Freedom of the media and its impact on society

 By：Suhad Kadem Obaid

    Mass media is communication -whether written, broadcast, or spoken- that reaches a large audience. This includes television, radio, advertising, movies, the Internet,newspapers, magazines, and so forth., which work together to influence the opinion of the general public on a large scale. There are many fields that media channels target to cover, such as education, entertainment, news, information sources, and the transmission of messages. A historical look at the press and the media According to what is common and historian, the fifteenth century witnessed the launch of the press printing revolution, and the beginning of the printing of newspapers and books in a large way, but without using the concept of journalism and media, which began to work in the early twentieth century, and in a contemporary way that included audio and visual means as More advanced media that contributed to the provision of entertainment and informational contents thanks to technology that has helped in the significant growth of the press and media sector. The media can manipulate, influence, persuade and pressure society, in addition to controlling the world sometimes in positive and negative ways; Mentally, physically and emotionally Controversial stories are reported and printed without relying on whether or not they are true.

    The media can affect how people are viewed, which means people's careers can change in no time. The media can also manipulate people in the spotlight to live their lives a certain way, or to rebel against what they ought to be.

     How does mass media influence the society?                                

    The media influences so many people’s behaviour nowadays. Information can be spread after a few clicks of a button, whether it is true, false, speculation or gossip. This can affect relationships in various ways, be it between celebrities and ordinary people or between celebrities themselves and their loved ones. The media can manipulate, influence, persuade and pressurise society, along with even controlling the world at times in both positive and negative ways; mentally, physically and emotionally

    Credibility and Media Transformations The media is going through a different stage, lost in its credibility means, and the news has become words governed by doubts, the most important of which is the denial of credibility or its proof by the public, and this resulted in a media chaos in the means of communication, its goal is either to spread the rumor, or to search for credibility  The news, and perhaps the bottom line in that is the lack of credibility, and therefore the news has lost its most important characteristic, which is confidence in the news.

     Credibility means the objective and subjective components of the credibility of a source or message, and credibility goes back to Aristotle’s theory of rhetoric.  Motivational, the reasoning used to support a claim, the purpose of which is believed to be the ability to influence the recipient of a message.

     What are the factors that affect media quality?

    There are variables that affect  the media and their ability to influence and lead societies, including: Environmental variables: They are the surrounding political, social and economic conditions, and these circumstances either help the media to make change happen, or they can be discouraging and reduce its effectiveness.

    Audience variables: Audience variables in the difference between individuals in terms of experience, culture and their susceptibility to influence. Rather, one person can respond differently to the same content according to his psychological and social conditions.

    Interaction variables: that is, the interaction is collective or individual, and what is the mechanism and method of interaction. This determines the extent of the influence of the media.

     Media variables: They are the factors related to the media in terms of credibility, diversity and comprehensiveness, which gives wideness and media diversity.

    Content variables: the media is concerned with the content and its ability to attract and persuade the listener or viewer and convince him and satisfy his needs and desires in a diverse and attractive way and not to repeat so that there is effective in the influence of the media

     From this we conclude that the media and the media influence the behavior of any person at the present time. Information can be published after a few button clicks, whether it is true or false, speculation or gossip. It can affect relationships in different ways, whether it's between celebrities and ordinary people or between celebrities themselves and their loved ones. The media can manipulate, influence, persuade and pressure society, besides controlling the world sometimes in positive and negative ways: Mentally, physically and emotionally.

  Media and Youth: The great impact of the media through its multiple means on the sensitive aspects of the lives of children and youth, especially the psychological and social aspects. The following are the most prominent aspects affected by the influence of the media:

   Education Television can often play the role of a teacher because it contains educational programs that aim to teach children how to cooperate with others and promote harmony with those who differ with them in terms of race and gender without racism and prejudice in addition to motivating them to go to libraries and museums and engage in sports activities, all It is through educational videos.

   Violence The television screen is a window into thousands of scenes that are peppered with acts of violence and images of murders, rapes and other crimes.

Nutrition The child's desire to watch TV for a longer period of time leads to a decrease in his level of physical fitness, Due to his lack of games and exercise, and the increasing demand for eating foods rich in fat while watching television, advertising advertisements stimulate such unhealthy behavior.

   The ethical aspect is the display of immoral media materials presented on television, as it has become like a teacher for children and youth in this field by displaying these advertisements as a natural matter, and does not entail any risks, without mentioning the consequences of these unethical behaviors.

   The last question.. Does the media reflect the state of moral deterioration the society has reached, or has the society changed its moral concepts, affected by the films and programs broadcast by the media?

   And if the answer to this question is that the media embodies the urgent changes in society and conveys their reality as a mirror of society, and therefore the media is innocent of the crime of changing moderate social concepts for the worse, the media bears a social and moral responsibility to play a major and effective role in addressing these moral deviations. A great responsibility for his ability to influence and change society by addressing these issues and the importance of highlighting the difference between vice and alienation from it and openness with wisdom, prudence and respectful moderation.

   The media invades us at home, in the street, and on the means of communication, and broadcasts ideas and theses, among which are contrary to normal human instinct, which are presented in attractive templates and full of false humanity. To strengthen this category and try to make it acceptable to society, so we must deal with the media more carefully and with great caution