1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND
Society has changed; it has become more connected or as some might term it, modernised. In this modern and globalised society, people rely heavily on some sort of media coverage for almost every information they receive and what most people do not realise is that these media do not just render information but they are, in a tremendous way, part of what shape our perceptions about practically everything from social outlook, to government policies, to individual expectations and even educational achievement. Media in context, describes the magazines, billboards, blogs, websites, newspapers, textbooks, novels, comics, even flyers etc, that people read everyday, it also is the music, and radio broadcasts listened to, art exhibitions, fashion shows, movies, theatre and the most commonly used is the television. These are all mediums that disseminate information, some more subtle than others, but all have a tendency of altering the attitude of people who listen, read or view these media. Most media are relatively designed to cater to their regional audience, for example, the media in North Korea exalts the economic, social and political structure there and portrays other countries as aggressors and meddlers, while outside media portray North Korea as mischievous, evil, oppressive and as the aggressors or instigators. Most media are biased and are used to promote regional propaganda, vilifying some groups and glorifying the others that share similar goals and interests with them (Reuters, 2009).
1.2
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Media’s influence is very in-depth and when media is bias it spurs negative outcomes. Stereotyping, hatred and paranoia are negative outcomes of the bias, one-sided or slanted information rendering done by these media and extremism is also promoted by these media’s portrayals.
After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, two photographs published by Yahoo! News depicting residents making their way through chest-deep water caused an uproar relating to bias in media coverage. The first image, shot by photographer Dave Martin for the Associated Press, showed a young black man, who, according to the accompanying caption, “walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store.” In a similar shot, taken by photographer Chris Graythen for AFP/Getty Images, a white couple was shown wading "through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store. (Media Awareness Network, 2005, ¶1).
Amazing similarities can be seen from these two photographs which were not unique during the crisis, but because of the media’s continuous portrayal of African-Americans as dissidents and criminals and Caucasians as helpless law abiding citizens, the African-American boy grabbing utilities for sustenance was tagged as “looting a grocery store” and the Caucasian girl doing the same had her own actions justified by tagging it “finding bread and soda from a local grocery store”. Noticed the impression it gives you when you try find contrast between the two words used. “looting” automatically makes you vilify the young man and subconsciously categorise him as a criminal, while “finding” makes you feel compassion towards the girl who is portrayed as a victim in need of help. Statements like these continue to foster hatred, stereotyping and paranoia between the two races in this situation. As a result of this conflict fostering, the public who rely on these media for their description of truth and information are convinced that people who do not share their values as their media portrays them, are out to alienate and annihilate their ways of life and to replace with new ones. As a survival measure, in a lot of cases, they are forced into extremist actions and sometimes even terrorism as a means of self sustenance.
1.3
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
i.
How much of an influence does the manner to which a story is told affect its audience?
ii.
When media is bias, is the audience aware that their media is not being objective?
iii.
Which kind of media is most notorious for being bias?
1.4
OBJECTIVES
i.
GENERAL: To assess the media’s influence and control on the outlook of their followership/public.
ii.
SPECIFIC:
- To determine which medium/media are most influential.
- To distinguish if the public are aware of the media’s influence on their culture and perception.
- To identify which public (by demography, age etc) are most influenced and how.
- To determine to what extent media plays a role in shaping public perception.
1.5
HYPOTHESIS
It is almost impossible to be completely fair and objective in media reporting but intentional bias and slanting of information will only encourage disunity between different societies, tribes and races of mankind.
2.0
REVIEW OF LITERARTURE
Media, according to McDonald (2004), includes motion pictures, radio, television, telephone and of late, the internet. While Katz (2006) says “Very broadly, that world includes radio, internet, television, newspapers, magazines, and out door billboards.” (p. 1).
Media is the primary and secondary means of human communication and the Editorial Board of Edu Tech (2005) explains why,
Modern day communication has various mediums to convey messages. A communication medium is a means for recording and transporting a message or information. It is a channel or path for sending a message between communicators. A single channel such as radio, or a book, or the telephone is called a medium. Through the years there have been many innovative developments, viz. printing, postal services, e-mails or electronic mails, and telephone services. (p. 3)
“Influence – our ability to deal with people and build positive relationships with them. More than anything else in life, relationships make or break us.”
