Sociology

The notion Media refers to a variety of communication channels. Mass media is a term implying media meant to be accessed by a huge audience. The communication channels include radio, television, internet and newspapers (Goidel, Freeman  Procopio 2006). The media influence, otherwise known as media effects, concerns theories that explain the impact of mass media upon their audiences way of thinking and behaving. Mass media plays a crucial role in the formation and reflection of the public opinion. Mass media links the world to individuals and reproduces the self-image of society. The interaction between media and the society is a complex one, with the former obtaining information from a system of affairs and influences and the latter interpreting and evaluating the information that media provides, and also obtaining information outside the media framework. The implications and consequences of the media are related not only to the way media events are perceived, but also to a massive amount of cultural effects that function through the media (Bryant  Zillmann 2002).

Mass media have a very strong cultural and social influence on the society. This is based on their capability to get to a wide audience with their strong and influential communications. Marshall McLuhan uses the expression the medium is the message. This means that the distribution of a message can be more significant than its substance. It is due to the persuasive power of the media that messages are accessible for the target audience. This has been the influential part of the media as they have been able to structure peoples day to day lives and routines (Heyer 1988).

The Importance of Media Influences
In the current age it is important to appreciate the fact that the media influence is crucial in our daily lives. Media and communication have a considerable impact on human beings. Media are all around us, and it is quite obvious that everything around us influences us in a certain way, either positively or negatively. It is a way of connecting people and mirroring the society that we exist in. In spite of the adverse effects of media on the society, the fact that they are important is undeniable (Shrum 2004). We are living in the society that depends on communication and information to stay on the track and keep moving in the right direction and be able to carry out our daily activities. Media are the public means to keep themselves informed on the events happening around them. This is very vital for the world becoming globally interconnected. Media is also a key source of entertainment. Some types of the media are established solely as sources of entertainment. However, the media can be forced to come up with entertainment that the society wants. The media influence is important, because it is the only way that the daily happenings around the world can be reflected (Goidel, Freeman  Procopio 2006).

The public does not only comprise the audience, but it also forms a certain part of the content itself. In the present world, life without the media seems utterly unimaginable. Media provides the public with entertainment, information and comfort (Kellner 2003).  It is worth knowing that most of our decisions, beliefs and principles are all based on the facts we know for sure. In work situations, the decisions are based on the experience and studies, however, in day to day life, people rely on the media to acquire current news and facts on the important issues that they should be aware of. Many theories have been put forward by different academics to explain media influences on the society. Many of the theorists suggest providing evidence that media has some influence on or affects the society (Shrum 2004).

The Hypodermic Needle Theory
The hypodermic needle theory also referred to as Hypodermic-syringe model is one such theory. It is the first major theory explaining the effects of mass media on the society. This is a communication model also called the magic bullet perspective. According to the theory,  an intended communication is received directly and wholly accepted by the recipient. The model implies that mass media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on the audience. The theory has its roots in 1930s behaviorism established by the Frankfurt School in Germany. Mass media in 1940s and 1950s were considered to have a very strong influence on the behavioral changes. A number of factors contributed to the strong effects communication theory. The factors include the rapid rise and popularity of the radio, the coming up of persuasion fields like advertising and propaganda, the Payne Fund Study of 1930s, which was focused on the effect of motion pictures on children, and Hitlers monopolization of mass media during the World War II that united the German public in support of the Nazi party (Chaffee 1988).

The model argues that the mass media can influence a vast group of people by shooting or injecting them with suitable messages aimed at triggering the required response. Images used in expressing the theory, that is, the bullet and the needle implies a strong and direct flow of information from the sender to the recipient. The theory graphically suggests that the message is the bullet that is shot from the mass media gun straight into the audiences head.  The model suggests that media messages are shot directly into a passive audience, which is instantly influenced by the message. In the model there is no way of avoiding the influence of the message. In this model people are seen as passive and with a lot of media messages shot into their heads. They end up thinking in the way they are told, because they have no other source of information. An example of where the model can be applied was the 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds by Orson Wells and the Mercury Theater Group on the eve of the Halloween, where a radio program was disrupted and a broadcast of the Martians invasion on the earth at a place known as Grovers Mill in New Jersey. The broadcast caused a wave of mass hysteria, interrupting the normal life of the people, some of whom fled the city to seek safety. This shows how the media can influence passive audience. This has led theorists to believe that this was one of the key ways, through which the media shape audience perception (Mihailidis 2009).

The hypodermic syringe model proved to be complicated for more media researchers, who sought to explain the link between audience and the media text more precisely. In the times when the mass media became more important part of human life in societies globally and did not make people a mass of unthinking drones, researchers sought a more refined explanation. Researchers, Paul Lazarsfield, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet analyzed the process of decision making by voters in the 1940 presidential election campaigns (Burton 2005). They published their results in a paper known as The Peoples Choice. In their findings it was discovered that the information does not go directly from the source into the minds of the recipient unmediated. It is first filtered through opinion leaders, who then communicate the massage to their less active associates. It is on their associates that they have influence. The recipients then contemplate the message they receive directly from the media with the thought and ideas that the opinion leaders express. Therefore, the audience is not influenced directly by the direct process but by a two step flow. The two step flow became another theory in the attempt by researchers to establish the influence that media has on the audience and hence the society (Perse 2001).

The framing theory
The concept of framing relates to agenda-setting but extends research by explaining the fundamental nature of the issue at hand rather than on an exact topic. The basis of the model is that the mass media focus the interest on particular events and then puts them in a field of meaning (Mihailidis 2009). The core of the theory is that the media attract the public attention to particular topics and decide what people should think about them. This is the original agenda-setting thought in communication. The way, in which the media item is presented, and the frame, in which the item is brought, are all chosen by journalists. Therefore, the frame refers to the gatekeepers organizing and bringing the news items, the items they cover, and the ways, in which the recipients interpret what they are presented with. Frames are theoretical views that serve to structure social meanings. Frames influence the insight of the audience. This sort of agenda setting tells the audience what to think and also the way to think about it. Framing is a quality of communication that leads others to believe one meaning instead of another. In media, the way, in which the media items are presented, influences the kinds of choices the people make.  Framing is not a bad thing but in fact an unavoidable part of the society as far as communication is concerned (Burton 2005).

Conclusion
All these theories support the fact that media has a considerable influence on the society. They also support the argument that the media influence on the audience sometimes comes as a blessing, while in other situations causing a negative impact to the society. The media, whatever their effect on the society, have brought great benefits. Politically, the media have led the society to making informed decisions in elections. The media have also assisted in upholding democracy by letting the people know what is happening within their governments. They have assisted in the process of globalization, because they have brought public attention to the matters happening globally. These are just a few of the benefits accrued from the influences that the media has to the society.