The media is unquestionably a pivotal institution in society.
Media is the main means of mass communication, which includes visual, audio, and print. The media affect society by molding opinions and perspectives. Therefore, as the fulcrum of society, the media plays various roles such as communication, consolidation of information, and as a watchdog of society along with its institutions. In addition, it is a source of entertainment, advertisement, and corporate social responsibility.CommunicationThe media has a wide reach in society.
Due to its vast outreach, the media play a crucial role in communication. It relays information to the masses such as press statements, where individuals and government institutions relay specific information, such as statutory bills and caveats on the sale of immovable chattels. The media as an institution transcend geographical boundaries enabling the society to access cross border information such as news, sanctions, and current affairs. This may be across several miles away, therefore, forming the perspective of recipients of these communications.
In contrast, the opinion and outlook of society would be severely limited without the media nexus.Consolidation of informationIn this modern society, there is often fragmentation of information such as weather forecasts, sports scores, and stock market data. Therefore, for people to obtain this information, they need to rummage through a plethora of sources to amalgamate the things they seek. At this point, the media mitigates by consolidating all the sources into a centralized point of reference, thus effectively defragmenting information.
Watchdog of the society and its institutionsSociety is diverse, plagued with different belief systems, practices, and patterns of behavior. This attribute, provides a high probability for interests to clash. Therefore, societal checks and balances are due through statute. However, seldom are such systems observed to the latter wording, due to individual, institutional, and state perspective. For instance, where the state contravenes legal principles like human rights, or when individuals infringe in the enjoyment of other people’s rights, such as trespass.
These instances warrant the media to illuminate injustices hidden from judicial eyes.EntertainmentDaily life is repetitive in an attempt to eke out a living for pay bills. Psychology dictates that, such a routine could lead to depression and other psychological ailments. The media provide entertainment, in an attempt to break monotony.
Furthermore, this role promotes cultural integration through displaying cross border content.AdvertisingInevitably, the world is corporate where ideas have directions towards the achievement of a commercial end. Hence, this creates the need to disseminate these ideas to the public, in order to conduct business through advertising. The media assimilate this role, through placement of adverts to direct publicity towards commerce. The media advertises jobs, thus promotes employment.
Corporate social responsibilityDue to social stratification, equality is a concept rather than reality, which is especially apparent in developing countries, where basic needs are hard to obtain. The media mitigates the effects of poverty, through direct donations and bringing attention to the plight of those that the needs affect, thus attracting well-wishers.ConclusionBased on the aforementioned, the media has a duty to care during synthesizing information. A breach of this responsibility, achieves an end of disinformation, shaping the opinion of society towards a bias perspective.