-
(Maxwell, 2001, p. 3)
Influence talks about an ability to affect, so it is fair to refer to influence also as effect. “Influence comes from many quarters. I have long been of the opinion that America’s most important export is its entertainment media. America’s values (or lack thereof) have been exported to countries all over the world, sometimes with devastating influence on personal and social mores” (Duncan, 2001, p. 97). “Mass media can affect knowledge, attitudes, opinions, and behaviour and the effects can be immediate or delayed. Although media effects have been studied over a long period of time, yet there is no conclusive evidence on the nature of media effects. Some scholars posit that media have effects, others contend that the effects are minimal while others say that the media have hardly any effect at all. Whatever the position that scholars might take, it is clear that the essence is on theory construction to explain the nature of media effects”, (Syed Arabi Idid & Shafizan Mohamed, 2006, p. 76).
Public perception is difficult to measure, and prior researchers, Syed Arabi Idid & Shafizan Mohamed (2006), try to put it into perspective, “Media effects could also occur within the minds, and not just seen in behaviour, attitudes and the accumulation of information. Public opinion research and political communication and their connection with media marked a new direction in studying media effects” (p. 78).
“Coercion is a process where one party forces the other party to agree with its terms.” (Marzuki et al, 2007, p. 36). Even when the media is being perceived as objective, one can argue that it is simply using subtle coercion to manipulate its audience. Lee (2002) states that agendas are set based on the environment. From the selections that physically construct the venue for a talk, to the choice of topics, guests, and the persona adopted by the talk host and structure and arrangement of his/her elicitations all have purposeful ends.
3.0
METHODOLOGY
The researcher employed 2 methods of research to gather statistical and subjective data within a span of 2 months, which the researcher used to analyse the issues and to draw on a definitive conclusion. From a mathematical and statistical perspective, a survey was done within 3 regions of the globe, spanning 4 continents; Asia (Malaysia specifically), Europe and North America (West), and Africa. A pretesting of the quantitative survey was done among 10 random samples prior to the final questionnaire being sent out to determine how viable and relevant the questions were to the topic problems and research objectives.
3.1
Samples and Sampling
The samples for the quantitative research, although random in respect to educational background, age, race and gender, were purposive in respect to their region of residence. Out of 120 samples, respondents from the 4 continents, were grouped into three regions; people who reside in North America and Europe were categorised into one group which the researcher termed the West. Africa as an entire continent was the 2nd group and Malaysia a single country made up the third group. Each of these groups provided forty random samples that anonymously participated in the research. All of these groups were put together because of the cultural and historical similarities they share. The age range from this survey was very wide, and although the multitude of samples coincidentally were in their mid-twenties (median age was 25 years), the age range covered samples from as young as 17 years old to 61 years old. The respondents were asked 10 identical questions of which the researcher has used to tabulate the research’s findings.
For the qualitative research, the researcher interviewed 3 professionals with different levels of experience and in different fields of expertise. The researcher interviewed Dr. Noel Ihebuzor, a director in the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Miss Susan Onechojo Baba, an External Relations Manager for the Home Care Category of The Procter and Gamble Company (P & G), Cincinnati, Ohio, USA and Miss Norul Hidayah Bt Mamat @ Muhammad, Psychologist and Academician from UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The interviewees were very purposive in my selection because of their unique perspectives and encounters with different levels of media and the effects it has had on them and the different institutions they represent. An analysis of the findings from these interviews is available in the Research Results chapter of this report.
3.2
RESEARCH DESIGN AND SETTING
The quantitative research was conducted entirely via the internet. Taking into consideration the scope of the research, which spanned along 4 continents, data collection could not be done individually by the researcher without making use of the internet, which connected the researcher with all 4 continents. Using an internet based survey website, 10 questions were developed and displayed on the website used called Free Online Surveys. The site also has software that automatically tabulated and charted out the information as they were individually entered in. All 120 replies were collected within 7 days of the survey’s launch. Using the website also gave the respondents privacy and the convenience to reply to the survey at their spare times.
