The role of media is to ensure that societal norms, customs, and ideologies are disseminated. The world has been able to socialize through the power of media. Through socialization, people have shared different traditions, languages, characters, and ethics. In history, general culture has been associated with broadcasting that encourages the adoption of new trends that have been introduced. The modernization paradigm currently being experienced is aimed at replicating western behavior. The mass media is a potent agent in contributing to socio-economic change. It has impacted how people and institutions act, listen, dress, eat, drink, and think.
The paradigm approach to media effect is the direct theory with which society’s ills are associated. I believe the contradiction model provides the most persuasive theories of the four paradigms, including consensus, chaos, control, and contradiction, since it addresses both material and relational aspects of media power. The contradiction theory follows Marx’s conception, where the theorist combines the revolutionary achievement tributes with an analysis of why it is hard to avail the full potential of the attainments systematically (Herzog, 2018). The approach accepts that the force of broadcasting has a powerful influence on people’s behavior.
The digital age introduced a set of communication challenges in the traditional media mainstream. Media users are used to distortions, lies, and the platform’s hostility. It becomes controversial when faced with issues that need involvement or resistance, since they fail to declare their stand. Therefore, the contradiction paradigm is relevant to compensate for the misplaced pluralism, the unjustified celebrations by the chaos paradigm, and the periodic functions of the control model. According to this perspective, media power can be complete; however, contestable and unstable.
Reference
Herzog, B. (2018). Marx’s critique of ideology for discourse analysis: From analysis of ideologies to social critique. Critical Discourse Studies, 15(4), 402-413. Web.