Mass Media
TMA 3
Evaluate the impact of mass media (oral history, print media and electronic media) on society.
Mass media is defined as “any social or technological devices used for the selection, transmission or reception of information. (Macionis & Plummer, 2005, p. 579). In modern day context, the mass media is made up of various forms such as printed media (newspapers, magazines and etc), oral and visual media (radio transmission, videos and etc) and virtual media (online blogs, magazines and etc). The mass media plays an important role in our everyday life. In our daily activities, we inevitably make use of mass media for various reasons such as exchanging of information, communication between individuals and etc. Ask a typical Singaporean how often does he watch television, surf the internet or read a magazine. He would tell you that he does these on a daily basis and the frequency may be even more than his meal times. Mass media, itself, has slowly evolved and formed a social institution whereby it has become a major part of our everyday social life. It has slowly evolved and organized itself to meet the basic human need i.e. the need for information and communication.
Before evaluating the impact of mass media, we will look at some theories involving the mass media. First, the magic bullet theory or the hypodermic model. This theory built on the assumption that people are passive and that the media message has a direct impact on them. However, in my opinion, this theory is flawed in the assumption that all people are passive and lack the ability to think critically. It also assumes that the media is used as a form of propaganda to alter and shape the mindset of passive people. In modernized and educated societies, people are not passive and certainly have the capability and abilities to think and critique what is being presented to them. For example, in the Forum Section of The Straits Time (Singapore’s leading newspaper), we see many Singaporeans...
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