The document discusses how media influences people's behavior. It argues that watching movies and TV shows can influence viewers by making them feel like they are part of the story and take on the emotions of characters. This lingering effect of media consumption may cause behavioral changes. Examples are given of children emulating violent acts from action movies and learning deceit from cartoons. The document also provides examples of teens committing suicide or crimes imitating things they saw in media. It concludes that media is largely responsible for influencing people negatively by failing to distinguish fantasy from reality and feeding minds with violence and controversial issues, which can lead to misbehavior against others.

1. The influence of media
The influence of media is growing stronger and stronger as time passes. Because of
this, the competition among producers and advertisers gets tougher as they try to
come up with new ways to catch people’s attention through their newspapers,
magazines, movies, shows, and commercials. If you have noticed, the speed at
which news travels around the world has become faster with the development and
advancement in technology. Everything is evolving depending on the demand of
people. Media indeed can influence people in different ways but the pressing
question is this: how does the media influence the way people behave?
Watching movies and programs on the television as we relax takes us away into this
different realm—that is, there are parts in our being that feels we are the ones in the
movie and sometimes we even feel what they are feeling as we get caught in the
emotional excitement. The effect of media does not stop when the movie or program
ends. And this lingering effect might just be the cause of behavioral changes in
people.
With action films, children tend to emulate the movie hero, engaging him to violent
acts thinking that it is acceptable because his hero became successful in the end.
With cartoon programs, not everything is good-natured. There are those that show
subtle acts of violence and deceitful acts against others (some even more vulgar). In
return, children tend to copy the characters and think that deceiving other people is a
way to confront their problems. They learn to transfer these ill behaviors to friends.
There are some television shows and movies that attempt to create an atmosphere to
change the view of people towards social issues such as racial discrimination. These
shows provoke criticism and tend to mislead the picture of reality. In the minds of
other people, the effect can be for the better, but some unfortunately for the worse.
There had been instances in the past that teens commit suicide imitating her favorite
actress. There was also a case where somebody set a subway ticket booth on fire
just like the way he saw it in his favorite film. There are rape cases, too, that had
been imitated from different movies. These are just some examples of the disturbing
influence of media on people’s behavior.
An explanation to these sinful acts is that these people could not distinguish fantasy
from reality. They get caught up in the realm of what they had been watching and the
images and scenes get embedded in their minds. What makes these people pull
these images and scenes from the recesses of their minds and turn them into reality
is a psychological case.
So to answer the pressing question earlier, does the media influence the way people
behave? Yes, it does. If we analyze fully and look at things in a bigger picture, the

2. media is largely responsible for inculcating the minds of people with false notions and
morbid imageries. They feed the minds of innocent young people with violence and
other disturbing issues. They inform people on how to do acts that are deemed
controversial to the society.
These lead to misbehavior against other people, which can create a vicious cycle
among individuals as they attempt to do the same or even worse things to others.