The qualitative research which consisted of interviews with 3 professionals also spanned across continents. With 1 respondent residing in the United States and another in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the researcher was forced to use the internet again to conduct the interviews. Compiled were a series of 5 identical questions for the international professionals and the researcher maintained correspondence with them (the interviewees) during and after the interviews. A 3rd written interview was conducted with a psychologist and educationist resident in Malaysia, the location where the research is being conducted from. For this interview, the questions which were uniquely structured for the interviewee based on her field of practise were written down and handed over to her to also render her replies at her convenience. With all these interviews, continuous correspondence was maintained in case any reply needed further clarification.
The validity and reliability of the findings of this research should not come into question because despite the distance in proximity of the respondents, all the IP addresses of the respondents were recorded by the website and can be referred to, to validate the lack of duplication of responses and it is highly unethical to forge results or responses. This also being a research embarked on by a single individual, resources were limited to the researcher and if future follow-up is done, this study can help formulate a basis for the future researcher to direct his/her research and these findings can also be used as literature review.
4.0
RESEARCH RESULTS
In this segment is the results and analysis of the survey and interviews conducted on the issues and afore mentioned topic. The qualitative report displays an analysis of the interviews in reference to the research’s objectives and will analyse if it agrees or disagrees with the hypothesis as mentioned. The Quantitative report will immediately follow and in this segment you will see a question by question analysis, with necessary charts and graphs to illustrate the issue as is relevant to the study. A subsequent PowerPoint presentation of the research’s findings will be done to further reiterate the validity and reliability of the research.
4.1
QUALITATIVE – Findings and Analysis
The media’s effect is very broad and vast; it influences practically every aspect of our lives. The way we perceive our environment determines how we react to it and this includes human interactions with one another, our choices of manufactured goods and even our empathy towards charities and non-government Organisations (NGO). Dr. Noel Ihebuzor, United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) Chief of Education/Senior Project Officer, is currently serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo, agrees that communication between UNICEF and the media is an important aspect that needs to be maintained in order to achieve UNICEF’s goals. “Yes we do, and on a regular basis. We also have a media and external relations officer who interfaces between us and the external world.” And on whether it is of importance that the media UNICEF uses have to be an advocate of its cause, projects and values, he said, “Very much so. The media we relate to must have values of objectivity, multicultural sensitivity, impartiality, probity, and be of sound moral values. It is also important that they recognise and protect children’s rights.”
Miss Susan Onechojo Baba is an External Relations Manager for the Home Care Category of The Procter and Gamble Company, makers of household materials like Head & Shoulders shampoo and Pampers. She also agrees with the necessity of media interaction to promote her company’s products but differs on the approach and is not as selective of which media to use. She said . . .
Yes. I interact with the media quite frequently as I am the public relations and influencer marketing manager for my team. People look at the media (broadcast, daily print or magazine) as sources of information and are often motivated to alter their behaviours based on the recommendations or warnings that they hear/ read. In order to ensure that your brand’s messages are being consistently conveyed in controlled (advertising) and un-controlled (PR) vehicles, it is important to introduce members of the media to your brands, encourage them to have a preference for your product or service, and empower them to speak on your behalf (through their coverage of a particular story).
The way the media disseminates information can have both positive and negative impacts. Dr. Ihebuzor and Miss Baba addressed how this may affect them and the institutions they represent. Dr. Ihebuzor admits, “A few occasions of media sensationalism have been noted. This is particularly so with the local press who may have exes to grind with the humanitarian agencies. Some times too the international press has been guilty of this – but with them the driver is the sensationalist motive.” While Miss Baba does not hold the media entirely responsible for misrepresentation but believes that constant interaction is the key to an organisation’s representation,
Most of my work is around utilizing relationships with the media to strengthen consumer perception of our brands or a particular brand’s equity. Most people don’t trust TV advertising to tell them the whole truth about the products they buy, so they rely on other sources to fill the gap. For brands that understand this, the media can be an especially powerful credibility-building tool. Developing strong relationships with the media help us ensure that our brands are “top of mind” with the media when they are covering stories for which our brands can be a solution.
