Summary
The media quickly turns into real power in the political, social, and spiritual spheres. Possessing specific opportunities for authority, the media influence public opinion and personal worldview, and, due to their universality and inclusiveness, they can shape the appearance of each new generation. The expansion of influence and the growth of media opportunities exacerbate the already complicated process of forming views on racial appearance, already complicated by the crisis state of modern society.
The Influence of Mass Information
Mass information has a broad audience, is dispersed in time and space, and is distributed using technical means. It reflects social processes and has its own goal, which is to manage society or its subsystems through the management of people. Due to their universality and inclusiveness, mass communications can shape the attitudes of generations toward a particular race. As a rule, the media use clichéd descriptions and forms. Thus, it may deliberately attach a positive or negative reaction to the appearance of others (McCombs and Valenzuela 9). Newsfeeds may lack description and consideration from different angles, which inappropriately leads to a limited presentation of racial formation and, therefore, an unreasonable reaction.
Thus, the role of the media can be very ambiguous in forming reactions and carrying adverse reactions. On the one hand, the mass media give a person ample opportunities to join the world’s information picture, including racial appearance, which can expand the experience of a person on a global scale. On the other hand, the media can construct a new reality in the human mind. Such a reality is usually quite far from the truth and creates a false illusion about appearance and racial prejudice. As a result, the technical possibilities of disseminating information fade before the media’s harmful influence on the formation of opinions and ideas about another race.
Work Cited
McCombs, Maxwell, and Sebastian Valenzuela. Setting the agenda: Mass media and public opinion. John Wiley & Sons, 2020.