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We live in a society that depends on information and communication to keep moving in the right direction and do our daily activities like work, entertainment, health care, education, personal relationships, traveling and anything else that we have to do. The media is all around us. From billboards and signs to commercials and catchy slogans, advertising and influential people alike get their messages across on a daily basis. A common person in the city usually wakes up, checks the TV news or newspaper, goes to work, makes a few phone calls, eats with their family when possible and makes his or her decisions based on the information that he or she has either from their co workers, news, tv, friends, family, financial reports, etc. What we need to be aware is that most of our decisions, beliefs and values are based on what we know for a fact, our assumptions and our own experience. In our work we usually know what we have to do based on our experience and studies, however on our daily lives we rely on the media to get the current news and facts about what is important and what we should be aware of. We have put our trust on the media as an authority to give us news, entertainment and education. The media acts like the Guru, Pastor or Priest to the people. However, the influence of mass media on the kids, teenagers and society is so big that we should know how it really works. The media in itself is so addictive that once glued to it, a person tends to forget everything else. When you are not watching TV, you are surfing the Internet, when you are not on the web, you are reading newspapers, when you are not reading anything, you are listening to something. Thus, all the time, you are glued to some form of media. It is bombarding you with content, news, information, gossip, rumors - it is providing to you everything it has, some things necessary, some not; some things important, some not, some things you want to ignore, some things you cannot. Media is everywhere, affecting every aspect of life. Most of the media uses the concept of 'seeing is believing'. The media makes billions of dollars with the advertising they sell and that we are exposed to. We buy what we are told to be good, after seeing thousands of advertisings, we make our buying decisions based on what we saw on TV, newspapers or magazines to be a product we can trust, and also based on what everyone else that we know is buying, and their decision are also based on the media. These are one of the many effects of mass media on the people and more particularly in teenagers, they buy what they see on TV, what their favorite celebrity advertise and might be acceptable by the society, based on the latest that the media has imposed on them. Another negative influence in teenagers that has grown over the last years are anorexia and obesity. There are millions of adolescents fighting obesity, but at the same time they are exposed to thousands of advertisements of junk food, while the ideal image of a successful person is told to be thin and wealthy. Also more women are obsessive with losing weight even when they are not obese; in an attempt to look like their favorite media celebrity, they engage themselves in eating disorders which might result in heath complications. Those who are running the media industry or are involved in it have to make the media run by making the people turn to it. There is a burgeoning need amongst the youth to be accepted as a part of a group, to be popular, to have friends etc. Media experts understand this need of the people and hence they come out with advertisements on TV, or in the newspapers, or on websites on how people can be more popular using a certain product. Most advertisements that are seen are aimed at the youth generally talking about the 'cool quotient' of the product and how it is going to be the next 'in-thing'. They mould the advertisements or commercials accordingly, and if the budget allows, having a brand ambassador who is already either a media icon or a popular person of the society and among the youth. They make the product appear very appealing, so that those who posses them will get rich, become latest or happening, will have all their problems solved etc. And if a person wants to stay ahead of the game, it is absolutely vital that they procure it. The visual effect, seeing the things happen in front of the person and the slice-of-life effect makes them look a lot believable than they should be. As, once established, the companies can sell their products better, because people prefer to purchase those things which are having a brand name associated with the products. Although, establishing a trusted name among the people takes honest efforts, but this principle is used as marketing tool to sell the merchandise. For example, people prefer to have soft drink served in labelled glasses than the same soft drink being served in plain glasses, although soft drink itself is not good for health.
