Mass media is the thing that rules the country and let alone the world. People all over the world use the media to get the information they need and want. Politics play a big role in mass media telling and getting people to get involved on a single side. 

The media has positive and negative effects. When high school counselor Ethan Knopp was asked if it had positive aspects for teens he responded with: “No, social media and some news coverage is negative in society as a whole, it hurts social skills, has caused too much comparison, and I think it just has a negative impact overall.” Knopp is aware that teens are the future of voting and politics; he has stressed his concern for them due to what the media has made itself into.

News stories and election updates are broadcasted on television and also on social media.  At this moment in time citizens are increasingly losing trust in what the media has to say, this is Knopp’s opinion; “I generally try to stay away from the news and not get too involved, I just don’t think there is any point in viewing it.” If Americans are straying away from what is supposed to help decide their vote, people cannot be sure of the accuracy in the upcoming election. 

We talked to history teacher Brennen Bader to see what his thoughts were on mass media. We first asked, Do you believe that mass media affects voting populations?. ¨Yes, everyone nowadays is on social media and therefore everyone sees everything.¨ When asking the question we wanted to know what his general thoughts were on social media and as you can tell he’s anti-social media.

 Next we asked, Do you watch news for political reasons and do you believe that’s just what news is for anymore?. He answered: ¨ No I don’t ¨watch ¨ the news anymore, I mainly look at the headlines to know what’s going on. I try not to get too involved. And to answer the last part, yes. I believe that news is always going to be pointed to favorite politics anymore¨ . 

Lastly we asked, Does being a government teacher make it hard to like mass media since we as students grew up on phones and TV?. When asked this question we never really got a straight answer he mainly was saying that he hated social/mass media. Itś only ever focused on negative aspects of things, such as politics. He does believe there are some positives to the media for sure. He thinks the media is just a way for people, especially younger generations, to hide behind screens and bash on others based on beliefs. 

The top stories in news articles or television programs are filled with shocking facts and interesting information to pull in the viewer. Jenine Bertke is a staff member at Celina High School and thinks the media is damaging; “We tend to only sensationalize the negative things and never focus on anything good, the media is harmful for people’s attitudes.” She thinks the more we focus on negative media the more pessimistic society becomes. 

Bertke also thinks social media can be misused. She thinks that miscommunication on controversial topics can cause harm; “The intended purpose of media sometimes gets lost especially with the younger generation, it’s like people can’t have an opinion without getting bashed constantly.” With that being stated, voters are beginning to not even want to voice their opinion. 

Hal Hoover is a Spanish teacher at Celina High School. He views the news daily with his students as a way to build their spanish knowledge. He responded with this after being asked about the importance of news: “News is realistic and informs us of the bigger issues in society, I think it’s important but also it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not.”

An obvious thing Americans are noticing is errors that the news media make. According to the Washington Post, “The news media can do a lot of things wrong— we sometimes trust the wrong sources, make basic factual errors, disregard important stories and perspectives, focus too much on incremental politics, stay stubbornly out of touch with our audience’s daily lives, the list is long.” If news reporters and broadcasters aren’t up to date on the lives of the viewer it makes for poor content. 

Doing some research on media and how it affects the voting polls, we found that 32% of people had a great deal with mass media and that it helps them determine what political side they want to represent. According to OpenMind BBVA, ̈The rise of new media has complicated the political media system.¨ Which brings us to our next issue: that more than 30% of Americans don’t or can’t trust the media based on what they either hear or see. It’s an all new record for how many people can´t trust mass media.  

In conclusion, websites and interviewees all agree from facts and opinions that media affects the economy. Voting and personal lives get affected by mass media by what they are hearing and seeing. So therefore, mass media is the downfall of society and affects all people.