Mass Media's Influence on Public Opinion - Essay Example

Mass Media and its Influence on Public Opinion BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE Mass Media and its Influence on Public Opinion Introduction Inmodern society, mass media sources have the ability to deliver messages that reach a global population, thus giving media leadership more credibility and the ability to dictate patterns of thinking in a wide variety of demographics across the globe. Mass media includes modern social networking, television, newspapers and the World Wide Web as the most influential sources of information. Mass media allows opinion leaders the ability to express their personal or political views in a source that spans the globe. This project analyzes how mass media manages to both observe and influence public opinion as it relates to consumer-based and politically-based advertising. Mass Media Industry Social changes occurring across the world have radically changed how information sources are utilized for learning, entertainment, and knowledge-sharing. Social-based technologies, such as MySpace, YouTube and Facebook are now considered to be moving into the social mainstream, thus providing an excellent opportunity for opinion leaders to spread their personalized messages. “Wherever people are online, they are actively engaged in a wide variety of social media platforms, from blogs to social networking to video sharing” (Smith, 2009, p.559). Social media over the Internet is a significant revolution from traditional information sources such as newspaper and television as it relates to lifestyle and allows for evolution of thought from a variety of demographics. This is why this form of media is becoming more and more valuable to opinion leaders as it maintains the ability to reach a wide variety of consumers to present different advertising schemes and concepts. The content of messages now have changed with the use of mass media when considering social media outlets as it no longer has to be targeted to just one specific demographic, such as newspapers like the Wall Street Journal which is targeted to those who invest in stocks and bonds. It can be directed toward a global community, as a means to influence and persuade others to accept a particular advertising message. The electronic format of this type of media also allows for rapid changing of the message by the opinion leaders as a means to shift delivery in the event of changing social needs or beliefs across the world. In order to explore the issue more effectively, one should take into consideration the concepts of advertising in order to better understand the observational methods of those delivering the advertising content over mass media sources and how it manages to influence opinion of the community. Marketers have a strategy to ensure competitiveness of their products and also to maintain a competitive edge over other businesses that sell similar products or concepts and services. This strategy is referred to as positioning, which is “owning a place in the mind of a consumer. By understanding how a mind works, marketers can use it to their advantage and successfully drive demand for their products” (Trout, 2008, p.2). Marketers understand that there must be some element about their products or advertising strategy that is unique to all other competition and they rely on the ability to persuade consumers to accept and adopt their intended messaging. They do this by relating information to the individual’s lifestyle and then select a particular, very biased message that will be delivered to their specific target group. Now that the fundamentals of advertising messaging have been understand as it relates to changing the mind-set of buyers, it can be explored how observation and influence occur as a product of this advertising strategy. In earlier years, marketers used traditional forms of mass media to deliver a singular, streamlined message that was not easily transformed or updated as it was generally in print. Today, with concentrated growth in the Internet, public opinion leaders can now create new, customized messages daily to change with fluctuating consumer opinion and social attitudes. Mass media observes the cultural patterns of individuals across the world in order to understand what drives their current methodology of thinking and believing about world events, thus being able, essentially, to manipulate others to adopt their own value system as a coercive tactic. Culture is defined as “the sum of total capabilities and habits acquired in society, encompassing beliefs, knowledge, arts, morality, customs and law” (Schertzer, Laufer, Silvera & McBride, 2008, po.312). In some societies, men are the dominant resource for decision-making and in others, the traditional roles of men and women have reached a higher level of equilibrium. Mass media sources provide the outlet for observation, such as with the aforementioned social media outlets, by viewing their commentaries and social blog spheres to understand what is driving particular segments’ attitudes and sociological values. Thus, there really is no bias as it relates to observation, other than attempting to find a correlating pattern of thought to use in future advertisements in order to deliver a successful message that will, ultimately, have the ability to persuade a new style of thinking in selected target groups (demographic similarities). Advertising is ultimately intended to persuade others to agree with what is being discussed in mass media channels so that a particular product can be purchased, a specific candidate can be voted for, or even receive donations from newly interested parties (Black & Golfstein, 2008). For an appropriate example as it relates to mass media and advertising, under the political lens, take into consideration the execution of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Hussein was hung for his alleged crimes against humanity and as a means to deliver what Western society considered a transitional justice