The TV has been very effective in defining and moulding a person's behaviour and is capable to impact the society in a much wider scale, that any other media, tool or method can. Watching television is the world’s most popular leisure activity. You probably already know that watching television is the world’s most popular leisure activity. In the 1970's it was uncommon for kids to watch TV before the age of four, now it’s uncommon for kids not to be watching TV when they’re four months old. In the developed world, 99% of houses have a television and 66% of homes have three or more sets. TV has been proven to increase cravings for junk food, and increase the likelihood of becoming overweight, under-performing at school, being inactive, and becoming prone to misbehavior. The connection of obesity to TV is already well known. Watching TV or browsing the web late night is disturbing the sleeping habits of many. Television stimulates desire and curiosity by constantly showing us promos for the upcoming shows and leaving episodes in cliffhanger scenarios, creating a knowledge gap that acts like a mental stumbling block, that we can’t help but get over by tuning into the next show. We already are aware that it glorifies, promotes and encourages those things, products or lifestyles that are no where related to any average person's life, for who will watch anything on the TV which is already a part of an average person's life. The average things shown on TV implies no rating, no money and hence no business. Everyone wants to see something that will appear as entertaining, enjoyable, something that will describe what is the 'happening'. The mass media works on the concept of hyper-reality, it is the concept that the media are not merely a window on to the world, but are part of the reality they describe. Hence the media’s obsession with media-created events. Television shows are increasingly so fast paced that regular life is unexciting in comparison, and we can easily have trouble paying attention to the slower pace of everyday existence, which lacks explosions and rapid scene changes to keep us amused. When a person is constantly exposed to all such TV shows or programs or advertisements, the mind storing all the information consciously or unconsciously, then it results in restlessness, discontent, loneliness and might be a sense of disrespect to what a person possesses in the present time. As the events and what is shown in the media is hyper-real, we think something bad is happening to us because our life is not moving with the same pace and rapidness as depicted in the media. This constant pressure of unnatural and hyper-real life being shown and promoted in the media or TV causes a person to remain in discontent with the life they are pursuing, which might result in depression. There is nothing wrong in elevating one's parameters of living a fruitful life, but at the same time it should not be overwhelming a person to live artificially just because the media says it's good. For many people, television elicits a conditioned relaxation response. Our brain is more active while we sleep than when we watch TV. The brainwaves of viewers’ slow down while watching TV, regardless of what they’re watching. The sense of relaxation ends when the set is turned off, but the feelings of passivity and lowered alertness continue. People often complain that television has somehow absorbed or erased their energy, leaving them depleted. Regular TV viewers can have their view of the world essentially crafted for them by television networks. The job of the audience is to passively accept and absorb the point of view, the TV presents. This results in a public with
similar conditioning or programming, who in real life are more likely to accept the world view presented to them by others. If you've ever tried to observe your thoughts and emotions you would have noticed that depression, anxiety, and other negative states come and go without any effort on our behalf, draining our energy as they go. While watching TV, this process happens on autopilot. Teach a child to do a particular task or any good manner, for example sharing their toys with their friends who lack toys, might take time and the child will learn when reminded of the same repeatedly. But they rapidly pick-up and learn things or expressions that are shown in the short TV commercials without being asked to learn or even told repeatedly. The kids are now growing watching TV, shaping their personality values and beliefs heavily influenced by the media. They can become aggressive or they can lose a sense of reality and fiction of what they are seeing. In the past years there have been some cases of kids carrying a gun at school and even hurting others with it. Those kids have been linked to excessive use of raging video games and war images. Another problem is that real war is used as a form of entertainment by the media, we should make the kids and teen aware that war is not a form of entertainment, and that there is no win or lose like in video games, in actual war, everyone loses. Practically everything we see on television is scripted and fake, even the so-called 'reality TV' shows are designed to get the audience captured in the scenarios they describe. But it’s easy to feel inadequate in comparison to the high-flying personas that make for entertaining viewing. Feeling insufficient, we are more prone to daydreaming about how we wish our lives were, even going so far as to create imaginary relationships with our favourite media characters. The media not only influences our decisions, thought process, viewpoints and actions, but has also appears to have become a necessity in many ways. We live a life described and dominated by mass media. A notable example is the recent introduction of television to Bhutan, resulting in rapid Westernization, this happens because majority of the media is getting sourced from the West - US or UK in particular. This is just an example of how far reaching impact and influence the media can have on the society and the people.
It is not hard to argue with the fact that mass media has a compelling effect on the human mind. Especially on minds which are more impressionable, for example, the influence on the children is understandably higher than it is in adults. The media has a huge impact on society and also in public opinion. They create and organize public understanding. They can shape the public opinion in different ways depending on what is the objective. The public is bribed with popular radio, television and newspapers into an acceptance of the biased, manipulated information, which might be misleading also. For example in political campaigns, the candidates that can pay for more tv and media exposure, or can attract the media towards them have more influence on public opinion and thus can receive more votes. Another fact is that the mass-media doesn't influence public opinion, the mass-media creates public opinion. Since most of the people refer to the mass-media as their only source of information, there is every possibility that their views and opinions are those that are pushed by the media.
