Media Does Not Influence Our Values

Essay Question:

The Media does not Influence Our Values







‘Audiences influence, if not control, the media output through their choices over what media products to consume.’

(Media and Society: An introduction)



The objective of this essay is to explore the connection between mass media and society and the values of society. If mass media does have an influence on our society, or if our beliefs are exploited from our own accord through the media.



What are values? Values are those things that really matter to you and me, the thoughts and beliefs we hold as special. Caring for others would be an example. Most of us learned our values at home, at church or at a school. When growing up, I learned my values from my parents and teachers. So, where does the youth of today learn their values from?

In today’s society, everything changes, from values to media. Young people today are most influenced by what they see and hear on television or radio.



In today’s world, anyone with a computer or a multimedia program can be a producer. Advancements in technology have affected the way the media is consumed by the public. The rate of production and consumption of the media exceed that of most areas of our society.



The media does not have total control of how we make sense of the world, how we see and think of the world. An example is children grow up receiving values from their families, religion and the education system, all this teach them how to understand and how to act in the world.

As these children grow up, other views about how we should behave, about social morality, are spread through the media. A mass medium group take’s advantage of these views and popularizes them; they reinforce those values that we have grown up in society.

Now media can’t control us, but it needs us to be successful. Whether it is television or the radio, they have to sell...