Media in Society

Media’s Influence on Religious Perspectives and Rituals

Media, for a long period of time, have been central to human society. So-called media are news outlets and include radio stations, television stations, social media platforms, print and video-recorded media. Today’s world has become a ’global village’ as people and society as a whole can efficiently obtain the latest news and the latest scientific knowledge on issues affecting their way of life. The media has greatly influenced the religious perspective of today’s society. Aspects of mythology and ritual practices are also the subject of emerging media issues. Therefore, in this paper, we brainstorm the different steps the media media has made in changing the religious view, rituals and myths in the Societies Today

Media’s Role in Condemning Religious Differences

Looking at various media sources and platforms, the joint effect in the society is at large being seen in every walk of people in this world. First to mention, media has been used to condemn and fight the religious differences amongst different religious societies including the Muslim society, Christian society and the Budhists society. The current threat to peaceful coexistence in the world originating from a group of people claiming to be from a certain religious community which has threatened the world security, has seen all walks of people from all the religious communities coming direct to media to condemn such groups. For example, the case of the recent suicide bombing at Manchester city in the United Kingdom which saw millions of people in twitter ’standing with Manchester in condemning such evil activity from the associated persons. The impact of such condemnation is related to the kindly of both financial support and social support that is usually seen in the face of such destructions.

Media’s Impact on Challenging Myths

Secondly, the press has really impacted the world with reality of nature that has been supported by their scientifically approved research findings against some myths. Myths are just misconceptions that have not been scientifically proven to be true beliefs that a given society may have based on some aspects of life. With the transformations in the field of science with NASA findings, most of the long existed myths and misconceptions have been either proved to be right or wrong and that the societies’ perceptions have changed for the better. Media has played a leading role in constructing social and cultural change in the world today. The policies regarding protection and promoting cultural beliefs and practices of the people to foster positivity amongst all in the society have been implemented by several media institutions through public awareness creation. Education and change of attitudes amongst people towards religion and cultural beliefs.

Media’s Influence on Religious Lessons and Interpretations

Focusing on the impact of mass communication and religion in the societies today, Prof. J.P. Ferre attributes mass communication to have actually transformed how the religions are able to effectively consume the religious lessons. Example is the bible scripts interpretation, the Quran interpretation and the modern gospel songs and praise and worship songs. You will find both churches and mosques using the modern media transformation facilities to translate the religious messages to their congregations. Not forgetting to mention that the emergence of some sub religious groups such as the Protestants, Mormons and the evangelicals were as the result of the media (Couldry 24)

Media’s Impact on Rituals and Cultural Practices

Fourthly, media has brought a change to the nature and how rituals are carried out amongst different societies today. The kind of technology that has come with the modern media today is being attributed to the impact of media to the cultural practices including rituals. Internet has really transformed societies into a learned society and technically advanced skills have led to an improvement in the ways of carrying out rituals. Social media platforms have been used to mobilize the relevant society members for their regular ritual practices and this has led to an emergence of a revolutionalised society comprising of informed and creative generation (Frank 55). Education has been boosted towards understanding of the relevance of such ritual practices with the irrelevant practices being condemned at a higher voice. The aspect of blood transfusion has now been transformed to a more risk free practices unlike the initial ways of blood transfusion.

Negative Impacts of Media on Religious Beliefs and Myths

However, it is also important to look at the other negative impacts of media in changing religious beliefs and myths. One of these impacts being the radicalized jihadist group which has employed the use of social media to incite some group of Muslims against other religions. The impact of the extremist jihadist killings cannot be overemphasized with the current situation in Iran, Israel and some parts of Europe (Mirza 23). Young youths have been able to access information on the jihadist movement to become self-radicalized.

The Influence of Media on Religious Marriages

Another important and somehow funny attribute of media towards religion is the effect on the religious marriages. The emergence of the online dating sites due to a magnitude consumers of internet. The Facebook, WhatsApp, radio listeners and twitter users have resolved to a modern way of dating through the social media platforms. Currently, the world statistics attribute to about 20% of the marriages due to social media dating which has really interfered with the religious ways of dating and marriages.

Conclusion

In summary, the role played by media in changing the society can be looked at both positive and negative perspectives; though the positive impacts of media on religious, myths and ritual perspectives is much compared to the negative impacts. The rate at which media is changing the societies today is quite high just like the consumption and growth in internet consumption. Technological advancements are the key attributes to the fastest growing media sector therefore the changes in the society shall be a subject of discussion overtime.

Works cited

Frank Furedi (2016) pp. 32-98. How the Internet and Social Media Are Changing Culture. Media & Mass Communication.

Mirza et al. (2015). The Perception of Islam and Muslims in the Media & the Responsibility of European Muslims towards the Media. pp. 5-17.

Nick Couldry. (2012). Media Ritual; A Critical Approach. Pp.435-76