The media has, in its own way, changed people's outlook towards life. Media is the interface through which millions look at the world outside. Media claims to depict the 'today', but not all types of media show only the truth. With the intent of stressing their point or for grabbing greater attention from the masses, media hypes or exaggerates things to a certain degree. News sources often bombard the people with the same negative stories over and over again, in order to increase the impact. Not everyone is able to filter that element. Most believe everything to be real, especially kids and the young people. The media is so overwhelming that the masses end up believing everything it says/shows. Media sources are so many in number and all of them so convincingly make their point, that it is hard to distinguish between right and wrong. The media is constantly bombarding us with information. People do not think, they believe, they do not seem to analyse, they get influenced. And that's how impactive media is.
Those at an influential age, especially children and teenagers, are highly influenced by anything that is put before them in a jazzy way. In this particular age group, they are attracted to anything that's flashy and anything that can make news.It is often seen that young people imitate celebrities blindly. The impact of media is such that the wrong, the controversial is more talked about. Sometimes, little things are blown out of proportion thus changing the way they are perceived by the audience. Media highlights controversial news in the lives of the talked about media celebrities. The masses fall for this being-in-the-news and might imitate the celebrities without much thought.
The negativeness in the society are highlighted with the purpose of awakening people about them. For example, the negative effects of addiction are portrayed through advertisements. Newspapers, television and the Internet are used to convey social messages. But unfortunately sometimes, the message is misconstrued. The 'awakening' does not reach everyone or it reaches the masses in the wrong way. So there is a section positively influenced by the media, while there are others who take the wrong message from it. Media influences them negatively. What is shown with an intent to 'spread a message' ends up becoming a bombardment of the wrong, or the incorrect. The wrong is highlighted and the good goes unnoticed. Depiction of the incorrect has a negative impact on kids not mature enough, to interpret what they are being shown. It's not just media to be blamed in this case, parents and teachers have an important role to play in selecting what the young people should see and what they should not. And not just children, the unpleasant can impact even an adult's mind. Adults may have the maturity to distinguish between the good and the bad, but bombarding only the wrong can affect anyone at the subconscious level. The reality should be depicted, but not so gaudily that it will have a lasting impact on people's minds.
The advice of teachers, parents and relatives may fall flat on the ears, but the mass media has the ability to hold all spellbound. Mass media holds a kind of mystique in the minds of the people. It is because the communication is designed in such a way that it appeals to a larger demographic segment. The test of a good mass communication marketing drive is to see if it gets the people talking. If it does, then not only does it mean that the advertising drive has been successful, but the organization in charge of the mass communication is also getting publicity by the word-of-mouth channel.
Just like a computer has set of instructions to make it work and recognize it's functions, with the devices or the hardware attached to it, called programs, so are the media to us. In other words, just like the computer can be programmed to do particular work or tasks, our subconscious mind can be 'programmed' with the information it receives from the media. Each time we glance over the TV channels or newspaper pages, we allow our subconscious mind to be programmed unknowingly, it is exposed to raw data or information which is getting stored in it for many years to come. This influences a person's decision making capability and actions, as the mind might have stored years of information in the subconscious mind, interfering with the thought process and thus affecting the sound judgement analysis of a person. For example, when a person views anyone behaving in an annoyed way to their parents in the TV or movies, then there is every possibility that the person might also copy the same behaviour to respond to his or her parents. This is because the subconscious mind stored the scenario in it, and the conscious mind refers to it as the default behaviour pattern, until and unless the conscious mind rejects it as being unethical. Media influence is something you should certainly be aware of. After all, if you read newspapers, watch TV news or check online for the latest developments in the world, you are presenting yourself up to be programmed by the media, often several times a day. As well as making us passive, the media alters our brain function, reducing activity in the neo-cortex and other higher brain regions and increasing activity in lower brain regions and the limbic system. These lower parts of our brains are used to moderate negative emotions and instinctual behaviours related to aggression, dominance etc. The lower brain is unable to distinguish between reality and the simulated reality of the media. Thus, though we know on a conscious level, it is 'only a film', on an unconscious level we do not - the blood circulation varies, for instance, while we watch suspenseful, emotional or action scenes. Similarly, we know the commercial is trying to manipulate us, but on an unconscious level the commercial nonetheless succeeds in, say, making us feel inadequate until we buy whatever thing is being advertised - and the effect is all the more powerful because it is unconscious, operating on the deepest level of human response. The next time you’re watching advertisements or music videos - the two major types of media which particularly appeal to our subconscious levels - you might find it interesting to try to understand what drives or emotions the programmers are trying you to be convinced of. By viewing thoughtfully, we are more able to separate ourselves from this influence. Overtime, we can replace the wrongly programmed lower brain levels of ourselves with greater consciousness, which benefits our spiritual existence.
But godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. {1 Timothy 4:8}
Watching lots of television can cause us to live our lives in a dream world, but the act of watching itself can put us into a trance-like state. Researches have revealed that we become mesmerized by the technical aspects of media editing including cuts, edits, pans, camera movements and sudden noises, which trigger involuntary responses and keep our attention fixed to the screen. Rather than having an awareness of the present moment, the media causes us to be in a trance like illusionary state of the dream world, even when we are not watching any media. You might have noticed yourself become completely absorbed in the TV, unaware of what’s around you. In this state, the left side of our brain used for analysis and critical thinking is switched off in favour of our more emotional right brain. What we see on the media is delivered directly into our subconscious mind where it influences our beliefs about the world. If these beliefs implanted in the subconscious mind are not consciously uncovered, they are often acted upon rather than rectified. Media’s trance-like effects on our brains can remain - even when we switch off the television, our brains continue to be in a state of lowered alertness. Try to notice when you are not busy with any work, call or any gadget, what thought process is driving you and most probably, it will be that dominated by the media influence. Just like contaminated food can damage our physical health, contaminated mass media can damage our mental or spiritual health. We become TV addicted, but it’s not entirely our fault, network programmers want it that way. News, particularly daily news, is more addictive than cocaine, heroin or cigarettes. We can see a close relationship between the speech patterns of news presenters and those of hypnotists, as both speak in an even monotone voice, while looking directly into the eyes of the subject or the person. News shows in particular are also known to employ other hypnotic techniques such as the use of mnemonic imagery and numerical countdowns before relaying the so-called 'news'. Media programming is never-ending, and TV networks use psychological tricks to addict us which are hard to see and harder to break free of as they play on our instinctual drives. Even the kids channels are not immune, as one mother discovered when her daughter began acting arrogantly and hurtfully towards her friends after too much exposure to disney programming. Disney programs and movies have been proven to contain subliminal hidden messages, and promote occult rituals, practices and wizardry or magic. Be thoughtful, vigilant and careful enough to what you are viewing, watching or getting exposed to, and do not let the intoxicating effects of the media to drive you or your emotions.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand your own and others emotions and to use an understanding of emotions to guide your behaviour. Our efforts to understand, solve or bear the troubles, problems and the struggles of the life help us in the development of emotional understanding. Unfortunately, television or the media is dulling our awareness of our feelings and creating a generation of people grossly lacking in emotional intelligence. A recent study found that kids who watch more than 3 hours of TV a day had a higher chance of emotional symptoms and problems in relationships. Psychologically, it’s well known that children who watch more TV are less likely to display empathy, will resort to aggression or sadistic behaviour, will be argumentative and will seek instant self-gratification. Others have found that children who watch too much TV lose the ability to read social cues. Increased TV viewing leads children to have a poor understanding of other people’s emotional states, and to be unable to distinguish the thoughts and feelings of others from those of their own. Emotions and feelings are the result of showing care or concern, whereas those who learn their emotional intelligence from the media think that emotions and feelings are must to show that they care. Researchers have found that the happiest people do not watch television. Happiness is a result of contentment, anything which creates a feeling of discontent in us is carrying away the happiness from us, and the media does exactly the same, in order for the people to turn to it more and more, in a hope to find happiness and contentment. But instead of finding any contentment or happiness, the media creates an illusion of happiness which remains for a short time and is taken over by emptiness and restlessness.
