Language
Country/Area
No result found
From Society to Individual: How does media change our daily lives?
With the changes in society and the rapid development of technology, media plays an increasingly critical role in our daily lives. Media System Dependence Theory (MSD) explores the complex relationship between society, media and individuals, and reveals how media profoundly affects our behavior and thinking in the current digital era. This article will explore in depth how media changes our daily lives from multiple perspectives and trigger readers to think about the dependence between themselves and the media.
Media system dependence theory emphasizes that the higher the individual's dependence on the media, the more important the role the media plays in life.
The relationship between society and the media
The relationship between society and the media is one of the foundations of media dependence theory. The availability of media and ease of entry will affect an individual's media use experience. For example, in societies with relatively mature political, economic and cultural systems, the functions of the media are more concentrated and diverse. This not only increases the media's influence on individuals, but also reflects the important role that the media plays in guiding and explaining during periods of social turmoil or change.
Media needs and dependencies
To better understand the development of media dependence, Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur proposed three basic media needs: the need to understand the social world, the need to act effectively in this world, and the need to escape stress. The changes in these needs and their impact often fluctuate with different social circumstances. In the context of social changes or conflicts, people increasingly rely on the media to obtain the information they need. At this time, changes in the media have a particularly strong impact on individuals.
When a society experiences change or conflict, the influence of the media will increase significantly because people need to use the media to understand what is happening.
The impact of media messages
According to theory, the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional consequences of media use are closely related to characteristics of the individual and their social environment. First, the media influences audiences by providing solutions to uncertain problems, especially during periods of social unrest when people are more likely to turn to the media. Secondly, the media's agenda setting affects the public's attention to issues. For example, during the 2003 Iraq War, people's reliance on relevant information made them believe that the Iraq War was the most important issue facing the United States.
Emotional impact and behavioral changes
On an emotional level, the media's impact on audiences can manifest as desensitization, especially when long-term exposure to violent content may lead to an indifference to real-world violence. In addition, positive or negative depictions of social groups in the media can also affect people's sense of morality and belonging. In terms of behavior, the media can activate the behavior of the audience and encourage them to participate in certain social movements, such as women's rights movements. At the same time, it may also cause some people to lose interest in the political process, causing them to not vote.
Media can influence the behavioral choices of viewers, whether promoting or inhibiting certain social behaviors.
Interaction between individuals, society and media
At the micro level, individuals' media dependence is driven by a variety of motivations, including the need to understand the social world, the need for effective interaction, and the need for leisure and entertainment. At the macro level, the media system forms an interdependent relationship with political, economic and other social systems. The political system relies on the media to maintain social order, and the media obtains protection and resources from it, thereby affecting the media's content output and the audience's media usage behavior.
Challenges in the new media era
With the rise of the Internet and social media, media dependence theory faces new challenges. The characteristics of new media make individuals not only passive recipients of information, but active information participants. This change has made the interaction between media and social individuals more complex. The younger generation is often more dependent on new media than before, which has brought about new cognitive and behavioral patterns.
In this rapidly changing media landscape, we should think about: Are our personal values and social concepts being reshaped in the process?
