Effect of media on opinions and attitudes essay

Teenagers are changing with the technology.

On many levels, it is wonderful to be exposed to the new technology that is present today. The persuasion effects of media are staggering. As an example, I have spent more time in front of the television set than with my parents.

Radio, records, rock music, music video and digital games and other media are especially important influences in the lives of the youth today. A medium is an intervening means through which a force acts or an effect is produced. Marshall McLuhan (1964) explains medium as an extension of the human being outside itself and the ‘ message’ of any medium as the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs. ” (p. 8). Thus , the mass media are shapers of culture in that their intervention affects us in some way. They are also spreaders of culture in that they extend our capacity as human beings to process information and, in so doing, change us in some way. Culture includes the knowledge, beliefs, customs, skills and patterns of behavior of group of human beings.

These interveners can change experience, enhance experience or interfere with experience. Television as one form of mass media can enhance the experience of a parade by providing close-up shots, supplying comments and by increasing the pace of the action. Television can also interfere with the experience of imagining what a storybook character looks like by choosing an act, For instance, I spend huge amounts of time listening to music on the radio, playing CDs or tapes of my favorite music or watching music videos on television.

It seems that radio stations aim their broadcast rock music at young people like me. Music, being part of media influences me a lot. It meets a number of my personal and social needs. The most important personal needs are mood control and silence filling. Somewhat surprisingly, relatively few adolescents like me say that popular music lyrics are very important to us.

I feel that popular music’s social functions range from providing a party atmosphere to expressing rebellion against authority. The music that I enjoy on records, tapes, radio and television is an important dimension of our culture. For example, rock music does not seem to be a passing fad, having been around for more than 35 years. Recently, it has had its share of controversy. MTV and the music videos were targets of debate in the media. They said that rock music lyrics were dangerously shaping the minds of adolescents in the areas of sexual morality, violence, and drugs. However, I still think that it all depends on the individual. I am aware of the claims of people regarding rock music so I just do not listen to the hard-core kind of music.

I must admit that I am affected when I hear people say that the one of the most frightening effects of heavy metal music is that the music causes adolescents to attempt to commit suicide. This was exemplified in highly publicized cases in which parents charged that songs by Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne were related to adolescent suicides. Motivation, experience and knowledge are factors in the interpretation of lyrics. Even the presence of digital games nowadays leaves me wary of the effect this kind of medium can have in enticing people to be hooked into playing them no end. The debate over the effects of digital games is getting hotter and the habit can be curbed through the joint efforts of everyone. There was a time I remember that I got so addicted to playing the digital games.

I was rooted to my chair the whole day every time I had free time. I somehow imbibed the exhilarating feeling of having the power that these games give to me. Negative Findings about Television The rising popularity of reality series, especially among young viewers should call the attention of parents. The scripts use explicit foul language. Shows depict real people, real situation and most of these stage sexual situations. The Parental Television Council analysts studied, “ the first four episodes of twenty-nine different reality series airing on the seven broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, Pax, UPN, and the WB) between June 1, 2002 and August 31, 2003, for a total of 114.

5 hours of reality programming, are reality series. They are qualitatively and quantitatively coarser than their scripted counterparts. ” (Rankin, 2004). Further findings also showed that “ an alarming 1, 135 instances of foul language, 492 instances of sex, and 30 instances of violence logged on 114. hours of broadcast reality shows for a total of 1, 657 instances of offensive content, an average of 14.

5 instances of offensive content per hour. This represents a 52. 6% increase from the per-hour rate of offensive content on broadcast reality shows documented in the PTC’s last study of the genre, Harsh Reality, released in October 2002. ” (Rankin, 2004). Effects of Violence on Television Sexuality and language are also significantly affected by television. Professional organizations have drawn links between television’s depictions of sexuality and real-life behaviors.

A 1995 poll of children ten to sixteen years of age showed that children recognize that “ what they see on television encourages them to take part in sexual activity too soon, to show disrespect for their parents, [and] to lie and to engage in aggressive behavior. ” More than two-thirds said they are influenced by television; 77 percent said TV shows too much sex before marriage and 62 percent said sex on television and in movies influences their peers to have sexual relations when they are too young. Two-thirds also cited certain programs featuring dysfunctional families as encouraging disrespect toward parents.

