Wednesday 5 August 2015

"The media can't control us, but it can greatly influence us".

This essay contains my point of view on a subject that is critical part of society, which is whether media has the capabilities to control our minds or not, while I do not agree with this statement fully, I can't say that I disagree with it either, and my answer to this reflection is, the media can greatly influence us, but by no ways does that mean that we're being controlled by it.
As a short introduction to the body of this essay, I will continue to quote the definitions of both key concepts that're essential in relation to this topic, those being the words "control" and "influence", according to dictionary.reference.com:

Control:
"to exercise restraint or direction over; dominate; command." 

Influence:
"the capacity or power of persons or things to be compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others:"

One of the big counter arguments to this topic at hand is that, as the media is so greatly vast, it can easily cover the world once or twice, meaning that, any means of escaping it without leaving our modern selves behind would be futile. While I do agree with this statement, I deeply believe that this, as going by the definition of control, means there isn't any restraint or command held over our emotions nor actions whatsoever, hence the fact that I may watch, as an example, a fast food advertisement on TV and show complete obliviousness towards it, or even go out and get food elsewhere. This is only a mere demonstration on the amount of control it has over me, none.

The second counter argument is based on two big foundations, the first one being something that I already addressed, it being that the media is something so incredibly big with no chances of escaping its domains. The second one consists in the media being the modern center of attention, most of the things we do or say, eventually end up on social media. All of the big events that occur in your city will make the news, with some luck it may even reach the front of a newspaper. The list goes on and beyond. The point of listing all of this, is that our lives and the media are intertwined to an extent that it affects our environment, making our perception of it change as the media does. My thoughts on this are that, this is completely true, probably because I've spent half of my life sitting on front of my computer. But this is where the definition of influence comes into play, we're only influenced by our surroundings, we've always been, but that's where it ends. For us to do something relating to it, the idea at hand would've had to be in our heads long before it became a conversational topic between your circle of friends, the only work that the environment would do is be the final nudge between the idea and reality itself. And remember that, at the end if the day, I will still be myself, and you, the reader, will remain to be yourself.

The third and last counter argument is the typical one, and most likely the one that is widely addressed while referring to this topic, and it consists in that we tend to believe what news reporters, or the media in general says. We are also led to follow trends, we chat about the latest gossip, etc. All of this without batting an eye towards it, in other words, it's instantly deemed as something normal or mundane within our modern lives. This would make for the typical excuse of someone who'd agree with the idea that the media controls our minds, but that someone is not me. I believe that we're all different in any way imaginable by us, and thus, making mass control something non-achievable, and only managing to at the very most, influencing us towards an action that was probably in our thoughts already. This is exactly what people supporting the idea of media-mass control get wrong, the crucial difference between "Control" and "Influence", which, as I said before, are key elements in this subject.

To conclude this essay, I'll just state that, ultimately, I do not agree with the main theme of essay to an acceptable extent to deem it as "true" nor "correct", this being that the media has control over us. But as my thesis stated, I do, firmly believe that media composes a big part in our lives and plays a major role in our modern selves, yet, we're not being commanded by the media to perform an action nor to feel a certain emotion at a given time. We are still in possession of our whole and untouched free will, which will remain like that whichever case may be. This means that we're not under the control of the media, but we are, most certainly, within the influence of it, as it is the biggest and most widely used system present in our lives. 

As the last words of my essay, I'll quote the definition of media, as according to dictionary.reference.com:

Media: "the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely"

Thank you.