The Importance Of Media On Society

Media, the plural noun for the word medium, are the means of communication through which a message travels through the source to the receiver. In broader terms, it could be said that various forms of communication are used to reach or/and influence people widely. Newspapers, books, magazines, movie studios, television networks, radio stations, direct mail, telephone, fax, internet all collectively form part of the media today compared to earlier tribal days when it all began with the village callers, story tellers and cave paintings. Beginning with the invention of radio by Guglielmo Marconi in 1894 to Internet today, media has witnessed many transitions in society and has catered to society’s need for information, entertainment, education, transmission of values and mass communication has turned the world into a global village as predicted by Marshall McLuhan 40 years ago. Media has become such an integral part of our everyday life, it can now be said that “the world is media”. (Leif H. and Colin N.) In fact media is being created by more people with the coming of social media websites like Face book, MySpace, Twitter, communal sites like YouTube and communal editing sites like Wikipedia. How does all this impact on us and the society? This is very obvious so many ways starting from the brand of tea we drink in the morning to the more serious choices like the party we vote for elections. Media influences our daily decisions in every way. Unfortunately it can have a