MEDIA EFFECTS AND PUBLIC IMPACT
MEDIA EFFECTS AND PUBLIC IMPACT

Summary/Abstract: No one is able to elude the media, ignore them, or, indeed, protect themselves from their impact. Should we accept McLuhan’s assertion that, aside from mass media, we are all also influenced by games, numbers, clocks, films, etc; then it becomes apparent why the effects of the media, or the so called media reality, form the fulcrum of researchers’ interest in communication studies. Effect of mass media and communications on the society and the degree of that influence, have been the subjects of great debate among communication scholars with decades. The article elaborates different theorists who focus their debate on the modality through which it would be possible to empirically gauge the impact and effects of mass media on public opinion and on the beliefs and behaviour of media consumers. Its focus on the effects of the media on the citizens that cause a weakness in society and illnesses within the democratic process, such as political apathy, alienation, cynicism, destruction, confusion, illusions, and even fear. Using the secondary analysis, the article particularises some claim that the media and, first and foremost, television, privatize people and alienate them from each other and in this way, with the help of the media, a society is created in which people are frightened, disoriented, alienated, and isolated.

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