She further explains by stating an example when corporate social responsibility towards developing countries by Procter and Gamble in providing one million tetanus vaccines to children that was launched on the Oprah Show by Pampers celebrity spokesperson Selma Hayek helped improve the brand’s image and sales which was having some challenges relating to mothers on an emotional level and even inspired a blogger to write this on Oprah’s site.
The passion for this campaign is remarkable; Pampers employees have been donating out of pocket to the cause, and Pampers also is raffling off two trips to their employees, so that their employees can see the impact of this partnership on the ground. Pampers also has donated scores of vaccines to the effort. During Selma Hayek’s spot on Oprah they donated 1,000 vaccines to UNICEF in honor of each audience member, and 1,000,000 vaccines in honor of Oprah. And Pampers concluded our meeting by informing us that they also are donating 1,000 vaccines to UNICEF in honor of each of us bloggers.
While different organisations like UNICEF and Procter and Gamble all have positive and negative media experiences, their relationships with the media is also different. The product manufacturers like Procter and Gamble need the media’s support in order to promote their products, while organisations like UNICEF are less dependant on the media and it is actually the other way around in some cases. Any media perceived to give support to selfless organisations like UNICEF, promotes the public’s own perception of them. This can be seen in different respects of actions, interpretations and approaches that both interviewees would take in a case where their organisations or causes are misrepresented by the media. “It depends. If the misrepresentation is minor in consequence, you ignore. If it addresses core fundamental issues, then we put out a message where we try to provide dispassionate responses to the issues raised so that the reader has a more balanced perspective on issues”, said Dr. Ihebuzor on the possibility of misinterpretation. Miss Baba had this to say on the same issue,
My job is essentially to ensure that media doesn’t misrepresent our brands. I do this by working closely with my agency teams to develop strong relationships with influential reporters in important media markets and by very closely managing the messages that we share with all external stakeholders. At the end of the day, reports/ producers/ editors have the final say on what to cover and in what way, but it’s a lot easier to control the way in which your brand is portrayed if reporters know where to go to verify their stories and trust that you will give them the facts.
An interview with Miss Norul Hidayah Bt Mamat @ Muhammad, Psychologist and Academician from UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, confirms the hypothesis and answers some of the questions that linger from a psychologists’ perspective.
Information from media can be dispensed without having a bias, provided that the channels operate based on simple rules such as reporting only the truth, nothing but the truth, with justice and honesty. Information dispelled may harm and divide the societies, especially when it is done purposely to form, nurture, and inculcate bias perception towards certain issues, for example, politics etc. As to why people are easily influenced by their local or familiar media, the situation might be due to several reasons. There is the “Cultural Factor” where information might be revised to suit society culturally prior to being dispensed and there is also the “Closeness or Proximity”, where being in various situations again and again creates closure, that is to say that whenever a situation occurs and it is portrayed by the media to be a certain way or caused by a certain thing, as long as it continues to occur people will believe that what was first given as a cause or reason for the event in the first place is the real reason why it continues to reoccur; and there is “Peoples’ Need”, when information is tailored towards what the people want to know, and not what they should know. All these possible factors might also contribute to the difficulty in separating logical from illogical news.
Despite the three similar, but different views towards the media by these professionals, they all agree on the relevance of the media and its overwhelming power to influence public perception and also admit to being influenced on different levels by their media of choice,
“I am also influenced by these factors of the media if you base it on my initial statements, but not always because when a lot of information gained from various channels on the same issue is condensed, you get a wider perspective.”
- Miss Norul Muhammad.
