The word ‘media’ is derived from the word medium, signifying mode or carrier. Media is intended to reach and address a large target group or audience. The word was first used in respect of books and newspapers i.e. print media and with the advent of technology, media now encompasses television, movies, radio and internet. In today’s world, media becomes as essential as our daily needs. Media of today is playing an outstanding role in creating and shaping of public opinion and strengthening of society.
All of us at some point have been to the library to do research for a paper or report, sifting through piles and piles of information to support a thesis in 1,000 words or more, or to simply explain an event, situation, or person. Journalists in the media do much the same. They don’t just provide pages of facts and statistics that the average person might not understand. Instead, they weed out the important issues and points, putting them in a context that the average reader and listener can make sense of in order to form their own opinions. How terrible would it be if we all had to sift through piles of documentation and statistics, or sit through press conferences, just to find out that the price of rice or sugar has risen?
Sophisticated societies are dependent on mass media to deliver information. Marshall McLuhan has rightly called media “extensions of man”. This is because, as G.L. Kreps and B.C. Thornton point put, media extend “people’s ability to communicate, to speak