The media is known as the fourth estate, a part of the power structure alongside government, the church and the law (Watson, 2003, p. 91). Media has played an important role in our society and will continue to influence and shape our culture for ages to come. It has the power to define, persuade, inform and dis-inform. The media can be found everywhere in many of form such as television, radio, magazines, newspapers, the internet and so on. People rely heavily on the media because it can inform, educate and also entertain the people. In this essay, the word "govern" here means control and in a way, its influence.
The media has great power over individuals and it plays a major role in shaping public opinion, moral norms and patterns of overt behavior in modern society (Defleur & Dennis, 2002, p. 425). If there wasn't any form of media, nobody from other countries would know about the Tsunami disaster and people around the world would not donate or give aid to the victims.
United States
CNN's 'anniversary'
View of the eyewall of Hurricane Katrina taken on ...At the time of the September 11 attack, President Bush had told the media that the attack was carried out by the Afghanistan. The result was that America and also other supporting countries were trained to hate Afghanistans as their enemy. The consequence was that the media was seen by scholars as well as by the public as having a strong influence on the society. It seemed clear that the message reached everyone and that it influenced most members of their audiences equally, causing them to respond in much the same way (Defleur & Dennis, 2002, p. 425).
The media has influence on a multiplicity of things in human lives such as culture, fashion, economy and so on. In the sense of culture, an example would be...