It’s difficult to spend your entire work day trying to influence the media and still keep faith in its accuracy, but I must admit that I am still affected by the media. The media is not just some external entity, separate from and unrelated to me. It is a representation of me – of all of us. My biggest gripe is that, with so much industry consolidation, the quality of news is on a steep decline and every media outlet seems to recycle the same 5 stories. I realize that the media is a great way to get information, but I also know that I would be doing myself a sever disservice by not looking beyond the traditional media outlets for my news, entertainment, and information. I’ve become more diligent about supplementing my news with obscure publications like the Atlantic and underground news radio like Democracy Now. They’re not perfect either, but they at least give me a different perspective that eventually helps me piece together my world more completely.
- Miss Baba
“Sure, media informs, educate, entertain and communicate (IEEC) and in doing this IEEC function, all media seeks to influence. The good media are the ones that achieve this in very insidious manners. All media have an ideology and an agenda.”
- Dr. Ihebuzor
With different opinions on the information being dispersed by the media and different reactions, the conflict of perception might not be of media dissemination but rather of human cultural interpretation,
It’s always difficult to distil something as important and complex as human communication into a few categories of importance. Then it’s even more demanding to discuss the barriers to effective communication in a simple, rapid-fire fashion that is easy to read and implement. It’s my belief that you will be able to improve the communication you participate in to such an extent that it will actually change your life. (Hogan & Stubbs, 2003, p. 11)
According to the extract, communication between humans is too complex to simplify into categories and hindrances to good communication are even more complicated in nature but also in their opinion, improved communication between us can be life changing. The media which has its primary function as a communication tool, in this context is a life altering facility and therefore should be used positively.
4.2
QUANTITATIVE – Statistical Description of Findings and Analysis
The survey conducted, highlights different variables that will support or contradict some of the assumptions of the hypothesis of this research. The survey took place within 7 days (July 13 – 19, 2009) and was conducted through an internet based survey site called Free Online Surveys. Below are the findings and analysis of the questions with charts to support and explaining the relevance of each question.
The 1st question is simply age. In a bid to know the range of majority internet users by their ages (where the survey was conducted), the researcher enquired of the ages of the respondents.
1)
Age
Average: 25.68
Range: 17<=>61
Median: 25
Total Responses: 120
________________________________________
The 2nd question shows the amount of respondents/samples used based on their regions of residence at the time of the survey.
2)
Please chose the region you live in
Percentage
Responses
West (Europe & Americas)
33.3
40
Africa
33.3
40
East (Malaysia)
33.3
40
Total responses:
120
________________________________________
The 3rd question measures the users of the most popular mediums of communication and preferred media. In the introduction, the researcher presumed that the television is the most preferred medium of information but based on this survey the internet is. The researcher discusses a little more on this and its perceivable implications in the summary.
3)
What is your preferred information medium? Rank your preference from 1 (most preferred) to 4 (least preferred)
Average Score
Responses
Television
2.13 / 4
120
Radio
3.04 / 4
120
Internet
1.87 / 4
120
Newspaper
2.96 / 4
120
2.96 / 4
INTERNET
The above chart shows responses from respondents on the internet being their preferred media and as you can see 49.17% of all the participants picked the internet as their preferred medium. That is the highest percentage of all the mediums offered and only 10.83% said it is their least preferred.
TELEVISION
This chart above shows the response to television and it comes in 2nd with 31.67% as its most preferred media and very close to the internet with only 11.67% as least preferred.
NEWSPAPER
Another surprising result is that newspapers are preferred to radio. Both are very close in figures but newspaper was able to edge out radio to be the 3rd preferred media.
RADIO
The least is the radio, with only 7.5% preference and 39.17% selected it as least preferred, a lot can be inferred of the public’s choice of media. The internet which is according to this survey the most preferred medium, is also the hardest to edit, authenticate and control. The news on the internet is a lot of times “fabricated” (Davies, 2008 ¶ 9) and with the rising trend of internet use, unfiltered information will be put out and some of them are harmful. (Note that since the survey was done using the internet, it is possible that the internet might not be the most preferred medium but rather that of the samples used)
________________________________________
The 4th question asked the participants if they felt that the media has a role in impacting the perception of the public. This question was to help to determine if the general public believes that the media has any influence on its followers.
