To Be Influenced or Not To Be: Mass Media
Just because information is on the landing page in big bold letters doesn’t means its correct right? That you must believe that it’s true without reading into the details. If you’re wary, you are not alone.
For me, there’s a fine line between getting influenced by mass media. The two scenarios is National News and Sports. First, we need to understand what the Bullet Theory, also known as the Hypodermic Needle Theory, is. “The theory believes that there are no other sources of media or alternative media to compare the media’s message to. Media is the strongest at the time of crisis and in the time of war when people depend on media for all the information”.
I’m a sucker for sports especially when it comes to Chicago. When I see an article on the Bears, I get excited about the title no matter what. Sometimes I won’t even read the article. When I talk among my friends about it, they usually say I’m wrong. It’s because I didn’t end up reading the article.
This article by Sports Mockery suggest that the Chicago Bears can end up with some big names when team start to finalize the roster with cuts. When you go to read the article there’s no big name in there. It’s all based on assumption and makes you feel like an idiot because you fell for the title and believed it.
Another example is on TikTok where a woman rear ended a man driving a Lamborghini. The followers on TikTok called this woman out, berated her, saying she was at fault, until you looked at the video more closely. It showed that the Lamborghini did in fact hit her before she ended up rear ending him. The amount apologies that presumed after this was incredible.
It kind of shows that people read a headline and watch one portion of a clip and immediate believe that’s the only evidence and that is correct. Until you start to analyze the full picture and see what led up to that instance.
Let’s take a history trip to 1938. In a time where there is no Internet, no cell phones, and you had to talk to one another. Many people during this time received their news from the radio. What happened on Halloween in 1938 made history.
What was supposed to be a story for listeners caused everyone to go into panic. If you’re not familiar with War of the Worlds, it essentially aliens invading earth. People thought this was real. There was no other information to compare it too. You had to believe it or not.
As technology has advanced, I believe it is easier not to fall for the Bullet Theory. There are many resources to compare information to see if there a line or not. Whether people want to take the time and do this is one thing. I’m still a work in progress but I am getting better to not believe everything at first site.