Godliness with contentment is great gain. {1 Timothy 6:6}
Every kind of media has an agenda, the question is what is it trying to promote or teach. TV propagandists and advertisers, more than anyone would benefit from the creation of a public, with an inability to determine their own thoughts from those of others and having similar kind of materialistic world-view. It’s been proven that kids who watch entertainment TV are less likely to read books, it’s also well-known that only a handful of corporations own almost all of the media outlets that we tune into. If you continue to read the news every day, you are allowing yourself to be influenced by the views, and interests of a few, powerful people. In the UK, for example, a lot of what we read and see is what Rupert Murdoch wants us to believe – as he controls Sky, Sky News, The Sun and The Times. He also runs Fox and Fox News in the US - and owns My Space. To give another example, in the US just seven men are collectively responsible for the media influence from the following media outlets: ABC, NBC, CBS, the Turner Broadcasting System, CNN, MTV, Universal Studios, MCA Records, Geffen Records, DGC Records, GRP Records, Universal Records, Interscope Records, ESPN, Miramax Films, Touchstone Pictures. But do we stop to consider that those behind the networks and their advertisers with billion dollar budgets, all have an agenda to push? Through shows, movies, and the news we are repeatedly told how to act, what to think, and which products or entertainment we need to consume. It’s not uncommon for people to go into debt chasing the dream lifestyles portrayed on television. People then have to work more to pay the bills, come home exhausted and lacking free time and energy, crash out in front of the TV, perpetuating the cycle and losing valuable time that could be used more effectively.
The media urges us to escape from our lives rather than see and understand our lives for what they are, and use the real-life circumstances we have each day to awaken consciousness and develop spiritually. The difficulty arises when a movie, however 'innocent' it may appear, feeds the appetite for escape. The desire to escape from reality is a temptation that confronts every person on earth, in every walk of life. While some escape through self-destructive acts like drugs, drink or promiscuity, multitudes more seek to escape through focusing their minds on alternate realities. This can be done through books and computer games, but the most popular way is through movies. Our morals and behaviours are influenced through the emotively driven story-lines of television shows and movies, and we can begin to unquestionably accept the reality that they present about how people should behave in the world. As we do so, true spiritual values like empathy, compassion, inner peace and patience are increasingly becoming obsolete to the world and are seen as bizarre, replaced by acts of indulgence, self-gratification and consumerism. There is another concept that works in the media, that anything when shown repeatedly receives positive response, this implies that even a negative thing will get acknowledged provided it is telecast and shown repeatedly. Anything which we receive through the media is one sided, it shows, communicates and the viewers and the audience are left with no choice to tell to the media of the feedback. In one sided communications, the listeners are bound to listen to what the person says, even if they don't agree with the viewpoints presented. They will disagree, make noise on the statements passed but they can not tell the person to stop, at the most they can turn off the TV sets or step away. If the audience and the viewers are sound enough, then such kind of one sided communications can be set aside and go off-air in short span of time. But even in such situations, they are able to make influential impact on the society.
Social media has emerged as a new dimension of media in which we are not only the audience, readers or viewers but are also active participants. It's outreach expands to the entire globe, anyone can visit and participate from any part of the world. While it has added to the improvement in sharing information and connecting to the people across nations, it has also brought with it some aspects which we need to consider carefully so as to avoid any unwanted results. While on the conventional media, only specific, trained and selected people can present their views in harmony with the guidelines and laws of the ruling government, on the social media on the other hand, anyone can speak their mind while keeping disguised in a digital identity. All that is required is a similarly or likewise, programmed or conditioned population to make anything go viral on the internet. The time spent online robs time of important face-to-face relationships; the internet fosters mostly shallow relationships. It may also lead to the development of some new psychological and medical symptoms that will be synonymous to 'variations of depression caused by the lack of meaningful quality relationships'. The term, 'Social Networking', has begun to deceive the users to believe that they are social members, for instance, spending a couple of hours online and chatting with friends does not convert into social skills. Social network users keep absorbed in their gadgets, keeping unaware of the actual social environment or surroundings. People become dependent on the technology and do not realize how to socialize in the face-to-face context. People seem to have self-centered 'talk' on the internet, focusing on achievements and self-gratification. Social network users talk or post things which they themselves might not fully understand or realize. The internet and the social networking sites are rapidly creating and describing a digital life of their users, while it may not be a threat, but the digital life can overwhelm the real life. The online personality of a person might be totally different from his/her offline character, causing chaos when the two personalities meet. It is apparent in online dating when the couple gets together in face-to-face for the first time. Their written profiles do not clearly represent their real-life characters, as it is more enticing for a person to type something that others want to hear than saying the truth. Social media posses a real time risk of internet raging and privacy compromise; the challenge in data privacy is to share data while protecting personally identifiable information. Almost any information posted on social networking sites is permanent, whenever someone posts pictures or videos on the web, it spreads across. Much news has been reported about online privacy breach in Facebook and Facebook is constantly revising their privacy policy and changing their privacy controls for the users. Interestingly, even when users delete their personal information and deactivate their Facebook account, Facebook will still keep that information and will continue to use it for data mining and research purposes. A reporter asked whether the data will at least be anonymized, the Facebook representative declined to comment. Talking our heart out on the social sites with our colleagues and friends is a fine thing and might be helpful to unburden the heart, as long as it is used wisely and doesn't creates an understanding gap.
