Understanding media through the lens of the Moderate Effects Era

It is unarguable that the media plays a vital role in our society; of not only informing people but also of being a watch-dog and keeping certain elements in-line. However, the media today exists on a very broad spectrum and with the rise of fake news and yellow journalism media can used as much as a tool to misguide and mislead people as it can be used as a source of providing information, knowledge and shaping perceptions.

Regarding the theories, it has come to our conclusion as a collective group that they all provide a meaningful point-of-view to interpret media but not all of them look at it accurately.

When talking about McLuhan’s book: Understanding Media and McLuhan’s views about media in general you can’t help but feel they are outdated especially when looking at media with a more modern context. For instance, one of the main themes of the book is that: “media, not the content that they carry, should be the focus of study”. Whereas, in reality media today is very much defined by the content it publishes or airs. The book is also filled with certain contradictory statements. Such as McLuhan saying that media can change and re-shape perceptions while also calling it a light with no substance.

The Agenda setting theory by McCombs and Donald Shaw is actually a more accurate way of looking at media. Because the media does set the public agenda and plays a role in telling people what to think about. And this is something that is visible by the hot-topics and current events that the media focuses on and also the level of focus they give to each respective topic.

The knowledge gap analysis is a much different interpretation of media but one that is unfortunately, very true and very relevant throughout the world, especially in our society. It is a fact of life that the privileged will always be the ones with more knowledge compared to the less privileged. And in a multi-cultural society such as Pakistan where people have such massive difference of opinion in the way people perceive events therefore, there will always be a conflict of views which would in-turn prevent the homogeneity of information. Similarly, the ones with the most power will manipulate the media to appease their self-interests rather than using the media as an instrument for the betterment of society.