How does Media Affect Teenagers, Youth and

Adults.

Whether it is written, televised, or spoken, mass media reaches a large audience. Mass media's role
and effect in shaping modern culture are central issues for study of culture.
The influence of mass media has an effect on many aspects of human life, which can include voting a
certain way, individual views and beliefs, or skewing a person's knowledge of a specific topic due to
being provided false information.
Media is like a watchdog in a democracy that keeps government active. From being just an informer it
has become an integral part of our daily lives. With the passage of time it has become a more matured
and a more responsible entity.

Psychological Effects of media on humans:

There are great deals of awful things that occur on the planet, and it is correct that individuals
should think about these things and the first source of receiving such news is through TV.

Both good and bad news is aired on the TV and at times watching such terrible things
incorporate wrongdoing, starvation, war, viciousness, political turmoil, and trauma, all of
these can affect your brain in ways that could have a serious negative impact on your
emotions. 

In any case, there is likewise an expanding inclination for news telecasters to “emotionalize”

their news and to do such by stressing any potential negative results of a story regardless of
how low the dangers of those negative results may be.

This is essentially alarming at each accessible open door so as to emotionalize the effect of a
news story.

Since we currently have 24-hour news inclusion, gone are the days when a reporter or
writer’s job was just to depict unbiased occurrence of the surroundings and that of far off
places—as a result of satellite TV, we have a practically prompt visual record of what’s going
on, all through the world.

So the writer’s activity can get one of assessing the news story, and it is just a little advanced
from assessing a story to sensationalizing it. 

News notices likewise need to contend with amusement programs for their group of spectators and
their primetime TV space, and they appear to do this by accentuating significant material, for
example, wrongdoing, war, or starvation to the damage of increasingly positive material. 
Consequences

 A study was conducted to determine the extent to which a person’s opinion is influenced by a
group.

 According to it, an individual was willing to give a wrong answer just to conform to the majority
view.

 This also explains the impact of fake news online, which is said to contribute to a polarised society.

 A study found that factors like user homophily and algorithmic filtering have created the cycle of
enforcing and reinforcing belief systems.

 This ensures that we don’t open our minds to diverse opinions.

 User homophily means users in a social system tend to bond more with ones who are similar to
them than to ones who are dissimilar.

 We are getting trapped in narrower world views that are seeping into not only voter behaviour but
everyday personal interactions.

 WhatsApp faced severe criticism as lynching incidents flared up by free flow of fake news on the
platform.

 Twitter along with Facebook came under intense scrutiny of policymakers in the US for its failure to
stop the spread of misinformation during the 2016 election.

Recent Campaigns by Social Media Platforms

 WhatsApp launched a nationwide campaign called “Share Joy, Not Rumours” to help prevent the
spread of rumours and fake news.

 Facebook launched #Socialforgood campaign to address issues such as cyber bullying, mental
wellbeing, and entrepreneurship and was targeted primarily at young users.

 Twitter launched #PowerOf18 campaign to encourage youth to contribute to public debate and
participate in civic engagement in the upcoming election season.

 These campaigns are a way to take ownership of what’s happening on these platforms and find
ways to weed out negative content.