Media – The Side Effects

In today’s social environment media plays an important role in every one’s routine and has become a part of our lives. The print and specially the electronic media inform, educate and entertain us. It is, therefore, considered as the 4th pillar of our society. First of all, we should know what the media is, is it a source of communication or information?

A range of different attitudes and opinions arise from the public when they are asked about the effects of the media exposure. Our mental upbringing depends on the environment around us i.e. what we see, hear and observe, in short media has a great influence on our lives. Therefore, social upbringing has become an important health issue as well and there is a lot of research going on upon this topic.

The societies of world have been changed by the media so much that we cannot ignore its significance. Media has a lot of responsibility on its shoulders as today’s society is very much influenced by its role. We believe in whatever media projects. Considering the power media has, it should feel responsible to educate the society in a positive way and give people factual information as well as fair analysis. They should work to help the people, educate the people, to empower the people and to liberate the people.

Media fills the gap between the governing bodies and general public. It can change decisions and opinions because it has access to people and this gives it a lot of strength. This strength can be used either constructively by educating the people or can be used destructively by misleading the innocent people. Media is so powerful that it can be used as a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ especially in the developing countries. But educating the people about their basic human rights is the most important use of media.

In the past we were ignorant about what is happening around us because the media was not so strong at that time. But today we come to know very quickly what is happening around us. We have the access to all kinds of media whether its news channels, newspaper and all sorts of electronic media.

When we watch a movie or TV we usually see many violent images and we also see people hurting each other. The problem is that it can become very traumatic for the general public especially the children. Kids that are growing and are shaping their personality and beliefs may become very aggressive or they might lose a sense of fiction and reality of what they are seeing and observing.

In some cases kids have been carrying guns with them at schools in the past few years. Those kids have been linked to excessive exposure of violent videos and games and war images.

Another problem is that media is using real war as a form of entertainment, it must be made clear to kids and teens that war is not a form of entertainment as in a war there is always loss to both the opponents in kind of destruction to humanity, property, resources etc. The information provided through this takes over our minds and we think according to whatever message that information has conveyed to us.

There has been a great increase in media use over the last 5 years. Online media and mobile use has also formed part of the information and entertainment tools therefore, are in excessive use of each segment of the society, the rich or poor, the young or elders even in rural areas. Therefore, the responsibility has also increased on the media managers to analyze each information in true sense and present positivity to foster UNITY, FAITH and DISCIPLINE .