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'Does the media reflect society or is it merely instrumental in constructing it?'
I feel the media is both a reflection of the society but also aids in constructing it. There is no denying it, we cannot stay away from the media whether it’s a magazine, radio or T.V it is all around us all the time. Winning public opinion and raising awareness for an issue can all be helped by successful use of the media. We also have advertisement constantly in our face subconsciously making us by their merchandise, with their catchy tunes and subliminal messages. And my generation have been brought up with it; we don’t know life without a computer or not being able to switch on the TV to be bombarded with thousands of Telly vision channels all playing a big part in our life.

Magazines have a huge impacted on our life. Whether it is celeb gossip magazine showing us how fun the celeb life is, going to premieres, being on the red carpet, getting free stuff and just making us want to be them. Or fashion magazines, telling us what to wear and how to wear it, how to dress for occasions and best shops to buy it all. But they have a larger effect on how we respond to seeing size zero models and airbrushed celebs thinking that is the look we should all have. ‘Teenage magazines present images which result in low self-esteem amongst their readers.’
Read more: http://www.coursework.info/AS_and_A_Level/Media_Studies/Newspapers___Magazines/__145_Teenage_magazines_present_images_w_L7347.html#ixzz0ScufwMYU
And the news papers, they play a big part in our society. Telling us the latest news what the government is up to, subconsciously helping us vote for our new prime minister, “It’s not the sun that elects prime ministers it’s the public” ‘Gordon brown’, and making us change our minds, making our opinions for us. There is just no escaping it.

Advertising. It is everywhere from billboards to TVs; we are always getting some sort of merchandise forced on to us. We have no choice but to be sucked into getting the latest ‘phone‘ with the best deal. We use to get tricked into buying it with subliminal messaging.‘A subliminal message is a signal or message embedded in another medium, designed to pass below the normal limits of the human mind's perception’. Making us (the public) subconsciously buys the advertised items; They did this by written messages which are quickly flashed during videos (sometimes called ‘25th frame’). This is now illegal says the government, but who’s to say that it has been stopped, we don’t realize that there are subliminal messages in an advert or in a song hence why it’s subliminal; So for all we know it could is still be going on; Another way the media is constructing the society.

The music industry is definitely playing a big part of constructing our society. With there sexual lyrics, “push me and then just touch me” and music videos that are degrading to women and immoral, as they are in underwear acting prerogative. And this is reflecting on our society as young girls are letting themselves be degraded and have no morals, wearing prerogative clothing heavy makeup and have boy friends at very young age; as they don’t know any different and think this is what they should be like. Compared to being in the 1950s where children were properly dressed, there were no obscene images on TV and women dressed respectfully and had morals and men respected them.

T.V is a little different it makes u think, does watching shows like "Waterloo road" or "holly oaks” ,both filmed and based on English everyday life, reflect society or are they creating their own image of how they think society should be seen in today's modern life. I personally think that shows like these are showing the public our society. They pick today’s problems and mix it into there shows, ‘knife crime, anorexia, racism and other topics that today society is dealing with. That’s why I think these shows are popular because people can relate and they are reflecting today’s society, but with allot more drama added to it to make it more griping to watch.
‘Richard Dilley’ "The media reflects society; just as there is diversity in society, there is diversity in the media."
Read more :http://www.coursework.info/AS_and_A_Level/Sociology/Media/_The_media_reflects_society__just_as_the_L17119.html#ixzz0SWHFGCTM

Though saying this. America shows are another way of life, with hit shows like “90210”, “Privileged” and ‘One tree hill’, given the British public an insight on how life is like over there; though to Americans this could be reflecting their life. But as we do not live in America we can only imagine that’s how all Americans live. In big houses, drive “Range Rover sports”, spend daddy’s cash and are all air brush pretty.

When in fact that is just what we are lead to believe; so in this case the media is instrumental in constructing it for us British. But may be reflecting life for Americans. This is why I think shows like this are popular because we want to be like this; and Americans can relate to this.

I believe that the media is both a reflection of the society but also aids in constructing it. With its reality TV shows reflecting how we live as a society, to its newspapers and magazines convincing us what to believe and changing our opinion. The media is just getting bigger and bigger with new generations being affected by it as it progresses.