Our society as a whole is extremely dependant on the media. Individuals rely heavily on what we know to be true so as to make decisions for daily life. The younger generations are extremely susceptible to be by the media. Advertisements use fear to persuade their audience.
The news and the media appear to be centered on fear. It is not usually obvious, but practically everything related to the media, including politics, economics, and social aspects, relates to fear, no matter how miniscule or significant it may be towards public perception of life.
Fear is a motivator towards portraying oneself or doing things a certain way. The media has the ability to say anything to relate to individuals and persuade them to believe the most exaggerated and stretches of the truth. This can be carried over to the simplest things such as an exaggeration of the severe weather in a specific area, to worldwide issues such as the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
With the constant war overseas, there exists an endless amount of fear towards terrorism. The media portray the war as realistically as possible so that we can understand what’s going on. It shows how our troops are doing as they struggle to work and survive fighting. This subconscious and literal fear for personal lives and the country as a whole causes the constant feeling of necessary protection and pressure to support of the government so we can continue to live safely.
A personal form of protection is the use of condoms and birth control, which the media has successfully advertised as beneficial. The younger generations in particular, learn to protect themselves with advertised products because of their fear of sexual consequences; such as pregnancy or receiving an STD.
With our nation’s current economic state, there is fear of the economy crashing. This causes many people to consume more carefully. The majority of the public benefits from learning about how the nation is operating and struggling. In general, the media forces individual people to learn from others’ mistakes so that they can live comfortably and struggle less in the future.
Advertisements for products often make people fearful of being something less than society’s ideal form of being an airbrushed beauty. It also pushes people to fear being ridiculed by their peers for not having the latest toys, clothing, and accessories. Therefore, they may go out and purchase products to feel more socially accepted by society and peers. The media portrays characters in advertisements a certain way. The public often fears rejection so they adjust their lives to fit in with the present social norms. Advertisements primarily target students and young adults because they are most aware of society’s perception of them.
In addition, fear of illness is always relevant, especially for young people who are more susceptible to health risks because they are in school. The media displays the rare and worst cases of health risks and epidemics, which causes panic in people. The more realist cases of illness, which are less worrisome to the public are absent from the media. Most recently, the nationwide fear of getting Swine Flu, causes the public to consume more products for heath protection and also be more hygienic.
This also carries into the media and the government supporting many vaccines and medicines for illnesses, which may not be necessary. Many people are strongly against receiving unnecessary vaccines that could be more harmful than beneficial, especially if they are recently produced, such as the swine flu vaccine. The media practically forces the public to feel as though they should receive such vaccines, while many people fear the vaccines for their own health and personal beliefs. However, with pressure from all directions of the public, primarily students and education institutions who want to prevent illness, even in the rarest form, they try to persuade in favor of what they want, using facts and information through the media.
It’s understandable that the news displays the most significant and interesting stories, which happen to be primarily about things going wrong or not exactly as planned, but that is just the type of world we live in. Privacy is a concept which is understood and desired by everyone, which causes people to want it even more when they do not receive it, such as being in the news for something they are less than fond of.
Our society functions by learning and knowing what is going on in order to consider options and make decisions based on what is personally believed to be the truth. With the media surrounding the public and constantly telling the possible truths, it’s undeniable that the choices made by the young public will definitely be influenced to some extent.
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