Evolving Role of Media in Shaping Public Opinion Essay

The world keeps changing on a daily basis, from technological to medical advancements. However, the most crucial advancement taking its toll now is technology and everything that is related to it. Technology has brought the world together and formed a united front, where people from all walks of life get to interact. This is done mainly through social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and myspace and the media at large. With the growing use of this platforms, human beings have been made to believe that all things must be done according to a certain and strict manner and this is where the 'court of public opinion' as it is called has gotten most of its power from. Therefore, the following essay seeks to explain and analyze the evolving role of the media in shaping public opinion.

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This essay has been referred to as the cult of likability, and just like the meaning of cult, to belong to a certain group and abiding by its rules, people now live their lives based on how much they impress people which reflects on how they are perceived and liked by the society. The debate is what is the cause of all this need to belong and impress other people and most of the times the fingers get pointed right back at the media (Easton, Bret, 12).

The media on a daily basis makes decisions on what to display and what to show on their screens. This, of course, is not an easy task as it evolves a lot of scrutiny and censoring. However, at the end of the day, the media chooses content that would be appealing to the viewers. As a result of this, there has been an emerging trend of displaying certain things and not displaying other things on the media because according to opinions and polls, it does not sink well with the audience.

When a media outlet decides to portray something as bad, the impact will be felt hard and far because they have that type of influence on people, that is shaping the public opinion. For example, it would be very hard for someone to try and recover their name, once the media has tarnished it because they already depicted a bad picture of them and with the amount of influence they hold over the viewers, it is termed as the right and correct news.

Therefore, realizing the amount of weight that the media can hold over public opinion, then it advisable that everything that goes through them is properly scrutinized before it is let into the ears and eyes of people. Nowadays it is no longer about reporting the news, but the media has the power to shape a lot of different opinions, from the clothes that people wear to the food they eat, to the type of drinks they should drink, political views and to how they generally view each other as human beings.

There is an increase in the culture of shaming people for having different opinions from the rest of the people. This culture has led to people losing their voices and in turn trying to conform to what they don't necessarily believe in order to avoid being blamed or shamed. It has reached an extent where reputation management is a booming business because people in the cooperate world are so afraid of how they may be perceived by others and opt to hire people to regulate everything they do in their lives for them. From the way they talk, eat, walk, clothe and respond to things on the media in order to present to the world a more likable you. Individuals have chosen to hide their true selves just to fit into this crazy corrupted lifestyle of lying and deception.

Realizing that the media has a lot of influence on how everything is perceived, most people nowadays now choose to play everything 'safe'. That ensures that their actions do not paint a negative picture of them in any way. By doing this, people have become robots to the society, doing things according to certain ways and being scared of stepping out of their comfort zone. So, the debate on most people's mouths is the ever-evolving role of the media in shaping these public opinions and the extent to which it has reached. The media needs to realize that they play a huge role in influencing how people, talk, walk, eat and even interact among other things.

How the media decides to depict certain news, for example political, they have a great influence on how the people will react and treat that political point. If a politician stands for certain values and the media decides to show them as bad values then the people will be having a negative attitude to that leader and what he/she stands for, without even waiting for further articulation of the values. Some leaders win elections simply because of how the media showed their stories and how the portrayed them to the public. It has reached an extent where politicians attempt to pay these media outlets in order to showcase news that is in their favor, which just continues to show the influence of the media in shaping opinions.

Many people have had to change their entire lives simply to conform to the standards of this already set standards that shape the public opinion. It should be known and made clear to the public that what is displayed there is not what they should do always or how they should live their lives but instead encourage people to be unique and be diverse in everything they participate in. In the return, the media should also showcase this diversity so that they can sway the public opinion in all directions, therefore, removing biases.

Bibliography

Easton, Bret. "Living in the Cult of Likability." Turning Points. Dec 8th, 2015.