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The Media's Effects : How The Media Affects Society

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When we look at the media’s impact in our world it reaches far beyond the individual. While we may spend a large portion of our day individually consuming media, it affects us all in a way that has begun to shape our society. What we see on the news, TV, movies, advertisements, and the internet, all influence what we think and how we act. A quick example is how body image is affected by what we see in media. Teenage girl’s body image is especially distorted based on what the media says they should look like rather than what is realistic. In many more ways, mass media has integrated its way into our lives and it affects us at a societal level when it comes to what we think, how we act, and how we perceive violence in our world.
The extent at which media effects society has been up for debate as more research has be conducted. Some believe that media can control what we think. This idea is known as the powerful effects theory. It stated that consumers would absorb everything the media put forth without control or the ability to reason it. Many however disagree with that early model leading to an opposite extreme theory called the minimalist effects theory. This theory included that we don’t believe what the media says, but rather people we respect. Furthermore, some minimalists will claim that we are overloaded with information so much so that we exhibit an effect called narcoticizing dysfunction. The idea of narcotizing dysfunction suggests that are so overwhelmed with media
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