4)
Media coverage is essential to help mold the audiences' perception.
Percentage
Responses
Yes
85.8
103
No
14.2
17
Total responses:
120
The above chart shows that 85% of those sampled believe and agree that the media is essential in helping mold their audience’s perception. This can also imply that most people hold the media responsible if public perception is bias.
________________________________________
Question 5 asks the respondents to identify their favourite television source for news. This question was designed to identify by the most popular channels which TV media have been able to create a reputation as being objective in its reporting and which one is perceived as bias.
5)
What TV station(s) do you watch to get your news?
Percentage
Responses
Local TV station
16.3
41
E! News
13.5
34
CNN
32.3
81
BBC
21.1
53
Al Jazeera
7.2
18
I don't watch TV
3.6
9
Other
6.0
15
From the above chart CNN and BBC (C and D), both of which are Western media, come 1st and 2nd respectively and they are closely followed by the local TV stations. This suggest that most people are either more interested in the West’s interpretation of news or most people believe the news from the West to be more objective, because as the research will prove later on, based on this survey, people will choose a medium based on their perception of that media objectivity in reporting information. At the same time, local media scores high because of the proximity issue, people tend to relate to what is closest to them, both geographically and culturally.
________________________________________
The 6th question is related to question 5, and based on our prior definitions of media; films, music, theatre and other forms of entertainment are as influential a medium as broadcast and transcribed news. This question enquires of the samples their levels of awareness or agreement of the influencing power of these media.
6)
Movies, music and other entertainment are used as instruments to shape their audiences' values.
Percentage
Responses
Agree
42.5
51
Sometimes
52.5
63
Disagree
5.0
6
Total responses:
120
The graph above simply illustrates the result based on the responses. Majority of the respondents selected option B (Sometimes) while the next high response agreed (option A) and only 6 participants, a mere 5% of the samples disagreed (option C). This can be taken to be an admission by most people to have been influenced at some point by their choice of entertainment media.
________________________________________
In this question, the researcher is trying to gauge the samples’ impression of media. If the majority say ‘Yes’ it sends a signal of distrust and scepticism towards some media’s representation of some issues and information regarding regions other than theirs and ‘No’ implies trust by the samples of the information that comes from their regional media.
7)
Media reporting is always slanted to be bias towards it's region of coverage and audience
Percentage
Responses
Yes
82.5
99
No
17.5
21
Total responses:
120
82.5% of the respondents are of the impression that regional media is not always objective towards issues outside that region as the chart clearly displays. As a result of this awareness information gotten from local or regional media especially about issues relating to other regions should not be taken completely at face value.
________________________________________
Another factor to take into consideration is that of age and environment of nurture. Issues are presumably perceived differently by different people and two major influences of this are supposedly their ages and the environments in which they live or grew up. Question 8 investigates on whether the respondents agree with the notion.
8)
Age and nurture (environment) affect the interpretation of information gotten through the media
Percentage
Responses
I agree
55.8
67
Sometimes
40.8
49
I disagree
3.3
4
Total responses:
120
Out of all the samples of 120 from a multitude of environments and age groups only 4 disagreed with the notion. A negligible 3.3% do not think age and nurture is of relevance in the digestion of received information.
________________________________________
The 9th question is prying into the value attached by people to objectivity in their media’s information rendering. It asks the respondents of the consequences they themselves would impose on an unethical medium or media outlet upon awareness of the misrepresentation of information.
9)
What would you do if you discovered that your favourite medium/media gives you false or bias information?
Percentage
Responses
Continue to use that service
1.7
2
Continue to use that service but with scepticism
53.3
64
Just stop using that service
18.3
22
Stop using that service and discourage others from using it too
26.7
32
Total responses:
120
Majority of the respondents said they would continue to patronise those media but with scepticism, while another negligible 1.7% chose to ignore it and continue to use the same media with no consequence attached. The 2nd highest response is 26.7%, who said they would not only stop using those media but also discourage others from using them too. This just goes to show that people expect ethical behaviour from their media of choice.
