The power of the mass media has been grossly overstated.

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The power of the mass media has been grossly overstated. Do you agree?

The mass media has been an integral part of society ever since its inception as a result of the creation of ‘movable type’ media in the 1400s which spanned the printing process and ultimately dissemination of information. It went through changes with the invention of radio and television, and yet the mass media was still influential. In today’s information technology age and the down of “New Media”, technological changes make the mass media even more powerful. As an information network, the mass media is proving to be even more influential than before; as a political watchdog, its influence is still as prevalent as before. Therefore, the power of the mass media is no inflated.

If one of the roles of mass media is to be an information superhighway accessible to the majority of the people, how can it possibly be overstated, let alone grossly overstated in today’s internet age? Right now, a majority of the more developed nations have access to the internet, which in itself is loaded with the world’s information with just a few clicks of the mouse. People can have access to information in greater quantity and quality as opposed to what the daily tabloid or newspaper can offer. We also no longer need to be subjected to television or radio schedules in order to access the information. Given such luxuries that new media offers, we thus have even more access to information as compared to the past. Hence the media’s influence as an information network has surged and its power is not grossly overstated. Just take for example how periodicals such as Newsweek, or The Economist or newspapers such as The Straits Times or The New York Times, or even entertainment outlets such as MTV have their own websites that promote their content. These would not have been possible in the past. The growth of the internet and its increased accessibility made these websites possible and consequently boost the role and influence of the mass media as an information network.

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With changes in technology and society’s increased receptivity to use these technologies, the media has also evolved and become even more powerful. This can be epitomized by what Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corporation, a media conglomerate said last year at a media conference. He said that young people nowadays do not want to be preached at, and to carry this religious analogy further, he said that if we want youths to understand the gospel, we must engage them in a conversation about it. Moments later, he put his rhetoric to practice as he purchased Myspace.com, one of the ...

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