Media Institutions Responsibilities Essay

WHAT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF LARGE MEDIA INSTITUTIONS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE?

With the ever-growing use of social and visual media around the globe, there are bound to be problems that come from this. From the second that we are exposed to media, we take in a lot of information that could be potentially harmful or influential to us. There’s a load of ways in which the media are responsible for the safety of its users as it needs to make sure it filters out inappropriate content which could lead to abuse, body shaming and even radicalisation.

One of the increasing issues for teenagers in modern society is cyber bullying whilst using social media. This is becoming more of a problem due to the larger usage of it around teenagers, scarily starting from single digit ages. Media institutions are now obliged to censor their sites or apps as people are using them as a platform for sending abuse or hateful messages from one to another. They can do this by adding specific features such as blocking and even way in which users can stop potentially rude and hurtful comments being added to their posts. These features mean that users are able to use the apps or pages without the worry of being put down by others, and I believe that these features are a major and necessary step forward for social media.

In addition this, another major responsibility that the media have to uphold is protecting users from radicalisation. Similarly to online bullying this has becoming increasingly more common as radical groups and movements are using the media as a way of contacting and recruiting people. With an extremely large portion of people around the world with quick and easy access to the media, radical group have the opportunity to easily target anyone. As a way of preventing this companies are looking into potentially influential groups and pages, inspecting wether or not they can be dangerous for users. If these pages are dangerous the companies can simply close them down.

Alternatively, another part of media that has a large responsibility is fashion and magazine as they could be a potential platform for unrealistic body and beauty standards. All though the fashion and magazine industry has been around for many years, it has only become a recently been deemed an issue as people are able to voice their opinions through the media. With most front covers of magazines and other forms of media featuring a thin, ‘perfect’ looking model, it has set a pretty high standard that many teenager and children try to reach. Doing such creates a stigma for people to believe they are not beautiful in there own bodies and it sometimes leads to eating disorders, body shaming, and even self-harm. Luckily, with social media giving people a voice, there are many movements that are encouraging certain fashion brands to use normal sized models instead of stick-thin models, providing a way around readers or viewers feeling self-conscious about their bodies. Additionally celebrities and advocates for the company brands are using the media as a way of protesting body shaming and a way of promoting that people should love themselves. I personally think that media institutions are starting to take this concept on board as there has been a noticeable difference in who they chose to advertise.