The Impact of the Media (Particularly the News) on Us:

Today’s class discussion centered mainly on the effects that the media can have on us – both as individuals and as a society. When speaking for myself only, I personally don’t feel like the effect that the media has on us is too great to overcome. As talked about, the media has a great impact on our lives – especially in our current age.  From experience, we know that this can serve to both help us at times but it can also harm us – but I think that we can definitely control the impact that it have on us. As individuals, the importance that we place on the media also plays into the impact that they have on us. We briefly touched this towards the end of class, and this was that we shouldn’t take everything that we see in the media to heart – especially if it’s something that you heard in some yellow-journalism source. When Mr. Bonamo played devil’s advocate and stated that the truth is that majority of the population believes everything that they see/hear, I initially doubted it. After further analyzing this though, I believe that this is true to a certain extent. Take your average worker for example; they don’t have the time to sit down and actually read through an actual newspaper. The most logical thing to do if one wishes to be up to date is to simply read the headlines for that certain day from some type of mobile source. If you’re too pressured or rushed, and simply want to keep up with the news, you definitely won’t question the validity and authenticity of what you’re reading. As also noted in class, in our age, with so many sources available to inform ourselves – it is easier to simply stick to one and commit to it rather than to take all of them, analyze the information they give you, and then to arrive at your own conclusions. Because of all this, I think it’s fair to say that we also have a responsibility here with regards to the media and the way that we receive it. Yes, some media sources can be misleading, some exaggerated, some downplayed, and some may be completely wrong but, if we are responsible individuals, we know that we have to look past what you are being presented with and go out of your way to truly say that you are informed correctly. If we fail to question the media and simply accept everything to be true, we can’t say it’s not our fault – we have to take some of the blame.  This may be easier said than done, but if we manage to do all this, I think it’s fair to say that we can control the impact that the media has on us.