLIC LIFE INTRODUCTION The importance and the impact of the media, written or electronic cannot be marginalized in the world of today. In the modern world of quick communication and quick information, media plays a very crucial role. The original role of the media was and still is to give to the public all relevant information about occurrences in the country and the world. Now the written media includes a host of publications, dailies, fortnightly, weeklies, monthly all giving information about events with supplement of suggestions and comments by learned people.
Today, the print media has acquired such proportions that, there is absolutely no avenue of knowledge or information that is left out. Multifarious avenues are being touched upon, whether it is local, national or international. All avenues are being dwelt upon at great length. The great advantage of this media in spreading of news, knowledge and information through the length and breadth of the world. Public implies openness, community, citizenship, discussion, debate. RELATIONSHIP OF MEDIA & PUBLIC
We have to first understand as to what role does the media have in political behavior and how can we best describe the relationships between the public and media. As we know that media and politics and media and public life, is best accomplished through multiple lenses, those of historical narrative, ideological frame, and studies of behavior. The principal influence of the media on public life is through the ways media present information and the contexts within which they present it ??? how, in short, they treat the real world and how we, in turn, react to those presentations.
There are significant differences between the ways various media sectors approach reality: The news and information media attempts to represent it. Advertising and public relations practitioners try to focus attention on those aspects of reality that further interest their clients. And producers of entertainment may use the ‘real world’ as a source of raw material for fictional content and, usually bound by requirements of credibility. Media performs a very important function in politics.
It starts to play a role in our life by the time we are teenagers, media are our most important source of political information. Media serves as potential sources of persuasion and decision making, directly through endorsements and editorials, and indirectly, as a vehicle for candidates’ and parties’ speeches, platforms, and advertisements. Finally, information and persuasion may lead to behavior or political activity. The impact what the media has can be measured on the voting day. People either do or do not vote, and if they do, they vote for a named candidate.
On an average, about half of Americans vote in presidential elections, fewer than a quarter vote in presidential primaries; one in five wear campaign buttons or display posters, and only about one person … he Bright Side Information on the latest happenings reaches people in just a matter of minutes. The vision of media reaches even the remotest corners of the country and makes sure that everyone is aware of what is going on in the country. The easy and swift availability of any given information makes media one of the most reliable sources for forming public opinion.
It bridges the gap between the leaders and the masses by becoming their channel of communication. It brings into open the innumerable achievements that are going on in the country. Media gives ordinary people the power to reach out to the society as a whole. It can make heroes out of ordinary men. The media acts as a deterrent on corrupt practices and keeps a check on the working of the government. Media has significantly promoted social causes like literacy, health management, anti-dowry practices, discouraging female feticide, AIDS awareness, etc. On the Contrary…
Media can adversely affect the thinking capability of individuals and instill negative or destructive thinking patterns in the society as a whole. As already said before, media has the power to form and alter opinions. This means media can portray an ordinary thing so negatively that it may force people to think or act in quite the opposite way. Media glorifies violence and contains graphic descriptions or images. When viewed by the vulnerable portion of the society, i. e. , the children, it can have grave effects on their upcoming and thinking patterns.
The media can sometimes go out of the way in advertising or glorifying certain issues. Usually, a bad or detrimental message is packaged in a glorious way and is made accessible to the public. Movies that depict filthy rich thieves who don’t bat an eyelid before killing someone or extorting someone and the getting away with it, sure give entertainment to people. At the same time, it encourages them to act in a way that promises adventure and thrill in life. This way, media glorifies the bad aspects of people and encourages them to act in forbidden ways.