Just as you were about to end the day and dismiss the stresses of your lame job, your failing relationship or your ballooning debts, another re-run of the country’s shock over a government expose is dominating the television screen.
Faces of people known only to the affluent and the incessant noise barrages on the streets are reminding you that yes, you are a part of a larger group of people called a country.
You cannot help but listen to the serious-toned newscasters’ tell-tale of what really is going on. You absorb everything that you can like a sponge, sifting through what’s important and what’s junk.
You fell again to the trap that no one else had been so victorious to battle. Your life or the lack thereof is simply dependent on the powerful force of what we collectively call as ‘media’ and you know that there’s no way out.
As soon as society had found what norms to follow, media had been a constant companion. To the oldest of newspapers to the nickelodeons that once had been a mainstream craze, media and all its existing forms had helped society to become what it is today and for the years to come.
Media has always been the storyteller. You can read vicious opinions through your daily broadsheet, see the latest fashion trends in London through your television sets and hear raw commentaries through the radio.
Media is an indispensable part of our daily lives. It can make or break a single nut, depending on how media wanted it to be delivered and how society wanted it to be perceived.
In writing, showing or speaking, it can influence and poison. It can make you laugh or cry or not to feel anything at all. It’s the perfect embodiment of build and destroy.
It can unleash its effect on numerous ways possible and even before you know it, it had created an argument inside your head that you know you must contradict or believe in.
With this kind of power, media is the current times’ Pandora’s box, only difference is that it can brought about the positives and the negatives all at the same time.
Media is our very own watchdog. It unravels the latest developments about where your taxes had been channelled to. It creates exposes about the abusive lot on the seats of power and how it is being attended to.
It creates a painting of not only the good, it shows you what the canvass should really be. If the canvass is dirty, that’s what surely you’re going to see.
It is patiently waiting for the last ballots of this year’s election to be casted and extends its perseverance to safeguard all ends for a clean and unbiased election.
It exposes the trend of our economy on terms that is understandable by the majority. It translates the corporate hoo-hahs into statements that are concise and clear to even a cab driver.
It monitors what a member of your government is doing if he will be on relief operations like a doctor monitoring a patient’s heartbeat.
It makes as realize what’s socially and morally upright by showing us that society is a huge avenue that houses not only the good, but mostly the bad. It makes you think of what to do next and how your leader’s latest graft case is affecting your means of living.
Next thing you know, you are in the middle of a rally with hordes of people who shares the same opinion as you. You are shouting at the top of your voice because you wanted to be heard and to bring about the change that you wish to witness.
For the very first time, you said to yourself that you are not just an accessory to this society; you are a tool for change.
Media is your personal informant. It sets you on a different mood upon knowing that your Zodiac sign is not the lucky animal this year.
It lets you know who will play the next Cosette on the latest adaptation of Les Miserables. You will be well-informed about what businesses will be successful and the tips of keeping it profitable.
By means of patronizing the daily feeds of media, you are now a lawyer in progress as you are able to distinguish the intrinsic laws of taxation or land territories.
You will be delighted that there will be no oil price hikes for the next 2 months because the price of crude is doing pretty well in the Middle East.
Because of the information that you’ve gathered for today’s weather, you can dress appropriately and presentable and not wear your winter boots on a sunny day.
You learn how to do origami or identify architectural designs point blank because that TV show is so engaging you want to watch future episodes for further intellectual growth.
Media taps the brain. It targets the sleeping recesses of your head to be awakened so that you can function like what you’re supposed to be.
It gives you so much information that you can make use of to reach your full potential. For the very first time, you said to yourself that you are not such a waste of a man after all, you are a fountain of knowledge.
Media is your greatest debate enemy. It will let you create an opinion. It will bug you, displease you and show you that what you are doing now will result into zilch.
It shatters your thoughts and presents you with a new discourse that you never thought existed. It showcases you what’s ugly with smoking and as a smoker, you despise the idea of stopping because you don’t want to.
It enables you to form some kind of personal say about almost everything. It grips your brain until relevant thoughts come rushing out. You don’t believe the media because what it’s saying is too ideal for you to comprehend.
The shove-it-to-your-face way of presenting new things makes you shiver and all you wanted to do is cancel out awareness all together. You are a firm believer of same sex marriage, media will present you the disadvantages on bullet form.
It puts you in arguments that you never wanted to oppose but you just have to because you have your moral fibre, upbringing and personal experiences as vehicles for an acceptable strain of defence.
Media wants to fight with you and you want to fight back. For the very first time, you said to yourself that you still got the chutzpah to form an opinion, you still have a say about almost anything, and you are a believer.
Media is comfort and your go-to ally. When that comedian cracks a joke, you laugh and rolled on the floor. That comic strip, no matter how politically-inclined it’s intended to be perceived somewhat caught your attention and humour.
The senseless had worked its way to your feelings and you are being drowned with different facets of emotion. You cried over the latest news about a child surviving a terrible disease and wished that kid well.
You celebrated with the winning country on the last dragon boat bout that’s being televised worldwide. On times of trouble, public service is inevitable and it draws a flicker of hope that on every disaster, no one will be left alone.
Relief goods are pouring and you witnessed how media stations have reached unmapped barrios for help and rescue. Media isn’t just letting you know what’s happening, they are there to extend help, too.
You are not shocked as it transported medicine boxes to troubled areas and not wondering why they are in evacuation centres pouring cups and cups of porridge for the hungry typhoon victims.
You go to media if you wanted to report an abusive police officer of misuse of power. Media is an open institution. It will not pick-out who to help nor turndown people because he is poor or a minority or a lesbian.
It will offer you the help that you needed and assist you with the best of its abilities. For the very first time, you felt that you are not alone, and will never be.
A strong and effective society must have citizens that are capable of thinking. Citizens must be aware, they must have strong judgment no matter what topic it might be.
They must be able to contradict and embrace changes. They must be informed of what and what not to do. People who are motivated to correct and follow rules.
People who are not contained inside a box and must be able to carry-out a thought that is sensible and goal-driven. Media can demonstrate change, pinpoint praises, and raise people empowerment.
Media’s role in nation-building is simple, it creates and moulds and inform people to become citizens that are prudent, responsible and well-aware. Once people like these were created, a society is not only off to a promising start, the palpability of a relevant future is not impossible, too.
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