Respond To Six Posts, 6 - 7 Sentences Each

Respond to two original responses thoroughly in a manner that invites an extension of the conversation. In other words, “I totally agree with you” is NOT a sufficient response. Each peer response should be approximately 6 – 7 sentences, or a paragraph in length. Response needs strong structure and a logical flow. You don't need to answer the original questions.

Part C

Original Questions

1. List some ways in which the mass media may contribute to or cause negative social effects.


2. Can people working in the media do something to lessen the negative effects? Consider what interventions could be made in the education of media professionals to solve these problems. What factors work against your proposed solutions? In other words, what are competing influences in the media industry that might stymie reforms? Do people working within the mass media have a responsibility to try to lessen negative media effects? 


Student A's post

1. Mass media has become crucial to our everyday lives, especially for young people. The main issues with it is that it spreads information in an instant and a lot of the information may be incorrect or extremely biased. When a young person is constantly checking their social media or the news online, they are taking in tons of information and are not aware of what is actually the truth. The media has the tendency to be biased depending on the source and does spread stereotypes or ideas. People seeing these posts or bits of information, are likely to take what is being said and formulate an opinion based on it alone. We hardly ever get to see both sides of an argument coming from an unbiased source. Even when webpages and media accounts claim to be unbiased, they often are biased and do have a hidden agenda. Mass media is also extremely addictive and takes up a lot of time that could be better spent. I can confidently say from my own experiences, that if I spent less time following the media and primarily social media, I would be a lot more productive. 2. People in the media could definitely take certain measures to ensure that they are not falsely influencing the minds of young people to fall within a certain political or social agenda. The first thing that media sources and popular social media accounts could do, is get rid of their own biases and try to portray the complete and honest truth with no agenda. All people want to find the truth and spread it. Oftentimes what people see as true is not because they haven’t heard all sides of the story. People claim that Fox News and or CNN are “fake news” and are both run by their own bias and opinions. I think to take media to a new level all news sources need to work on being unbiased for the sake of the people watching or reading the news, and for themselves. As for the issue of the media taking over time and causing addiction. I don’t think that this can completely be fixed because it is so ingrained in our society. I definitely think the media should promote people being active and pursuing mental and physical health. There are already many sources that do promote overall health, but I think all media should work together to do so.

Student B's post

1. Although there are some positive ways that mass media affects people, the effects that mass media has are mostly negative in my eyes. The main one I see is distraction and obsession. People are online 24/7 and it seems like people don't care about having real relationships with people anymore. It makes me sad when I see people eating lunch together, sitting right next to each other but are on their phones instead. People are always so worried about what other people are doing, and its hard to not compare your life to other peoples. It is sometimes hard to see celebrities daily life while I am studying hard for a test, or working. However, it is important for people to understand that everyone has their own problems, regardless of the positive images they choose to put online. I also believe that mass media normalizes violence. The amount of brutality and violence in video games, tv shows and movies today is terrifying. Teenagers spend many hours online, so it is safe to say that violence becomes their reality. 2. I think that people working in media have some responsibility to do things to lessen the negative effects mass media has. However, it is impossible to censor things that are already out there. I think parents should be more aware of these effects and look out for what their child is looking at or talk openly about how posts can make them feel sad about their lives or their body image. There should be more censoring. When going on the internet they could ask you to submit a form of ID to make sure you are old enough to see some things. But, I don't think this is realistic because it is difficult to censor everything that gets posted. A new rule has changed the Instagram world for the better. Influencers and celebrities are now required to specify when they are promoting something. Before, the public wouldn't know if a post was a real recommendation or if the influencer was paid to speak highly about it. I like this new rule because there is overall transparency, and little girls looking up to influencers who try to sell vitamins and teas that don't work will at least know the influencers were paid to say it.