Media, the plural of medium which looks awkward to place the plural auxiliary verb next to it, are the course of transmission. Whatever the that course is! Buses, trucks, coaches, camels, horses, whatever it may be are the course of transmission. Through them one things is transferred from one place to another. however, generally speaking hearing the word media brings forth information in mind. Newspaper, Radio, television, Cinema, internet and a hundred and one more ways through which information/ideas can be transmitted can come in the fold of media. For the man of stone-age a whistle or a shout, or making fire were the only sources of transmitting his ideas from one place to another. And then as a result of social contract of man, courts of monarchs came into existence. It was from here that the interest in the daily business of kings court gave origin to official gazette of courts daily business. Man started reading what government was doing; what it had done, and what it intended to-do. However, this communication never have remained this noble. That media have played the role of just transferring and never manipulating! With the dawn of modern nation states, when the people got the status of citizens and the governments reduced from rulers to representatives, people started asking about the role of governments which they were playing. And here started the propaganda of governments. The role of media form mere course of transmission changed to the education of people in a way the representatives have wanted people to be. This revolution in media brought about by the representatives of the people for to show whatever would please the rules and to conceal whatever would offend them. Big wars like, World War I and II were won by the propagandas of media. Like Hitler before burning himself had uttered, I wasnt defeated by the bullets of Americans but by the bulletins of BBC. And the main revolution in mass media was brought by the introduction of television in the list of communication tools. The first role it played in USA. Like, it is said that John F. Kennedy would have never become the President of American and thered have non a fit man like him to stop the world from the scourge of Atomic War between Soviet and America had there not been television and Kennedy hadnt won the debate broadcast on tv against Richard Nixon. Bringing the debate to Pakistan and especially to private media. One can guess how much one effected by media-- and especially by television and more especially private media channels. Gauging the past fifty years and the later ten years after private channels, one can find out the importance of media in shaping the public views. Like, all the previous military coups, break-up of Pakistan into two parts, and events like Pakistans now railing on Socialism, then on Islamism. All these events were as much or more important than the coup of 1999 or the emergency of Nov, 2007. The difference is the role of media. Everyone, starting from a nursery kid to the Imam of Masjid, is informed from the world-affairs. Movies, drama-serials, fashion-shows, to name it but a few, are watched. What a man wears; what he eats; what he speaks; what he sleeps-- all is but the making of media. Like, every will love to see his muscles like Salman Khan. Every girl will love to be fair like Kareena. And the list will never be finished. Name it. What not! All the role of media. The creator of modern man. The moulder of him.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 15:39:18 +0000