as the country was liberated against his dictatorship. It was realized by opinion leaders and political forces that the most important verdict, however, was whether the court of public opinion in Iraq could be persuaded that this was, indeed, proper justice (economist.com, 2006). Saddam Hussein maintained, internally, many supporters and followers that felt justice was being perverted through this execution, therefore mass media was necessary in order to change this social opinion about the sentencing. The purpose of such advertising was to inform and also justify a means to an end, which was ultimately liberating the people of Iraq. Sources utilized for this effort included print, radio, Internet and television, thus reaching a larger domestic and foreign audience in this persuasive effort. Initially, public opinion from those in Iraq was that of outrage that foreign political forces had upset the balance of control and power in Iraq. However, reputable news sources such as CNN consistently sent the same message which was, arguably, a biased effort to change the thinking of domestic citizens to support the execution. It became an advertising scheme, with a tinge of propaganda, as a means to get the global community to react strongly and positively toward the sentencing efforts. By illustrating and presenting images of crime scenes from victims of Saddam’s butchery, mass media sources consistently reinforced the horror of what had occurred from those who had never bore witness to these so-called human atrocities. Imagery is a fundamental methodology for advertising from mass media sources in order to generate a response that is in favor of the attitudes of the news or information source. Reactions changed as a product of this imagery, thus creating a new form of positioning about international executions, defining a new type of demand for rapid justice in the court system. Hussein had many Sunni supporters, a religious organization, who often used media sources as well as violence to spread their dissatisfaction for Hussein’s execution. This complicated the efforts to gain public support. However, advertisers involved in attempting to persuade acted against Sunni uprisers by using Sunni violence to illustrate their role in complicating society, thus non-Sunni citizens who once supported Saddam were able to view these images and ultimately change their long-term opinions. The message being delivered was that of freedom from violence as a result of this execution using images of violent Sunni leaders and the historical actions of Saddam. Though this is only a politically-oriented advertising scheme, mass media allowed a platform for delivery of justice concepts through imagery, turning a circus of justice into one that was well-supported domestically and internationally. In many Mid-East countries such as Iraq, there is a high level of power distance between leaders of the country and the generic citizen. It is a socially accepted practice where control and power is maintained as a top-down hierarchy and does not trickle upwards from regular citizens. However, mass media continued to show how Western countries have a more unified methodology of justice and beliefs, appealing to those individuals in Iraqi society that did not value this high level of power distance. The mass media allowed a platform to illustrate how freedom and justice can be achieved by breaking down the barriers of power distance, thus influencing social opinion about why executing Saddam was a positive long-term strategy to give citizens in Iraq more power and authority. Cross-cultural messages used in traditional marketing format, such as positioning, helped to create a new belief about restructuring government in a way that favored equality. Clearly, the content of this particular type of social-based advertising was biased as a means to avoid violence and uprising against the alleged justice being performed against Saddam Hussein. Even though this particular effort, using mass media sources, did not involve product sales in the traditional marketing sense, social media allowed individuals to discuss their views openly based on the imagery being presented in television, radio and other forms of print advertising. In the long-term, this consistent message changed public opinion until previous supporters of Hussein now longer valued his previous dictatorial leadership style. Conclusion The different varieties of messages that mass media industries produce change over time based largely on observation of cultural trends and then attempting to use advertising-based strategies to influence a new style of thinking in global communities. Whether the advertising message involves attempting to change attitudes and social value systems or whether the attempt is simply to create demand for new products being sold, mass media provides both an objective and biased platform to accomplish this goal. When society strongly reinforces one set of values that conflict with global or domestic opinion leaders, the best methodology for coercion is the mass media, especially with growth in social media on the Internet. In the case described in this paper, significant changes to public opinion about the quality of leadership and concepts of freedom were radically altered. References Black, R. & Golfstein, S. (2008). “Influence of Mass Media on Advertising Effectiveness in a Homogenous Consumer Environment”, International Marketing Review, 25(2), p.209. Economist.com. (2006). “After the Saddam Verdict – Iraq”. November 6, p.1. Schertzer, S., Laufer, D., Silvera, D. & McBride, J.B. (2008). “A cross-cultural validation of a gender role identity scale in marketing”, International Marketing Review, 25(3), p.312. Smith, Tom. (2009). “The social media revolution”, International Journal of Market Research, 51(4), p.559. Trout, Jack. (2008). The New Positioning: The Latest on the World’s #1 Business Strategy, Genii Group. Retrieved September 23, 2011 at http://www.genii-group.com/pdf/book_review_the_new_positioning.pdf Read More