Question of The Day?: Is media influence responsible for what happens in our daily lives?

I mean when it comes to certain aspects of life like news, parenting and even schooling and learning, does the media tend to influence those matters?. If so, is it in a positive way or negative way?

JonXMasterZZMan : As someone who’s in the media I feel that the mainstream does have an unnecessary impact on certain things. For instance I feel the media glorifies the behavior of celebrities who get in trouble. At the end of the day celebrities start out like the rest of us (In most cases) and that means their regular people. If regular people have short comings and their not plastered on various news programs on a daily basis regardless of what they do, good, bad or, in different why should people watching a non-entertainment news program have to listen about celebrities being arrested for god knows what on a daily basis?

I realize that I am in the minority in regard to that but it does annoy me to a degree. Another thing I feel the media has way too much influence on with no accountability is politics but again that’s only my opinion.

The following post is strictly my opinion and does not reflect the thoughts of others in any way, shape, or form:

I would say the news media would have a negative impact on society. They claim to be unbiased when it comes to politics, but in truth they take sides on the matter, and that gets reflected in the populace. They glorify disasters from car accidents to plane crashes which instills fear and paranoia. And frankly, who gives a (insert explitive here) about the consistent screw ups of celebrities when there are more important things to discuss in world. They claim to care about us, but I don't know if that's true or not. The media really has a way of twisting words don't they?

This has been another opinion/rant courtesy of an honest guy seeking justice in a world gone mad.

While it's true that the media tends to abuse their power, it's also the fault of the people for being so easily influenced.

Yeah the media can influence people pretty easily, but what ticks me off the most is now they influence young girls and women. The media puts it into the heads of young girls, teenagers, and even adults that you're not beautiful unless you're a size 0. The clothing sizes in America are getting smaller and smaller. I'm about a size 16 and I bought an XXL jacket from the mall and it barely fits me. Most of this is because of how the media and hollywood portrays women. But that's just one example of how the media influences people.

Media effects us greatly. But not in a good way, It teaches us to excpect other people to do things for us, to be brats, and most of all it distracts us from whats really happening.

Well, what exactly do you mean? Television is a big part of American life, even if it is just for entertainment purposes. One can watch the news at almost any hour, there are informational shows on channels like Discovery and whatnot.

I think the media has imprinted that any deviation from the norm means that people are weird and should be avoided, or that if your not good looking you wont get anywhere in life. I believed that last one for quite a while but then I got the train to go to my new 6 form and all the high up bankers and stuff looked pretty ugly but seemed happy at the time I was a bit spotty which got me pretty depressed, now I don't know if I'm happy because I know that even with spots or looking ugly people can achieve what they want or the fact that they're gone now so I don't have to worry about it. It got me thinking though if your born into a good family with good genetics your standard of living will probably be better than other peoples and that's probably to do with the media saying we should all look perfect, anyway that's what I think

Oh definitely, especially the fact that the media encourages women to wear smaller clothing and be just like certain celebrities to be truly beautiful. That's negative. In a positive way, it could encourage little kids to be nice and all that other stuff that's been broadcasted in many 80s PSAs.

Media and advertising have huge impacts on our society, but only if you really let them. I try to not pay attention to most of it... I don't care about what so and so is wearing or doing, I never have. Humans are biased by nature, so saying that the media is biased is like saying that water is wet. No human can escape their nature, even when they try. It is why I always try to research things on my own to form my own opinion, and to look past the bias to get the whole story.

In the media's defense on the whole celebrity thing... they wouldn't do it if the masses didn't follow, so women, girls, men, whoever are all just as guilty there.