Impact of mass media on how people view reality

Running Head : Impact of Mass Media

The Impact of Mass Media on how People View Reality

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The Impact of Mass Media on how People View Reality

Introduction

It has been said that mass media is the most influential organization anywhere in the world today . As the digital communication technology continuously improves and produces more and more new devices , the people have become more exposed to the influential demands set by the mass media . As the world conforms to modernity , mass media has been

constantly creating new shows that would capture the attention of their viewers , readers , or even listeners . Consequently , people all over the world have been exposed to mass media . It serves as the most efficient way of communicating with others and the easiest way to get all the information needed . Hence , through the Agenda Setting Theory , this research aims to evaluate the impact of mass media on how people view reality , specifically the way they perceive young adults , and assess the influence of mass media to the society

of Selected Theory

According to agenda setting theory developed by Prof . Maxwell McCombs and Prof . Donald Shaw (1972 , the media highlights certain issues for public opinion . In agenda setting theory , McCombs and Shaw (1972 discussed the powerful influence of media . They explained how media affects the way of thinking of the people towards an issue . That is , the media agenda (policy rankings by importance in the media ) influences both the public agenda (rankings in opinion surveys ) and the policy agenda (rankings in legislative bodies (Garson , 2006

Media gives more attention to issues which they perceived as more salient . They would exert significant influence to a certain issue until they capture the attention of the viewers . McCombs and Shaw tested this theory by investigating presidential campaigns . Both theorists focused on only two elements : awareness and information . In the article of McCombs and Reynolds (2002 , they stated that most of the researches reveal that media viewers not only learn factual information , but they also come to understand the importance of issues exposed by the mass media based on how they highlighted them . McCombs and Reynolds (2002 provided a summary of how McCombs and Shaw conducted their research

To test the hypothesis that the media agenda can set the public agenda McCombs and Shaw conducted a survey among a sample of randomly selected undecided voters in Chapel Hill North Carolina . Concurrent with this survey of voters , the nine major news sources used by these voters - five local and national newss , two television networks , and two newsmagazines - were collected and content analyzed . The rank of the issues on the media agenda was determined by the number of news stories devoted to each issue (pp . 2-3

To easily understand the agenda setting , the theorists explained some important concepts . Salience transfer refers to the capacity of the media to influence the relative importance individuals attach to policy issues . On the other hand , gatekeeping determines the content of salience transfer . Media...