”(Anderson, 2004). It is said that television sets the baseline standard for the entire entertainment industry. 98 of residences have a television set, and an average household watches 7 hours, 15 minutes of television daily. According to McLuhan, (1989), we now live in a global village that has become a global theater. Because of the electronic media revolution, we perceive ourselves differently than people did fifty years ago.

Whereas leaning about the world through reading, is solitary, single-sensory and gradual and learning about the world through computers, learning about the world through television is massive, multisensory and immediate. Learning about the world through computers, equipped with the multimedia of graphics and sound is creative in that the uses can make infinite combinations and projections with the available information. Effects of Media on Leadership It is said that leadership starts at the top. Management experts at Wharton and McKinsey say that leadership can be found and must be practiced by all employees at all levels of an organization . “ Everybody can lead at every level. There are no excuses,” says Michael Useem, director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at Wharton and the author of many articles and books on leadership. It doesn’t matter if you’re on the front line or the top line. If you are given an office with the powers of that office, what do you add to the office above and beyond those powers? Do you excite and motivate people? Do you bring excellence and vision to what ultimately is the objective of that office or even the whole company? Everybody should be good at leading, whatever their level in the hierarchy.

” “ Everyone can exercise leadership by being an individual contributor at any level of an organization,” agrees Helen Handfield-Jones, an independent consultant on leadership talent strategy and co-author of the book The War for Talent. What does that mean? Ultimately it comes down to looking for opportunities to make the world a better place (Blanchard and Hersey). Media enhances these values in man and makes him able to adapt well with his surroundings.

Mass media helps people become effective leaders. Mass media makes people see that there are basic ways to become a leader. Good character, skills and knowledge plus leadership know-how contribute well to the respect that subordinates give because it is said that leaders are respected for who they are, what they are and what they do. Respect can also be gained by being ethical, knowing the right things to do. Effective communication builds trust and confidence in an organization which eventually leads to employee satisfaction.

Building an Effective Workforce A reasonable starting point in the development of work-life balance is the development of reasonable performance expectations. Mass media can help achieve high levels of performance, people must have the right abilities and support and must be motivated to exert the necessary level of effort. The success of a well-managed organization is dependent on one’s ability to organize, direct and motivate the efforts of the staff. An effective person needs to know the interplay of all theories of management into action in order to be successful as a whole (Senge, P.

M. 1990b). Innovation doesn’t occur just once. It is continuous. As managers look for changes, hunt and gather opportunities, reposition and remarket, and do all the things necessary to transform their companies using the management theories they have learned, they must constantly evaluate the results; keep what works and discard or avoid that which does not.

Even the so-called steps of reinvention are not really tangible steps. Mass media opens horizons to all to always be seeking and cataloguing strengths, always looking for new weaknesses, always turning lacks into strengths, and always seeking out new opportunities and new customers. The only constant is change. And with constant change comes constant innovation and evaluation. People who lack good life management skills will have difficulty sustaining the balance needed to produce continued success. Consistent discipline in working out this delicate balance will continually move one toward success as he sets his goals, make plans to reach them and work to accomplish his objectives. Most research on the effect of mass media on opinions and behavior has been concerned with television, but the print media also has an impact.

Television has been criticized for fender-role stereotyping. Generally, the major media aim their content at the broadest spectrum of viewers in order to win the attention of the largest number of consumers to the products advertised on their programs. A major result is that the broadest media must then continually produce a “ mass culture” geared to popuilar or majority tastes. However, with new available technologies, such as cable and video, audiences have become more fractionated, so advertises have to target their products to special interests. Audiences become more fractionated as family income increases (Dorr & Rabin, 1995).

To sum, as long as the broadcast media in the United States are designed to attract audiences to sell products, they will convey messages that are likely to influence attitudes and behavior (Huston, Zillman & Bryant, 1994). REFERENCESDorr, A. & Rabin, B. E.

1995). Parents. Children and television, In M> H> Bornstein (ed) Handbook of parenting (Vol. 4) Mahwah, NJ. Lawrence Erlbaum. Huston, A. C.

, Zillman, D. & Bryant, J. 1994. Media influence, public policy and the family. Media, childrenand the family: Social scientific, psycjodyanmic and clinical perspectives. Hillsdale, NJ. Lawrence Erlbaum.

McLuhan, M. ( 1974). Understanding the media; The extension of man. New York: McGraw Hill. Senge, P. M.

(1990b). The leader’s new work: Building learning organizations. Sloan Management Review, Fall, 32(1), 7-23.