Information Dissemination by Mass Media

Everyday people are overwhelmed information produced by the mass media. TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and now Internet that bring us into the revolutionary information era where information are easily to access anywhere and everywhere. However, before Internet comes in 1990’s the television was a medium of the socialization of most people into standardized roles and behaviors (Gerbner and Gross: 1976). The television also was known as the perfect tool for modernization process at that time to cultivate people’s mind about the modern thoughts.

In other hand, TV also brings the negative aspects in people’s life. Sometimes, TV journalist exaggerates the story in order to make it attractive to the viewer. For example in criminal news/stories, TV journalist may exaggerate the criminal events in a bad way. That somehow, is giving people a trauma and creates the mean world syndrome where the life becomes very harmful than the fact. It shows how important the role of media that constructs perception in people’s mind.

Mass media in the future may involve more people participation to co-create the meaning and understanding among each other. The mass media will become more horizontal where the journalist will be no longer as the main point in creating news. The citizen journalism may one of the examples of the mass media in the future. One of the examples is I-report program, in CNN, the program allows people to send their news report to be broadcasted widely.