Media stirs up emotions. Most advertising is based on making people feel self-conscious, insecure and inadequate. If we just buy this latest gadget, we’ll finally be happy! But it’s not physically possible to compete with the fake reality shown in movies and TV shows. Comparing our lives to the people we see on screen can leave us feeling depressed and dissatisfied with our existence. While this might have the effect of causing us to search for a deeper purpose to life, the common response to negative emotions is to hide them by searching out more intense entertainments and distractions - which media networks readily supply, perpetuating the cycle of media dependence. Media’s influence on our emotions doesn't stop there. Watching scary or violent movies can cause us to relive traumatic memories from the past. It is also fairly well-known that those who watch scary movies more often have their understanding of the reality jumbled up with the fears of unusual happenings, have feelings of insecurity, lack confidence and suffer sleep disorders due to bad dreaming experiences. Viewing of violent or grotesque imagery creates chemical changes in our brain similar to those seen in post-traumatic stress, and if we see enough repeated acts of violence, our body reacts as if we are the ones being abused. Researchers have discovered that when we watch negative news broadcasts, not only are our lower emotions such as sadness, anxiety and depression stimulated, but unrelated worries in general become heightened. Participants were found to be more likely to catastrophise their concerns, blowing any worries they already had out of proportion. TV creates a wide ranging emotional impact that we live with long after we have turned it off. Media programmers are experts in emotional manipulation and when they can control people’s emotions, they can turn them against you and anyone they see fit. Spiritual minorities are a common target to be shown in a negative light. TV programming can cause people to become afraid and distrustful of anything not supported by the televised norm, and without awareness of this mechanism of fear, people can readily give up their freedoms for an illusion of security. The media changes our perception of reality. Spiritual development wakes us up to what’s really going on in the world by developing an awareness of the present moment and an ability to see through illusion. By doing so we discover who we really are and learn about reality. More and more, however, media is becoming a filter through which all our human experiences are validated and even lived - 'life' can be experienced vicariously through the characters in our favourite movies or TV shows. This vicarious experience threatens to numb us to events in the real world, and we are pressured to maintain the status-quo of consumerism and materialistic behaviour promoted by the advertisers and network programming.
While a certain amount of media might be essential for introducing ourselves to the world outside, excessive exposure, uncontrolled access and believing without thinking will not lead us anywhere. They will only make the negative influence of media more obvious. It's not possible to insulate yourself completely from the effects of media, even if you limit the exposure, there are so many things you see around you, without even choosing to watch them. The only way to shield yourself from them, is to not allow them to influence you. Don't take media portrayals by their word, don't believe in them without thinking. Use your judgment before following or falling for anything. Put things in perspective, and don't let the media influence you of the wrong things.
Try to avoid the media overwhelming you, your thought process, actions or decisions. It can help us as a source of information but it should not control our lives, we should use the media and not live the media. It is not that all the media is bad or the media is all bad. It is correct that there are some media that are true and genuine. It varies from person to person and depends on an individual's viewpoints, background, surroundings, ethical and moral values, religious beliefs that defines as to what should be considered as good and bad on broad scale. While most of the media focuses on materialistic viewpoints only, it can be used to preach the Holy Word and to the glory of the Almighty. If your views, thoughts and decisions are firmly rooted by the Holy Word and the faith of Yahushua, then do not be afraid of being different or unacceptable among your colleagues, just because you do not agree with their materialistic or self-centered viewpoints. Now that you know about the media influence and it's impact, and that you might also have been in it's influence to more or less extent, likewise the people or your colleagues also need to be aware of media influence, and hence we should not argue with them to prove them wrong. Just try to avoid their media influenced viewpoints affect yours. Scripture sets forth the standard to which all should aspire:
Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. {Philippians 4:8}
This is the test to which all the media should be submitted. Try to apply it and you will notice a better and improved viewpoint, while the dependency to watch TV or movies will slowly disappear, and inner peace and deeper understanding will develop.
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