Does the media Influence or Reflect society?

I personally believe that the media in does influence society in many ways but the media does also reflect what it sees, but many times the media has taken facts and has a way of twisting them.

Recently in the newspaper I read that ‘Official statistics show that 7,464 girls under the age of 16 – some as young as 13 — fell pregnant in England in 2005, a rise of 283 on 2004.’ So does the media influence or reflect society? As a young person reading this I begin to think underage pregnancies are now becoming a way of life, rather than a big shock, I don’t personally know any one of an extremely young like 13 to become pregnant but I know now days under age pregnancies are not a rarity. So reading this paper I think that if I was to get pregnant now it wouldn’t be such a big deal as 7,464 other girls in the country are doing it. Which means that this piece of media has influenced me and changed me attitude towards underage pregnancies, not that I always agree with them, so weather this article was intentional written it influenced me or not is has, and possible many other people over the country.

Whereas if I read an article based on a subject I’m not very bothered on for example ‘Scottish public sector workers to get first pay rise in three years.’ this doesn’t influence me in anyway, I had no thoughts or feeling towards the subject before I read the article neither do I now, so in this situation the media is just reflecting society, but I assume that someone of an older age, who has interest in subjects such as politics, opinion on the Scottish public sector workers to get first pay rise in three years may have been influenced by reading this article, some facts may of caused the reader to change their mind about certain things.

I believe the media will always be influencing somebody weather it was their intentions or not, but not always everyone as some peoples beliefs may be different to begin with and some people couldn’t care less about some of the things the media write about, whereas others feel very strongly about it. ‘Ashley Cole and Cheryl back together’ many may read this and be unaffected at all, if a teen boy was to read it I would imagine they wouldn’t give it much thought where as some middle age women may be in a similar situation therefor may read this and possible use it as a way of advice, if a young strong independent women like Cheryl Cole took him beck maybe I should too?

I think the media is reflecting society all the time, mainly the negatives. I believe the media only influences certain people with certain stories, a person may or may not be influenced for many reasons, whether it is their age, gender, social class or even something such as income.

I think the media is affecting our lives constantly without us even being aware of it.