Nowadays, the media plays a big role in society to provide the public about the information and phenomena that are happening around the world. However, the convenient access of information has its drawbacks. It is generally believed that the media has the power to control opinions and attitudes of the people and there is almost no chance to rectify this. In this essay, I will argue why I partly believe with the first half of this belief of the media controlling people, and also reason why I disagree that there is little that can be done to rectify this.
I concur with the notion that the media controls opinions and attitudes of the people for two reasons. First of all, they are among the first people to get access to the information compared to the public in general. Therefore, they can seemingly elucidate an issue and give exegeses in such a way that leads or persuade the public opinions. They can lie to their viewers not by technically spreading false information, but by not presenting the whole truth. Instead, they intentionally withhold certain facts to direct public opinions. To illustrate this, there was a case in California, the USA, where it was first believed that a white person had committed a murder against a black person in a shop on the basis of hateful racism. The attitude towards the alleged perpetrator following the news released by the media was predominantly one of infuriation by the public. However, the complete CCTV footage confirmed otherwise, that there was a robbery attempt by the black person with a death threat, and it turned out that the alleged perpetrator was the shop owner who was trying to act in self defense. This goes to show that the people’s opinions can be misled by the media. The second reason they can be so influential to their audience is their intentional and careful use of persuasive techniques. Bandwagon appeal, emotional appeal, and ostensibly moral appeal wrapped in opinionated rhetoric can easily sway people’s attitudes and opinions.
Having said that, I believe one of the most powerful tools to dilute the media biases is education. By training people to possess critical thinking skills and moral compass, especially to younger generation starting from primary education, they can be better-armed and wise citizens who can separate the wheat from the chaff.
In conclusion, the media these days do have control over the general public opinions and attitudes. However, I still believe that well-educated and moral citizens can act accordingly and bring about remedy to this problem.