Since the breakout of the utter conglomerate that is media of the modern age there’s been sparked debate on just what adverse affects continued viewing and partaking in media would do to the human mind and its thoughts about the world. Even how people who are in control of the media may use this to their advantage.

It’s no secret that media today plays a huge role in how the world has ended up today. From the minuscule micro ad to what shows may be put into your algorithm for you to watch next, there’s no denying that the media in the modern age pushes the boundaries of what should and shouldn’t be shown. Though as of recent, we’ve found a much more pressing issue when it comes to the idea of the media. That being who is using and pushing what we see when it comes to the news and what we may see as “the bigger issue”?

This very idea is shown in the Agenda setting theory. In the textbook, it’s perfectly described as this “Under this theory, the issues that receive the most attention from media become the issues that the public discusses, debates, and demands action on.” Meaning that the things we may be shown online, on TV, watching the News, may not be the things that are truly the issue but, in fact, what the media outlets showing said news wants us to focus on.

This poses a bit of an issue in the grand scheme of things. Seeing as many news outlets rely on viewer attention, what’s stopping them from pushing away the real issues that plague today and pushing forward the smaller issues that some, if not most, may deem as minor issues in comparison?

I remember when I was in High School I had taken a previous Mass Media course where we had discussed this very topic. My teacher for that class, despite his love for the media, newspapers, radio, etc, had shared with us that ever since the starting days of media corporations were simply pushing forward these grim and dark stories simply because they knew it would gain viewers. Although this seemed a bit ridiculous to me at the time, over the course of the few years i started going to college, it really began to sink in that some of these new stories may, in fact, be pushed for those same reasons.

While that isn’t to say certain stories are fabricated, what is to be said is that the news stations and radio stations have a choice of what stories they choose to push. Whether or not it’s about some celebrities life rather than the true plagues going on in modern times is another story.

Although it may seem, if not completely true, that the media has control over most of our lives, do you believe it should stay like this? Should there be a limit as to what these stations may have a choice in showing to their viewers?