Mass Communication: Its Role in Spreading Information & Freedom - Essay Sample

Introduction

Mass communication is the exchange of information to a large population. Through mass communication, political, social, and economic news can reach many people simultaneously. Information is vital because it influences the freedom of expression, creates awareness of a particular situation, and sharpens the audiences' thoughts. Mass communication also promotes freedom of speech and that of media. Today, nearly everyone relies on information from mainstream media and Social media networks. The information consumed from these platforms can either be real or fake. Interestingly, many naive consumers treat propaganda or fake news as real because they are not skeptical and do not bother to question the source. As such, they are easily convinced of the veracity of the press.

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According to Ejupi, Siljanovska, and Iseni (2014), persuasion is a crucial element of mass communication. However, negative persuasion leads to propaganda, thus, adversely affecting society. This paper aims to analyze the relationship between persuasion, propaganda, and their effects through mass communication. In extrapolating this theme, the essay will determine whether it is an inherent nature of mass communication to give rise to negative utilization persuasion. It will also identify whether the negative persuasion intensifies propaganda. Besides, the piece will outline the elements of mass communication that negatively impact society.

Literature Review

In every democratic society, the media, through mass communication, has a complicated relationship with the political system and the sources of power (Ejupi et al., 2014). The notion of mass communication means that media is used to transmitting a message from the sender to the receiver. Media plays a significant role in mass communication, as it ensures the transmission of information through time and space. Therefore, to provide mass communication, the media must exist as a platform for the diffusion of the intended message.

Ejupi et al. (2014) noted that mass communication, through media, plays a significant role in strengthening and creating public opinion. The media contributes to democratization as it gives rise to freedom of thinking and expression. All these are expressed through the art of persuasion as people believe the authenticity of the information communicated via the media. According to Busu and Busu (2014), the ability to freely and independently make decisions and express oneself is a positive thing. Ejupi et al. (2014), however, pointed out that the political reality in today's society is that the degree of positive persuasion depends on the kind of image the audience receives, especially in political events. If, for instance, a political candidate paints a negative picture of his or her opponent, then the public opinion towards that opponent will influence the votes he or she gets. Further, the scholars insisted that the negative persuasion expressed through mass media originates from the belief that the media market is unstable and small and depends on political personalities to support it financially.

Raudeliuniene, Davidaviciene, Tvaronaviciene, and Jonuska (2018) admitted that mass communication is changing due to the creation of a virtual environment by social media networks. They introduced the notion of the effects of negative persuasion through advertising campaigns by different organizations in social media. According to them, organizations use social media network as a tool to not only market their products and communicate to their customers, but also establish a relationship with them.

On the other hand, Fransen, Smit, and Verlegh (2015) discovered that the level of susceptibility to negative persuasion that affects the society is high due to the large numbers of users in social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. They also found out that social networks have many users who are prone to negative persuasion. This means that when a product is advertised on social media, despite its negative effect, then the public is likely to take takes it as the truth, even if the product is harmful. It mostly happens with gullible individuals. This persuasion might affect their health or the morality of society depending on the content being advertised. For instance, some companies, such as Coca-Cola, through media, advertise on the drinking of Coke. In most cases, the company focuses on the benefits of the product without creating awareness of its harmful effects. To increase sales, the firm convinces the public that the result of using the beverage is a liberating and relaxing feeling. Nonetheless, the advertisement fails to point out the negative effect of the calories the drink adds to the consumer hence causing diseases such as diabetes.

Social media such as YouTube also provides tutorials on ways to hack people's devices by breaking through their firewalls. This increases cyber insecurity, which, in the long run, affects society. Therefore, advertisements through social media give rise to negative persuasion.

Fransen, Smit, and Verlegh (2015) stated that persuasion is a crucial element of communication among humans. According to them, it is the resistance to persuasion that leads to the negative influence of the information. They, therefore, disagree that the inherent nature of mass communication gives rise to negative persuasion that negatively influences an individual and society.

Fransen et al. (2015) emphasized on the four clusters of resistance namely; avoidance, biased processing, avoidance, and empowerment. In the avoidance strategy, the audience aims to protect oneself from the impact of any persuasive messages. Fransen et al. (2015) further gave an example of television views. They concluded that television views often avoid informational messages contrary to entertaining and emotional information. The avoidance is directed to every mass media platforms, including radio and print advertising.

