Media influence a country’s culture and values.

By: Rocío Zamanillo Campos

Nowadays, human beliefs, ideas and values are strongly influenced by communication media. The information flow in countries around the world differs because of media management.

In fact, governments have an important influence over the kind of news that are broadcast,, the content and the manner in which they are transmitted.

Then, depending on the ideology of a government, the information that a population receives can be very different between countries even if the event is the same. For example, recent riots in Egypt can be interpreted differently depending on the channel you watch. Consequently, we can talk about an international incident with people from other countries and find a lot of points of view are totally contrary or even different to the extent that the events seem different.

But the interpretation of news can be different even inside countries. Last week I read an article on “How Mainstream media has failed us”. It was about the need to alternative media in order to enjoy a healthy democracy in Britain. It was full of events as examples which were explained by media in some way but the truth is precisely the opposite. The truth is almost always that the violence comes from governments and forces while strikers and citizens suffer. In fact, a study by Cardiff University researchers found that in 2012 Conservative Party voices enjoyed four times as much BBC airtime as their opposition, so any ideas of BBC left-wing bias can be thrown away right there. But even them, we can still have the hope because as journalist Michael Pollan once said, “I believe perfect objectivity is an unrealistic goal. Fairness, however, is not”. This is the reason why some people who keep few trust on a better future is setting up an alternative media organisation in Britain, called SilenceBreaker Media (silencebreakers.org).

Moreover, a country’s culture is a consequence of media content. The population of a country is reflected in the news, shows, series, programs and sports events broadcast as well as by the films produced and consumed. In this way, media content is part of our specific culture. Therefore, what we are, what we know and what we do and appreciate are different from people who live in other places and it is clearly affected by the way we get information or consume media.

Nonetheless, we currently have some traditions that began in the past, but every day culture is being homogenized because of globalization. At the same time globalization has more power because of the Internet and the reach of the media. So we increasingly are more similar to other countries in our ways of life and the things we do. In conclusion, the media influences our culture and values completely and we will realize even more about this in the coming decades because of the virtual revolution.