The Role of the Media in the Society
The media plays an important role in our societies. It is responsible for informing and educating the public on a wide array of issues. In the discharging the above roles, the media influences the way we think and shapes our opinions on various issues to some extent. In this paper, the role of the media in shaping the public opinion on a group of people will be examined. In particular, the focus will be on an article on adolescents. According to this article, an eighteen year old girl died after overconsumption of alcohol during her birthday. The paper will seek to examine how the ABC News explored the consumption of alcohol by the teenagers.
The article appeared in ABC News on 23rd May, 2015. It was written by Charlotte Hamlyn and it was featured in the first pages of the paper. It had a captivating heading which read, “Nicole Bicknell inquest; Perth teen wanted to drink 18 shots of alcohol on her birthday.” Although the headline of this article was captivating and may have attracted higher sales, it, on the other hand depicted the adolescents as being naïve on alcohol matters. The readers, upon catching a glimpse of the headline may have wondered whether teenagers are aware of dangers posed by excessive alcohol consumption. According to the writer of this article, Nicole is said to have invited her friends to a barbeque in her mother’s house. She is reported to have told her friends that she wanted to drink 18 shots of alcohol to mark her birthday. She is said to have indulged in a drinking spree; consuming different brands of alcohol and spirits that had very high levels of alcohol content.
Charlotte employs different persuasive devices in the article in order to reinforce her message. An example is the use of different statistics at different instances. The author has made reference to a research by Curtin University that was conducted to determine the number of teens who consume alcohol by stating the findings in percentage form based on different ages. These are used to reinforce the message such that it does not appear to be a baseless argument. There are visuals used in the article such as the photo of the bottle for the Polmos Spirytus Rektyfikowany liquor that led to the death of Bicknell, her photo and that of his boyfriend. The main effects of such visuals is to create a long lasting memory in the reader.
Alcohol affects our society negatively in most instances. However, there are those who will try to justify their addiction to alcohol as one way through which they manage their stress. However, this is wrong since there are better ways of handling stress such as joining a recreation group that you always interact and spend time with after work. The representation of teenagers in this article is in a bad taste. They have painted a picture to show how they indulge in alcohol consumption even at a tender age. Introducing alcohol into one’s body at a young age interferes with its natural development. In my view, the writer followed the expected code of ethics in this writing. There is no use of foul language anywhere in the article, hence making it unquestionable.
To conclude, the media is an important player in informing the society. It is through the media that we get to know things that are taking place around us, far and wide. Through this article, which is part of the media, most people will be educated on the harmful effects of too much alcohol intake. It has also prompted us to undertake further research to determine how the society perceives the issue of alcohol addiction. The media is therefore a greater player in shaping our society through what it publishes.