Change In The Media by Colleen

Change In The Media by Colleen - June 2020 Scholarship Essay

Do we even realize how attached our society is to the media? Some days it almost seems like you can’t take your eyes off of the screen for a single second. Everyday is full of news and even sometimes controversy. The older I’ve gotten, I’ve realized how much the media has affected people in different ways both positive and negative. According to Oberlo.com, “90.4% of Millennials, 77.5% of Generation X, and 48.2% of Baby Boomers are active social media users.” My major is multimedia journalism which basically distributes news content to platforms in the world such as news stations, radio stations, and more. I’m very hopeful to get into working at a news station and hopefully bring a positive impact to my audience. Hopefully I can aspire to be someone that my audience can look up to. The influence of the media has an effect on many aspects of human life, which can include voting a certain way, individual views and beliefs, or skewing a person's knowledge of a specific topic due to being provided false information.
Coming from Dayton, Ohio I can say from experience that 2019 was full of negativity and positivity in the media. Let me explain why I state that. Many had their eyes glued on their TV’s during these certain events that took place. Back in May of 2019, we faced the deadly Memorial Day tornadoes which left a lot of families with no homes, power, and took a few lives. Another day in May of 2019, the hate group as known as the KKK came to Downtown Dayton. At first a lot of people were nervous about what the outcome could be of this event but it ended with peaceful protesting and without violence. We still came together to support each other. Lastly our city took another hard punch but we came back even stronger. In August of 2019, we faced the news that a deadly mass shooting took place in a bar located in the Oregon District which caused national uproar. Every single news outlet you could think of, showed up to Dayton including Fox News and CNN. So many innocent lives of moms, dads, grandparents, friends, brothers, sisters, and neighbors were taken away. While these events had such a devastating impact in my city, we still came together as a community to support each other.

The media can either unite or divide our society but it is our own choice how we react to the stories that we receive. At times I feel like we forget the positive news because a lot of the current headlines can be easily exaggerated and can be perceived as negative. From a variety of sources, it has been determined that the government, interest groups, advertisers, and other media are the most significant variables that influence journalism or news coverage. When there happens to be a major event going on in our society, I hope to bring my audience peace. My idea of being the impact in the media is bringing peace and positivity. The goal of working in the news media is to bring awareness and coverage. I'm hopeful to be that person one day.