Do today’s vast media deliver more positive or negative effects?
Vast media refers to media technologies that reach a big audience through mass communication. The technologies via which vast communication takes place comprise of broadcast media which convey information electronically, through media such as television, radio, movie, and music to mention a few. It comprises digital media which is composed of mobile and internet vast communication. The internet media is composed of services that include web sites, social media, and electronic-mail. The public usually relies on the vast media to provide information concerning entertainment and news regarding political affairs and social issues. Through vast media, news channels have a chief impact on the public and an important role on the public’s opinion on national matters (Dowsing and Hoijtink par. 1-3). Nevertheless, vast media delivers both positive and negative impacts.
Vast media have major roles to the public; it makes the large society informed towards day to day business on the world (McCombs 34-37). Vast media has provided a platform for every human being to voice out his/her opinion on all kinds of both political and social affairs and share information with one another. It has brought simpler methods of communication and has provided the public with easily reachable means that may be used to contact people in diverse parts of the world. Media such as radio, television, and internet access have enlarged a general awareness of the public. Vast media improves the universal knowledge by offering the public with information from the entire globe (Valkenburg and Peter 221-240). News broadcast via diverse media assist the public to access the ongoing activities in the world. Vast media has brought about an unmatched transformation towards the way people think; it has provided a great platform upon which people present themselves towards the world and contribute to their methods of transforming the global situation. Vast media serves as the most excellent method by which news spread fast; this could be essential for instance, in times of crisis. This makes it evident that vast media has all sorts of benefits to the public.
On the other hand, vast media has negative impacts; for instance, televisions have brought idleness, some individuals become addicts towards it, which could lead to obesity as one is only consuming, and he/she is not utilizing that energy. The recent vast media platform, which comprises of social media, assists young people to learn to network and form unnecessary relationships, and this could lead to interference of achieving their goals in life (“How are social media changing democracy?” par. 1-4). Social media as one of the categories of vast media could lead to bullying because of the anonymity of the web. This way, vast media has impacted the youth negatively; this occurs because of its dominance by sexualized images that gives significance on slim bodies and youthful look. Such images influence how teenagers view their bodies, and they could use all means to achieve this argument. Vast media has resulted in an increase in violence as the public is exposed to violent images and information that trigger the mind of individuals thus making them more probable of acting violently towards others (Pinker A31). Moreover, crimson images in video games and movies impact the young people towards violent acts.
In conclusion, though vast media delivers both positive and negative effects, there is a clear indication that currently, it serves more positive significant roles in the society than unconstructive impacts. If vast media would not be in place, people all over the world could be in darkness; this means that their know-how to ongoing events could be very low. Although the vast media is affecting people negatively, more than the half of the world population is benefiting positively. Therefore, today’s vast media is mostly influencing the large society positively.
Works Cited
“How are social media changing democracy?” The Economist 28 March 2016. Web. <http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2016/03/economist-explains-23>.
Dowsing, Kavita, and Leonie Hoijtink. “Proving the impact of media on behavior change.” BBC 20 June 2014. Web. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcmediaaction/entries/69e77b7e-105e-3702-8189-c8cb03f4fd5f>.
McCombs, Maxwell. Setting the agenda: The mass media and public opinion. Hoboken, New Jersey, United States: John Wiley & Sons, 2013. Print.
Pinker, Steven. “Mind over mass media.” The New York Times 10 June 2010: A31. Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/opinion/11Pinker.html>.
Valkenburg, Patti, and Jochen Peter. “The differential susceptibility to media effects model.” Journal of Communication 63.2 (2013): 221-243. Print.