Evolution of Media and its Effects

Evolution of Media and its Effects
For many people, television has become a source of explanation and an influencer of their lives. Television has become a means by which people make sense of themselves and everything around them. The media greatly influence human language, dressing code and general perception towards life. The media, precisely television has also become the primary source of information to people (Graham & Monteith, 2011). Other media sources such as newspapers have been overtaken by the popularity in which people rely on Television as a medium of receiving information.
Journalists play a crucial role in the dissemination of information. Their disadvantage is that information given by journalist is aimed at short term goals (Goldin, 1979). It is done to raise curiosity and interest of the reader or the audience and in most cases the news passed is that which is believed to be of relevance to the listener, in societies that value politics a lot of attention is given to political affairs.
Sociologists differ sharply with a journalist as their intention is to provide more attention to the long-term effect of the information passed and in most cases is composed of facts that have been studied for a substantial duration (Goldin, 1979). Most media rely on advertisement as their major source of revenue while sociologist earns from their research contributions in their respective institutions
Television is the most commonly preferred means of communication. Though discovered in the 20th century, it was mainly used for entertainment until some opportunist identified a gap that it could fill.

Ever since it has revolutionized the media industry (Graham & Monteith, 2011). It is not surprising that newspapers provide a lot and much valuable information than televisions, yet televisions have the highest number of followers and viewership, a fact that can be attributed to its ability to present both audio and visual information.
The role of journalists is significant in the assembling of information. The process the news undergoes before it reaches the audience can be grouped into four stages as planning, followed by gathering, thirdly, selection and the last step is a presentation. Despite the public belief that news is random, the insiders of communication firms would tell you that most news is preplanned, then selected or filtered before the actual information is given to the viewers or listeners. The effect of communication is seen by the manner in which people perceive information received via these media outlets

Part Two
How Media Protect Social Order
For centuries human beings have relied on the media as a major source of information. Most of the times the information provided via the media is always taken as true and reliable. Therefore, the media has a great responsibility of ensuring peaceful coexistence among individuals, since any negative information may distort the social order. Major forms of media are the newspapers and televisions, currently social media has taken root in many cultures and societies, and they have also become reliable sources of information.
Several considerations should be made before passing information to the public, the sensitivity of the information should be at the top of the priority lists. Culmer (2012) noted that “While sharing of information is important, it is also important to do so in a manner that is appropriate to the circumstances and appropriate stakeholders” . Sensitive information is known to inflict mixed reactions from the public, and there are chances that the information could trigger havoc. In such a case the media has protected the disruption of social media by upholding sensitive information that would have resulted in unnecessary tension. Therefore, it means that what is true or false may not be important but maintenance of social order.
Organizations have social structures that need to be maintained. It has been realized that discrepant events triggered informal information seeking among the technicians, the events triggered changes which in turn affected the social structure of the organization. “The kind of information reaching an individual also depends on with his or her network” (Culmer 2012). Therefore, it enables the media to devise a useful mechanism for detecting the right audience and what information to give them.
The media uses various methods to regulate change in the social order; the methods include counter direction which means dragging in the opposite direction to prevent the public from accepting the new changes. Secondly, they use culture lagging which is seen as a means of not keeping with the pace of societal changes by choosing to remain conservative or move slowly in accommodation the changes. The media might also appeal to the public on the importance of peaceful coexistence by arguing that change should be accepted in phases and not lump sum, the motive behind this is to protect the general public. Diversion is another popular method used by the media to resist certain issues by completely taking a different path and hiding from the reality of the matter. The media might also opt to use discrediting as a method by not giving a correct reference about a particular information; they would choose to hide the source and the specific intent of the information as intended by the source.
The media prevents change because of the effects attached to the change itself. It could be true that the information we receive via the media outlets is completely different from what is happening on the ground. To some extent such tendencies by the media are beneficial because they prevent panic or unnecessary explosion that would arise with the receiving of such information. The downside is that it hides the truth, perhaps the truth would work well with the minority groups several considerations should be mad.
References
Goldin, P. (1979). The missing change, News, media and the management of Social Change. University of Leicester.b
Graham, A. & Monteith, S. (2011). Media. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.