Why Study The Media?

The media is everchanging and developing and becoming increasingly integrated into our everyday lives. More than ever, the media has a huge amount of influence on our opinions and behaviours, and we can participate within the media more than ever with the changing relationship and blurred lines between producer and consumer. 

Relationships between the media and public are ever evolving due to the rise in social media and how accessible it is to produce media content. This includes social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. These platforms have changed the relationship because people are now able to easily voice their own opinions meaning that people no longer have to pay for news content. This change can shift the majority of people from big news broadcasters, such as The Guardian, to using more available resources, such as Twitter. Certain problems can arise from this because they’re not as reputable because they’re not produced by professional journalists. This has caused the rise in ‘fake news’ because it’s power without responsibility and giving the public the chance to share without the thought of repercussions. 

Newspapers are viewed as ‘gatekeepers’ to the media because they act as filter to what the public is exposed to. They have the power to methodically pick and choose what they want to broadcast which can furthermore influence the publics opinion due to what they read. An example of influential broadcasting is The Guardian, an extremely left-wing UK newspaper, and The Daily Mail, an incredibly right-wing newspaper. This can heavily influence peoples political opinions and which party they vote for based on what newspaper they read.

The media can be perceived as negative because it is believed that it has corrupt effects on the public, influencing people in damaging ways. The most vulnerable demographic for this is children, the mentally ill and the elderly. The James Bulger case in 1993 caused a moral panic when two young boys kidnapped a toddler, raped and brutally murdered him. It was reported that these children had previously watched Childs Play 3, a graphic horror, including murders. People began to wonder whether the film had an impact upon the crime they committed. This debate is still continuing today as to whether violent video games and tv shows which glorifies the acts of killing people have a negative effect on those watching or playing.

The media is particularly important to study in relation to its effect on young people. Social media sites such as Instagram have been highly criticized for the unrealistic beauty standards that it sets for young audiences and the negative effects it can have on their mental health and body image. This is due to the younger generation being able to access things like phones and iPads easily. The percentage of people aged 12 to 18 that regularly use a phone is 86%, this massive portion of teenagers means that these unrealistic body standards are a usual thing for young people to see in the media. The amount of young people with mental heath problems has rapidly increased with the amount of young people accessible to the media, this is a direct problem and a threat to the younger generation.

In conclusion, the media is important to study because we can see how the media can influence the public and likewise how the public can influence the media.