Explore the critical role of media in society and how it shapes public opinion, fosters understanding, and holds those in power accountable.

Role of Media in Society

The press plays a very important role in the modern age. Inspite of the impact of television news coverage on the public, newspapers still continue to serve as the basic news medium for a majority of the population. Although newspapers lack the speed and visual quality of television news yet they provide greater depth and variety in reporting. People today depend greatly on the press for local national, international news.

They cannot be kept well informed about them in the absence of newspapers A newspaper reader can obtain a lot information regarding local, national and international affairs from a single issues of a newspaper A newspaper caters for the needs of different readers by publishing various types of news such as political, economic social scientific, developmental etc

• The true role of media, thus should be project the inner feelings of the people which guarantees them lasting happiness of both the worlds The role of the media is not just to project the developmental activities of a particular area but offer a comprehensive picture, encompassing all aspects of life that is moral, spiritual and material
• It should seek to establish a link between old and present heritage and highlight accomplishments and deficiencies of nations.
• The media should be accountable to the society which sustains it through its patronage
• In our society, a third world developing ideological state, the media has a multiple and a crucial role to play It simply cannot afford the luxury of the anarchic freedom of the western media and at no cost should permit itself to be gagged completely In its constructive positive role it has to reflect the public mood and sentiments
• In the broadcast media considerations other than public- service may also determine decisions Most of the news on radio and television is too brief to provide the information the public- needs Often, particularly in time of crisis or disaster, the rush to get on the air leads to the dissemination of sketchy or inaccurate information, and in the hotly competitive broadcast industries a scramble of rating in the Jamming up of newscasts and over emphasis on dramatic development

We are heavily dependent on the media for these glimpses of what is happening outside our immediate neighborhood We flick on the radio each morning for news of what happened while we slept, we search the newspapers and news magazines for reports of new medical cures or economic survival tactics we watch a television documentary for insight into social systems of the media we would be cut of, wondering and fearful in a world full meaning unknowns.

The media of mass communication also serve as socializing agencies, partly through the news they convey and partly through the other information ‘they disseminate. We learn, practically from television, about developing facts, about modification in manners and morals.

In reality, the media form a part of society just as mosques schools, and minority groups do While the media unquestionably do influence society thinking and behavior, their own conduct is turned or shaped by the standards and structures of other social elements. The media do not stand alone, although their high visibility focus attention on them.

The Media and Politics

According to Thomas Jefferson the role of the press in a democracy:

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government with out newspapers, or newspapers without a government, 1 shall not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter

In the democratic process, the media perform a two way function Political leaders use media channels to explain their actions and promote their causes Simultaneously, they study the media to determine what voters think, what they desire, and how a mesh of political goals and voter attitude can be achieved.

The influence of the mass media on the political process is strong and easily discernible. Politicians maneuver to obtain 30 second interview  on the evening T V news shows Election campaigns are fought with 30 second T V commercials designed to project a calculated image of the candidate rather than the discussion of an issue. And two decade after the Vietnam War. pictures such as the uncompressing platoon remind us of war s horrors and the American political failures of that struggle as Barron’s Forbes and Fortune probe business trends, as do programs such as louis Rukeyser’s wall “Street Week’ on television.

In the business community a popularly held misconception is that the news media are out to “get” corporations Main corporate executive regard reported as antagonistic and ill- informed individuals who try to tear down the business structure

The Media and Social Change

During the immense changes in the social structure of the past quarter century, the media have been the instruments through which the promoters of change have advocates, as the campaign in progress

In general, the media science than have done an adequate and occasionally excellent job in identifying and reporting social tends, Changing relationships between men and women, both in the workplace and in personal life, the problems of racial inequality, alienation of young people and their rejection of traditional living patterns, the increase in violence and growth of the drug culture all of these have been examined in broadcast, book, magazine, articles, news stories, and films

The media are an integral part of society, not an unrelated force, and their treatment of social change is influenced and constructed by other portions of the social fabric. Social change often does not come easily, and, as the messengers of society, the media must suffer the business of conflict.

The media as a whole are concerned in a news sense with reporting and interpreting society’s conduct, in an entertainment sense with presenting material that will earn a profit because it pleases audiences, and in a commercial sense with marketing goods and services through advertising, at a profit themselves.

So, the next time you read a news article or watch a documentary, remember the profound influence that the media has on our lives. After all, knowledge is power – and the media is the gateway to that power.