I think mass media’s impact on my world view is fairly significant, why wouldn’t I think so?
As much as I hate to admit it, I’m pretty lazy, so instead of going out and seeking the “truth” regarding significant events, I mostly rely on mass media to inform me of the world. I think that’s ok to some degree, as I am getting the highlights, but at the same time I might be missing some important information or receiving a distorted view of reality.
One issue about mass media is that it’s “mass” media, there so much of it. We are basically bombarded by it constantly, unless you literally live in a cave. I feel that in a sense, especially in my case, that this makes getting information more convenient. I don’t have to work for it, it’s already right there. By just taking the information as I see it, I might be unknowingly subscribing to a bias or accepting misinformation as “truth”, which is where the problem lies.
For example, when I first heard of the shooting of Trayvon Martin, I saw a quick 60 second TV spot of an activist discussing the shooting. He basically stated that a “white neighbourhood watch guy”, shot and killed a black kid for no reason. I just thought to myself “that person is horrible, and killed a kid solely because he is racist”. I didn’t think of it as much more than that, plus the fact that news sources were highlighting the racial aspects of the story, only made me more convinced. But later on I stumbled across a video that described the situation more in depth, and I realized that the man who had shot Trayvon was not some violent racist, but in fact a man defending himself. There is still quite a debate about it, but clearly, some key points were overlooked or omitted and I had to reconsider my position on the issue.
That’s why I think the impact of mass media can be so polarising. I made a judgement on somebody that was truly unfair considering the circumstances. It was partly my fault for not really looking into the issue, but the fault can also rest on the media. Due to the biased nature (or just irresponsible journalism) I’m pretty sure that the news source didn’t anticipate me looking into the issue any further than my just assimilating his lone viewpoint.
It just goes to show that you can’t just take information from mass media at face value. I think that you really have to make an effort to investigate yourself. I strongly believe that, in our society, you rarely receive unbiased, objective information. To achieve a balanced view, you have to look at multiple sources from different points of view and formulate your own “truth”.
