Role of media in modern society

There are many different ways in which people communicate such as, through the phone, through personal encounters, and by attending work place, school, seminars etc. Though media is not the only communication medium used to dispense the flow of information, its importance in developed countries is worth mentioning as it has been the main source to inform people on political issues or current affairs as well as being as the main source of entertainment. The flow of information from one geographical location to another has increased in speed considerably with the advent in digitally enabled communication devices. Different network channels over cable or satellite TV, newspapers and radio channels are emerging at a very rapid pace providing the people with a medium to connect themselves with the outside world. Print media has always been a dominant medium throughout the decades in the western civilization, but it is the emergence of the television which has become the backbone of the global commercial development. Television contains the ability to produce multimedia content and thus has the immense power to change an individual's perception of reality. It is of no wonder that in order to believe in something, one has to have complete faith in the source of information. This source of information could be ranging from one person to any academic institution. However in today's connected society it is the media, which has become the main source of information The role media is playing as being the main source of information is a controversial issue. It is being debated what are the media functions in a society and what are its impact on an individual. The term media is a general term which is not restricted to a particular entity but in order to understand the term "commercial media", the US provides the best platform for critically analyzing the role of media in a society. Regardless of what type of sources of media are analyzed from newspapers to network channels, media's role in society is to reflect the interests of the elites and those who possess the power in a capitalist society like United States in order to maintain the status quo of a politically stable society.

Since the early 1980s the national media industries experienced a dramatic restructuring, the trend of deregulation and privatization in the media industry gave birth to "commercial media market". The control of the media saw a shift into the hands of private ownership from public ownership. "Public ownership is devoted to providing communications as a public service. On the other hand private ownership is devoted to providing communications for profit. The role of public sphere has played a very important role towards the formation of a democratic society providing "places and forums where issues of importance to a political community are discussed and debated, and where information is presented that is essential to citizen participation in community life. BBC is a good example which symbolizes the best of public broadcasting until 1996 when the channel decided that it's survival depends on commercial programming.

   By Mbogo Tausi

   BAPRM 42611