________________________________________
As it is established from all the results, people believe that there are situations where media is biased, so it is only logically to investigate what or who influences these media to become bias and this will help determine the agendas behind their lack of objectivity.
10)
Bias media is mostly influenced by . . .
Percentage
Responses
Organisations
15.0
18
Governments
61.7
74
Populace/audience/stakeholders
23.3
28
Total responses:
120
Of the dominant options known to influence media, the research categorised them into only 3 groups, governments, organisations that invest or own these media and the general populace of the media’s audience who in most cases can be termed as stakeholders too. The majority chose as the number 1 influence, governments with 61.67% of the votes, 2nd but far behind is the populace with 23.3% and the last on opinion of media influence are organisations with just 15%.
A tabulation of the research categorised into variables is available in the appendix for more cross referencing.
5.0
SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION
This research has been able address and investigate its general and specific objectives of assessing the media’s influence and control on the outlook of its followership, it has also been successful in determining which media is most influential, distinguishing that the general public is aware of the media’s influence on their culture and perceptions, and measuring the extent of the role played by the media in shaping public perception. Based on the data collected, the research was unable to identify which public, whether by demography or age is most influenced, but was able to confirm that such an influence is believed to exist. A more detailed explanation is expressed in the interpretation of findings below.
5.1
INTERPRETATION OF FINDINGS
Beginning with what the research was unable to accomplish; the research was designed to cover 3 different regions and to take into account the various ages of the respondents and although both challenges were adequately met, there was no distinguishable contrast in the responses from any region or age group. All the results based on region and age group were not outrageously different and therefore negligible in comparing or contrasting; however, the results from the same group of samples show in question 8 that the samples agree that there is an age and environment disparity in interpretation of information.
In the Background chapter of this report, the television was mentioned to be the most used media tool but based on the quantitative survey embarked on for this research, the television falls one category below the internet. This does not affect the outcome or hypothesis of the research but rather strengthens the argument. Noting the assumption is that intentional bias and slanting of information by media will encourage disunity between different societies, tribes and races of mankind, if the internet which is harder to control edit and is not as concerned by the ethical guidelines that are practised by other major media outlets like TV, radio and newspapers, more fabricated or uncertified information will literary be a click away from its users. Also keeping in mind that this survey was done by internet users and in some cases that voids the credibility of the answers to question 3.
On the other issues, questions 4 and 6 iterate that the public are highly influenced by their media of choice or resolve. The agreement that both the current affairs and general information media and the entertainment media being tools used to mould audiences’ perceptions and values by users of these media is evidence of the existence of media influence and those same questions combined with questions 9 and 10, tell of the publics’ awareness of these influences but not without caution. The research was also able to determine which media is most influential and although the internet scored as most used, for its ethical concerns, most people still trust broadcast media. Among the broadcasts media, Western media scored most and particularly CNN; followed by BBC and then the local channels, and it is fair to assume that based on the results of question 9 that people will most likely trust a medium they deem the most ethical and objective to get their information from. On determining to what extent media plays a role in shaping its’ public perception, all the answers to the survey indicate a major role is being played but the public is now aware of this and question 7’s answers suggest that the media is gradually being vilified as being bias as result of this awareness.
Dr. Ihebuzor and Miss Baba shared insightful contrasts of approaches and perceptions of the media and their roles to societies and organisations while Miss Norul Muhammad gave a convergence of reasons and roles by both the media and its’ public as to why the media is so influential and why the populace will continue to be influenced. With the growing awareness of the media’s potential to alter perception, the media itself has no option but to practise objectivity because the modern day public has become a critical public.
5.2
LIMITATIONS
•
Reluctance in getting timely feedback from respondents, especially those contacted via e-mail.
•
Inability to do a ground survey in Europe, North America and Africa at this time may have compromised my results on the question of the most preferred medium.
5.3
SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
For future research on the same issue, I will advise that unless the researcher has a means of collecting data from outside his/her research location other than the internet, the researcher reduce the scope to one country or location.
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