The Mass Media in the Life of Society

The mass media in the life of Society.

Modern life is hardly possible without information. Of course friends & relatives keep us informed about what is happening in the world, but such information is second-hand, & therefore is not at all reliable. It is the mass media that provide us with first hand & reliable information.

The mass media plays an important role in our life. Millions of copies of newspapers are printed in our country every day. The role of the press can hardly be overestimated, particularly at present. It keeps you informed in the latest news, different events, home and foreign affairs, news of culture, science and engineering development. But publishing news is not the only purpose of the press. There are many other purposes, which can be achieved by the press. It enriches our knowledge and broadens our outlook. The press shapes public opinion, influences governmental policy, gives citizens a view of our country and foreign countries as well. It performs a few functions: informative, entertaining, commercial & is addressed to people of different political views & different stations in life. What is printed & what is not, largely depends on the publishers' concert of news. There is a well-known joke circulating among the publishers, which exactly defines their idea of news: "If a dog bites a man, that's not news, but if a man bites a dog, that is news". In other words, news must be something unusual, unexpected, and sensational. But with many papers & magazines there exits a funny tradition to mystify their regular readers with sensational & incredible stories, published on their pages.

Everyone knows that we get a great amount of information by mass media, especially TV. TV now plays an important part in many people's life. It is an immensely powerful medium, as it uses the most important from of communication, the visual image, it is essential for us to try to decide whether it is a blessing or a curse. It demands complete & silent attention. It is death to conversation & normal two-way contact between individuals. It makes passive non-participating spectators of us all. We begin to forget how to occupy our spare time. Now all our free time is given to television. Obviously TV has both advantages & disadvantages. But to the former outweigh the latter. Really if there is a TV set in your home all you've got to do is to turn a knob, or to turn over to another channel or to turn the sound up & down, &you see plays, films, operas & shows of every kind, not to mention political discussions & the latest exciting football matches. TV, it is often said, keeps one informed about current events, allows one to follow the latest developments in science & politics &offers an endless series of programmes, which are both instructive & stimulating. The most distant countries