The Impact of Media on Government and Society: Discussion Points

Media enhances the reduction of corruption

Corruption cost, challenge, e-government, reduction, number of users
Acquire information, political news, impact, facilitate, interaction
Speed, flexibility, update, exposure, effectiveness, injustice
Monopoly, public power, society, corruption tolerance
Social-cultural factors, media usage, control of corruption, dissemination

Note: Currently, the World Economic Forum estimates the corruption cost at $2.6 trillion a year approximately (Tang et al., 2019). The media, however, with its speed and flexibility of the information delivery, is capable of disseminating the data, politics news in particular, instantly. The public power now can influence the corruption rates worldwide by participating in anti-corruption movements both online and offline.

Media hurts the public support of politicians.

Political scandals, public revelation, political parties, trust
The negative impact, spillover effects, perception, cynicism
Public support, damage, reputation, accusations, attitude
Values violation, pre-existing views, hypocrisy, favorable policy outcomes
Evaluation, brands, corporations, institutions, public officials

Note: Currently, political scandals and the violation of public values can be easily exposed by the media. The exposure of certain material may negatively influence the publics trust towards political parties (Tang et al., 2019). The negative attitude might then be applied to the other politicians of a particular party.

Media may reduce the distance between the government and the public.

Social media platforms, intervention, demand, responsibility, involvement
Attribution, relationship, corporations, controllability, collective efficacy
Crisis, public support, public concern, social issues, consensus
Values, relation, hashtags, petitions, public demand
Judgment, communication, negotiation, discussion, implementation, distribution

Note: With the expansion of media, governmental bodies, corporations, and diverse organizations strive to reach the public to share necessary information or obtain support. While the government may communicate its demands to the population on media, the public may do it, as well. The social media platforms now offer opportunities to reach the state by diverse means: signing a petition, posting news with hashtags, or writing a letter.

The medias perfect images negatively influence womens perception of the body.

Body image, weight, physical appearance, norms
Beauty ideals, depiction, dissatisfaction, negative outcome, comparison
The negative impact, cultural ideals, digital alteration, photo retouch
Disclaimer labels, advertisements, well-being, young women
Eating disorder, low academic performance, cosmetic surgery, depression.

Note: Worldwide, people, particularly women, are concerned with body image more than ever. The advertisement provokes dissatisfaction with the body, which affects womens well-being and leads to low academic performance, depression, and eating disorders (Fardouly & Holland, 2018). Despite the common awareness of the images on social media being edited in the graphical editors, people nevertheless are being disturbed with the body image.

Media may hurt sleep quality.

Social media usage, young adults, anxiety, disturbance, diminished sleep quality
Applications, emotional growth, sleep deficiency, immune system operations
Cerebral functions, learning, attention, social performance, well-being
Cognitive functioning, metabolism, weight, cardiovascular risk
Adult population, depth of sleep, awakening, insomnia, nightmares

Note: It is commonly known that sleep quality affects learning abilities, social performance, attention, metabolism, weight, and other functions. However, both young adults and the adult population are now engaged more in media activities before going to bed (Kaimal et al., 2017). Media usage may hurt their sleep quality due to the news read on Internet or online activity they engage in.

Media reduces the quality and quantity of interpersonal communication.

Delusive gratifications, vulnerability, human, technology, contact
Texting, emailing, social networking, bullying, stalking
Anxiety, disorders, conflicts, depression, frustration, loneliness
Cognitive functioning, social abilities, degradation, attention
Adult population, young adults, risk, generation gap

Note: Social media offers people an opportunity to gratify human essential as the need to be heard, to feel the presence of others, or to share ones feelings and opinions. These opportunities, however, are delusive one may solely satisfy the experience of human connection while meeting personally. The lack of understanding caused by online communication may lead to bullying, stalking, or degradation of social skills.

Media alters social norms and enhances cultural exchange.

Social norms, dimensions of culture, societies, unwritten rules
Deviance, social pressure, tolerance, cultural variation
Individualism, collectivism, avoidance, networking, alteration
Discussion, distinguishing, adjustment, judgment, recognition
Associations, organizations, groups, corporations, communities, individuals

Note: Media both reflects and alters the norms of the different societies. Via online communication, people transmit diverse social norms, unwritten rules, express tolerance, or, instead, some forms of deviance. Individualistic cultures may learn from the collectivistic ones and vice versa.

The media provides a greater extent of transparency of governmental policies.

Transparency, decision-making, legislation, public opinion, influence
Governmental bodies, structure, federal law, referendum
Elections, foreign policy, internal policy, environment
State, legislature, public influence, data exposure, distribution
Population, awareness, governmental bodies, non-governmental bodies, impact

Note: With the exposure of data the media offers about each law to adopt, an overseas conflict to solve, or the direction of foreign policy to accept, people are now more aware of the government decisions. Having access to the political and historical data, the citizens can influence the decision-making process of a state by participating in a referendum or elections.

References

Fardouly, J., & Holland, E. (2018). Social media is not real life: The effect of attaching disclaimer-type labels to idealized social media images on womens body image and mood. New Media & Society, 4(5), 1-18. Web.

Kaimal, D., Sajja, R. T., & Sasangohar, F. (2017). Investigating the Effects of Social Media Usage on Sleep Quality. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 61(1), 1327-1330. Web.

Tang, Z., Chen, L., Zhou, Z., Warkentin, M., & Gillenson, M. L. (2019). The effects of social media use on control of corruption and moderating role of cultural tightness-looseness. Government Information Quarterly, 6(4), 2-9. Web.

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