My view on reality television has significantly changed as reality television is becoming more popular each day with reality shows having a large audience largely impacting a large population (Kopp & Dawson, 2013). There are many speculations that reality television has a negative effect on the young individuals and the society with a section of the community demanding for their ban (Kopp & Dawson, 2013). I am in support of this opinion as reality television is negatively impacting the society instead of instilling positive values. The original purpose is slowly changing to a negative purpose and personal interests (Kopp & Dawson, 2013). Foreign powers are using popular media to influence the emotional climate therefore impacting the politics of another country which is not right and fair to the citizens of these countries. This is because the media has a huge impact in the decisions and behaviors of the citizens of a country (Kopp & Dawson, 2013).
There are some instances of governments using the media to influence outcomes in another country. Russia used the media to promote the election of Donald Trump’s as the president of the United States (Ibrahim, 2017). This was achieved by undermining Clinton’s candidacy through documents leaked to Wiki leaks. This kind of norms engineering can have a positive impact if the media is used for the right purposes but can have negative impact if used for the wrong reasons (Ibrahim, 2017). The choice on the use of the media is what determines the outcome and a positive intention will positively impact individuals since the media has a large coverage on the citizens of a country.
Negative impacts can be experienced if there are negative intentions involved (Ibrahim, 2017). Using the media to encourage negative behavior can negatively impact a large population which the results can be difficult to address due to the large influence the media has on the current population (Ibrahim, 2017). With the advancement of the internet, the media is able to cross borders influencing a large population. Due to the diversification of the media increasing its coverage all over the world, it has a large influence on majority of the populations. This influence can be used to carry out future conflicts instead of the earlier active combat (Ibrahim, 2017). Active combat originates from the media through speeches or videos communicated vie the media, which can also be retaliated via the same media.
Debates to handle conflicts are also addressed via the media where different parties face each other using the media instead of the active combat used in the earlier days (Ibrahim, 2017).
References
- Ibrahim, Y. (2017).
- Politics, protest, and empowerment in digital spaces. Hershey, Pennsylvania IGI Global. Kopp, M., & Dawson, M. (2013).
- Reality television. Minneapolis, MN: Core Library.
