Mass Media Influence

The influence of mass media in society has shaped peoples opinions and values for decades in relation to how they perceive topics and other areas of interest. Currently and previously the media 's power and influence in society is unparalleled because it controls information flow, which is significantly important because people rely on information to make sense of the world around them. Moreover, the media 's power is so vast that military prodigy and self-proclaimed emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte expressed that: "Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets." This expression is a representation of how influential the power of media can be; Napoleon compares media as more powerful than military force. Evidently the media have been …show more content…
Over the last 500 years, the influence of mass media has grown immensely due to advances in technology. Initially mass media originated from books, then evolved from newspapers, magazines, photography, sound recordings, films, radio, television, Internet, and now social media (Pearce 2009, p. 9). According to American political scientist Harold Lasswell people willingly engage with the mass media as well as benefiting from the experience. Lasswell expresses that the media 's role in society is performed on four basic functions: ‘surveying the environment to provide news and information; correlating response to this information (editorial function); entertaining (diversion function); and transmitting culture to future generations’ (Macnamara 2005, p. 3). As mentioned the power of the media has been around for centuries and is an extremely important aspect in society because it allows us to receive and perceive information from the world around us. However, sometimes that news and information we receive becomes distorted and inadequate, making us believe in lies over