INFLUENCE OF MASS MEDIA 2
Influence of Mass Media
In the modern contemporary society, mass media is a vital tool that is commonly used in
the day to day life especially in sharing information and also its educative and entertainment role.
In addition to playing these significant roles, the mass media largely influences people’s opinions
and ideas thus affecting and shaping various important aspects of their lives. The paper intends to
show how mass media is used and the different ways it influences its user's thoughts and
opinions.
First, the mass media plays a significant role in informing and educating its audiences
especially on issues related to current political, sports or business events occurring in different
parts of the world. How people react and build their opinions towards the issue will certainly be
influenced by the manner in which the media disseminates the information (Potter, 2014). A
good example is the use of the German media by Hitler during the World War II to spread lies of
atrocities done to the Germans by other European countries (Potter, 2014). The result was
devastating since Germans formed wrong perceptions towards other countries leading to one of
the bloodiest wars in world history.
Second, the media defines people’s habits. Many times people are fond of relying on
predictions conveyed by various mass media. Weather predictions in the news bulletins, for
example, plays a big role to the attires people wear the following day (Turow, 2016). This
habitual act of checking the weather predictions by mediums such as TVs is a clear suggestion
that people are heavily dependent on it which has largely contributed to molding people’s
ideologies and thinking.
Additionally, the media is quite influential in facilitating the spread of various cultural
practices and lifestyles among people from social backgrounds. An example is the infamous
