Media and interpersonal communication; till what extend is it accomplished? Certainly, media’s power to affect cannot be understated when it comes to an existing research arena.

1. Fiza Zia Ul Hannan

2.  “I really cannot maintain that the media has no power
and that their impact is nonexistent. It is all too obvious
that media have some power and that their influence
on society cannot be denied.”
 “I agree that media are powerful sometimes and to
some extent. Just when they are and to what degree
they are questions crying out for more research. At
present we know very little about media power.”
– (Referral: Merrill in Media Debates: Issues in Mass
Communication, p. 85 & 87)

3. ACTUAL POWER / ENGAGING THE DISENGAGED

4. ACTUAL POWER / ENGAGING THE DISENGAGED
 Mass Media communicates through a gatekeeping function, which means they
affect or control the information that is transmitted to their audiences. Overall,
the mass media serves four gatekeeping functions: relaying, limiting,
expanding, and reinterpreting (Bittner, 1996).
 Relaying refers to the gatekeeping function of transmitting a message, which
usually requires technology and equipment that the media outlet controls and
has access to, but we do not.

5. ACTUAL POWER / ENGAGING THE DISENGAGED

6. ACTUAL POWER / ENGAGING THE DISENGAGED
 “I think that we are not influenced by the media because we all have a
brain and we can all think for ourselves. Also we all follow the media if they
said to jump of a bridge would we follow. So I don't think that we follow the
media in any way.” - Anonymous
 “Media tries to fire a bullet of information into our minds but whether it is correct
or not, the decision depends on us. All the statements given by media are
not exact every time. So what is justified or not it's our brain which decides so
by observing the facts and realities. So I would say media tries to influence us
every time but its our own opinion which allow us to follow the media whether it
should be followed or not. People belong from different cast, community,
sex, age etc. so they consist a different opinion about the certain things
and they are in different need respectively so not all the time media
influences the Mind of the human.” - Anonymous

7. ACTUAL POWER / ENGAGING THE DISENGAGED
 “The media will become whatever the people/users want it to become. If
the media was designed to indoctrinate the people it will not allow most
material to make it the internet, it will become what we want it to be!!!!” -
jjtallent2001
 “It is normal for the media to have some sort of control in this modern era,
because it is all around us. However, now more than ever, it is important to
realize the effect the media might be having on you, and try to maintain an
unbiased mindset to form your own opinions. When you are listening to a
message brought to you by mass media, it is important to be aware that
not everything you might be told is the truth, and be able to form your
own opinions on the matter, so as not to give the media more power as
the digital age continues.” – (Referral: Mollie Henry in The Daily Illini,
Pro/Con: Does the media have too much influence on public opinion?, 2016)

8. ACTUAL POWER / ENGAGING THE DISENGAGED
 “The media isn't always right and the young adult population doesn't
realize this. Once more people realize the flaws in media it will become harder
to influence the masses.” – (Referral: Does the media have too much influence
on the young adult population?, 2014)

9. Hypodermic Needle/Bullet/Bombarding Theory
 The theory suggested that messages from media are powerful and influential,
which audiences could not resist.
 This is not in acceptance to *active audience any longer. It was a deductive
approach.
______________________________________________________________
*The demassification of audience has led to consuming preferences and choices. With the arrival of new
technologies and increased market segmentation, the power and influence of these "second wave media"
(as they are called), progressively diminished worldwide during the latter part of the 20th century. Also,
Facebook’s hide notification option, as well as liking and disliking certain pages.

10.  The author is on equal terms with his co-author that media’s power to affect
cannot be understated when it comes to an **existing research arena.
 Specific consideration can be given to Paul Lazarfeld’s study by validating
the presence of several social forces amid living sphere. The crux of his
study was the least impacting power any communicating medium could
have.
 This is the same when it comes to Agenda Setting - a concept given by
Max McComb and Donald Shawl - that media is not determined to control a
reasoning ability within cognitive frames. Instead it yields what to think
about instead of.
________________________________________________________________
**Noelle Neumann and DE Fleur are fair by saying that media impacts have been researched upon
precise scales and no study has been conducted in real world (non-experimental). But it is not
possible to study media impacts by excluding other external factors in social sciences.

11.  An emphasis lies more with audience perception and not with media, solely.
There’s always a psychological attribute for content consumption.
 The lock and mobility paradigm – (Referral: Media Debates: Issues in Mass
Communication, p.86)
 We can also relate here that it was infact a psychological response given by
residents of New Jersey upon hearing The War of the Worlds’ broadcast by
George Orson Welles and media did not have anything to do with it.

12.  One of the major objectives of my MS research study was to investigate that whether
exposure to televised content related to the APSACs Peshawar massacre had any
correlation with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among children viewers or
not.
 The analysis depicted values of eta-squared as (.019) and the calculated level of
significance as (p = .439), those of which suggested that the relationship was
insignificant and not in the hypothesized direction. Hence, media was not stated
responsible for terrorizing school-going children within the selected sample
population.

13. “Traditional Media is in direct dependence upon New Media.”
2017 Faizabad sit-in
 PEMRA had put all channels off-air as a strategy of operation against sit-in
protestors.
 The social media was accessed through proxy sites.

14.  APSACs Peshawar massacre & terrorists’ death penalty
 The murder of Qandeel Baloch & rise of honor killing penalty law
 Minor Zainab’s murder case

15. The Arab Spring Movement
 Tunisia: A 26 years old man sat himself to fire in protest of a refusal by
local police to earn livelihood. The protest resulted into (past: president)
Ali’s exile.
 Protests and uprisings as a result of Arab Spring had been taking place in
Arab world including Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen etc.

16.  http://www.debate.org/opinions/does-the-media-have-too-much-power
 http://www.debate.org/opinions/does-the-media-influence-us
 https://dailyillini.com/opinions/2016/01/21/procon-does-the-media-have-too-much-influence-on-
public-opinion/
 https://www.wattpad.com/41154755-does-the-media-have-too-much-influence-on-the
 (Functions and Theories of Mass Communication, Communication in the Real World: An
Introduction to Communication Studies, Open Libraries Publishing)
 Griffin, E., A First Look at Communication Theory, 7th ed. (Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2009),
352–53.
 Self, C. C., Edward L. Gaylord, and Thelma Gaylord, “The Evolution of Mass Communication
Theory in the 20th Century,” The Romanian Review of Journalism and Communication 6, no. 3
(2009): 29.
 McQuail, D., McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory, 6th ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage,
2010), 457.
 http://npr.org