You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
The mass media, including televisions, radio and newspapers, have great influence in shaping people’s ideas. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.

MODEL ANSWER>>>

Media, including television, radio and newspapers are considered to be instrumental in shaping people’s ideas. As a source of information transmission, I should also agree to this to an extent. However, I feel ideas of an individual are primarily shaped by the individual himself, provided that he has the power of rational thinking.

The advent of radio and later televisions along with the print media has enhanced the transfer of knowledge and information and it started reaching a wide range of people across the world. Hence, these modes are named as ‘mass media’ and undoubtedly it started influencing the way people think.
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As years advanced, more and more agencies started their own information exchange, and at present, there are numerous online media to render this service including twitter and Face book. The slow transition of so called ‘mass media’ to commercial establishments, which propagate paid news and promotions has made people to look at it with suspicion. As human beings are rational thinkers, they hardly believe whatever they see or hear. There exists a lot of misinformation on these media and people started losing trust in these. At present, the modern man tends to confirm what he sees or hears on these media and there are a lot of innovative methods for this. Hence, even if a media source tries to shape a person’s mind by any sorts of manipulative methods, the success rate is likely to be very less.

I should admit there are instances when these media including popular social media ignite fire to sectorial or communal conflicts. However, I feel this cannot influence the thoughts of a person for a longer time span.

To conclude, though there are some visible impacts that the mass media can have on the modern man’s thoughts and ideas, I feel as long as humans are rational beings, the extent of this impact would remain less.