In political communication, there is selective avoidance of exposure. It is correct to conclude that people tend to avoid messages of peace during political campaigns and choose to expose themselves to political manipulation and propaganda (Fransen et al., 2015). The result is biased processing of information and empowerment of the leader who has the worst propaganda strategies, hence winning the campaign. This situation is evident from the Trump campaigns against Hillary Clinton in the 2015-2016 presidential contests. Therefore, according to the scholars, it is not the nature of mass communication to give rise to negative persuasion, but it is the choice of the audience to resist the information being relative that gives rise to the adverse effects.

Enikolopov and Petrova (2017) refuted the opinion that the negative effect of persuasion emanates from resistance by bringing evidence that mass media indeed does influence the audience's behavior. They believed that mass communication directly affects the audience's reaction through persuasion, whether positively or negatively. The ability of mass communication to change behavior based on the strength of the information relayed influences the consumer's thinking.

Enikolopov and Petrova (2017) adopted an experiment that aimed to study the effect of newspapers on political behaviors for free and paying subscribers. The results showed that the residents who received free subscription were 8% likely to vote for a Democrat candidate compared to those who did not have a free subscription (Enikolopov & Petrova, 2017). In the same context, research conducted by Singh and Pandey (2017) indicated that the explicit endorsement by print media for specific candidates affects the voting outcomes. Further, the researchers demonstrated that politically biased television channels increase the number of votes for any political candidate. For instance, Fox News increased vote share by 0.5% points for George W. Bush during the 2000 election campaigns (Ejupi, Siljanovska, & Iseni, 2014). This evidence only means that mass communication influences behavior, and persuasion, whether negative or positive, is a product of the concept.

Ejupi, Siljanovska, et al., (2014) further asserted that persuasion that arises from mass communication plays a negative influence is in countries experiencing war. During this supporters of a particular political leader use social media to spread lies and insults against their opponents, thus, influencing war and hate. Seitz, (2018) agreed with Enikolopov and Petrova (2017) that there is a connection between mass media, negative persuasion, and propaganda in times of war. Seltz (2018) maintained that although a country may believe in a freedom of media, the truth holds that that the most influential militia group uses the media to influence people to support their course.

It is worth noting that the perpetrators of war use propaganda to change the public thoughts, and gain support for their class even the move violate human rights. Such propaganda proves useful because it relies on psychological persuasion techniques such as commitment and consistency, reciprocity, social proof, authority, social proof, and the scarcity principle. In the process, civilians suffer a loss due to the propaganda. The situations have triggered war in many nations including Iraq and Iran.

Wahab, Othman, and Muhammad, (2017) provided an analysis of the influence of media on teenagers. According to them, mass media affects the lifestyles of teenagers negatively. For example, due to the constant broadcasting of terrorism acts in electronic media through movies and videos, most teenagers gain antagonistic characters towards the Islam students while in schools. This indeed shows the negative influence of mass media through negative persuasion affects young people.

Additionally, Ali, Iqbal, and Iqbal (2016), in their research, held that social media affects the behavior of the youth by influencing their thinking and instilling the feeling of wanting to associate with their online friends. Consequently, most of them end up doing activities that are not beneficial to their health and financial capabilities, such as indulging in drug abuse and over shopping (Ali, Iqbal, & Iqbal, 2016). A few of them use social media to do constructive activities such as searching for a job, studying, and creating positive messages. A result is a frustrated group of young people, who have no idea about the meaning of their lives, and end up being recruits of terrorist groups and violent activities.

The elements of mass communication that lead to the changes in behavior, negatively affecting the society majorly include persuasion, propaganda, and fear instilled into the audience. According to Busu and Busu (2014), other features such as using a person of authority and influence as the communicator also contribute to the negative effect of mass media as the audience tends to follow the speaker due to admiration and respect. Moreover, Treapat (2017) from his research concluded that the time spent by the youth in social media is a crucial element that leads to mass communication having adverse effects on them. Therefore, the scholar advised that teenagers and the youth in general social use less time interacting online and grow their interpersonal skills for a positive impact on their psychological growth.

Summary of Class Discussions

The questions asked during class discussions were the following:

Does the inherent nature of mass communication give way to negative utilization of persuasion?

If yes, is it fair to say that this is then exacerbated into heavy usage of propaganda? and

If no, what element or elements would you say influence mass communication to impact socie...