media and development essay

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• Published: 21 February 2018

Media use and brain development during adolescence

• Eveline A. Crone 1 &
• Elly A. Konijn 2  

Nature Communications volume  9 , Article number:  588 ( 2018 ) Cite this article

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• Cognitive neuroscience

The current generation of adolescents grows up in a media-saturated world. However, it is unclear how media influences the maturational trajectories of brain regions involved in social interactions. Here we review the neural development in adolescence and show how neuroscience can provide a deeper understanding of developmental sensitivities related to adolescents’ media use. We argue that adolescents are highly sensitive to acceptance and rejection through social media, and that their heightened emotional sensitivity and protracted development of reflective processing and cognitive control may make them specifically reactive to emotion-arousing media. This review illustrates how neuroscience may help understand the mutual influence of media and peers on adolescents’ well-being and opinion formation.

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Introduction.

Media play a tremendously important role in the lives of today’s youth, who grow up with tablets and smartphones, and do not remember a time before the internet, and are hence called ‘digital natives’ 1 , 2 . The current generation of the adolescents lives in a media-saturated world, where media is used not only for entertainment purposes, such as listening to music or watching movies, but is also used increasingly for communicating with peers via WhatsApp, Instagram, SnapChat, Facebook, etc. Taken together, these media-related activities comprise roughly 6–9 h of an American youth’s day, excluding home- and schoolwork ( https://www.commonsensemedia.org/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-tweens-and-teens-infographic ) 3 , 4 . Social media enable people to share information, ideas or opinions, messages, images and videos. Today, all kinds of media formats are constantly available through portable mobile devices such as smartphones and have become an integrated part of adolescents’ social life 5 .

Adolescence, which is defined as the transition period between childhood and adulthood (approximately ages 10–22 years, although age bins differ between cultures), is a developmental stage in which parental influence decreases and peers become more important 6 . Being accepted or rejected by peers is highly salient in adolescence, also there is a strong need to fit into the peer group and they are highly influenced by their peers 7 . Therefore, it is imperative that we understand how adolescents process media content and peers’ feedback provided on such platforms. Adolescents’ social lives in particular seem to occur for a large part through smartphones that are filled with friends with whom they are constantly connected (cf. “A day not wired is a day not lived” 5 , 8 ). This is where they monitor their peer status, check peers’ feedback, rejection and acceptance messages, and encounter peers as (idealized) images 9 on screens 5 , 8 , 10 . Likely, this plays an important role in adolescent development, and we therefore focus primarily on adolescents’ social media use 11 . Most media research to date is based on correlational and self-report data, and would be strengthened by integrating experimental paradigms and more objectively assessed behavioral, emotional, and neural consequences of experimentally induced media use.

Recently, cognitive neuroscience studies have used structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how the adolescent brain changes over the course of the adolescent years 6 . The results of several studies demonstrate that cognitive and socio-affective development in adolescence is accompanied by extensive changes in the structure and function of the adolescent brain 6 . Structurally, white matter connections increase, allowing for more successful communication between different areas of the brain 12 . The maturation of these connections is related to behavioral control, for example, connections between the prefrontal cortex and the subcortical striatum mediate age-related improvements in the ability to wait for a reward 13 . In addition to these changes in white matter connections, neurons in the brain grow in number between conception and childhood, with greatest synaptic density in early childhood. This increase in synaptic density co-occurs with synaptic pruning, and pruning rates increase in adolescence, resulting in a decrease in synaptic density in late childhood and adolescence 14 . Structural MRI research revealed that the peak in grey matter volume probably occurs before the age of 10 years, but dynamic non-linear changes in grey matter volume continue over the whole period of adolescence, and the timing is region-specific 15 . Interestingly, changes in grey matter volume are observed most extensively in brain regions that are important for social understanding and communication such as the medial prefrontal cortex, superior temporal cortex and temporal parietal junction 16 . Figure  1 displays the extensive changes in the human cortex during adolescence.

Longitudinal changes in brain structure across adolescence (ages 8–30). a Consistent patterns of change across four independent longitudinal samples (391 participants, 852 scans), with increases in cerebral white matter volume and decreases in cortical grey matter volume (adapted from Mills et al., 2016, NeuroImage 105 ). b Of the two main components of cortical volume, surface area and thickness, thinning across ages 8 to 25 years is the main contributor to volume reduction across adolescence, here displayed in the Braintime sample (209 participants, 418 scans). Displayed are regional differences in annual percentage change (APC) across the whole brain, the more the color changes in the direction of green to blue, the larger the annual decrease in volume (adapted from Tamnes et al., 2017, J Neuroscience 15 )

Given that brain regions involved in many social aspects of life are undergoing such extensive changes during adolescence, it is likely that social influences—which also occur through the use of social media as the internet connects adolescents to many people at once—are particularly potent at this age in coalescence with their media use. Also, subcortical brain regions undergo pronounced changes during adolescence 17 . There is evidence that the density of grey matter volume in the amygdala, a structure associated with emotional processing, is related to larger offline social networks 18 , as well as larger online social networks 19 , 20 . This suggests an important interplay between actual social experiences, both offline and online, and brain development.

This review brings together research on media use among adolescents with neural development during adolescence. We will specifically focus on the following three aspects of media exposure of interest to adolescent development 21 : (1) social acceptance or rejection, (2) peer influence on self-image and self-perception, and (3) the role of emotions in media use. Finally, we discuss new perspectives on how the interplay between media exposure and sensitive periods in brain development may make some individuals more susceptible to the consequences of media use than others.

Being accepted or rejected online

Experiencing acceptance or rejection when communicating via digital media is an impactful social experience. Extensive research, including large meta-analyses, has demonstrated that social rejection in a computerized environment can be experienced similarly as face-to-face rejection and bullying, although the prevalence of cyberbullying is generally lower 22 , 23 (and studies vary widely: prevalence rates depend on how cyberbullying is defined and measured). In all, cyberbullying peaks during adolescence 24 and large overlap has been found between victims and bullies. In part, this overlap could be explained by victimized adolescents seeking exposure to antisocial and risk behavior media content 25 . The next subsections will describe recent discoveries in neuroscience on the neural responses to online rejection and acceptance.

Neural responses to online social rejection

The emotional and neural effects of being socially excluded have been well captured by research involving the Cyberball Paradigm 26 ( https://cyberball.wikispaces.com/ ). Cyberball is a virtual ball-toss game in which the study participant tosses a ball with two simulated players (so-called confederates) via a screen. After a round of fair play, the confederates, who only throw the ball to each other, exclude the participant in the rejection condition. This results in pronounced negative effects on the participants’ feeling to belong, ostracism, sense of control, and self-esteem 26 . Even though the paradigm was not designed to study online rejection as it occurs today on social media, the findings of prior Cyberball studies may provide an important starting point for understanding the processes involved in online rejection. In fact, inspired by Cyberball, a Social Media Ostracism paradigm has recently been developed by applying a Facebook format to study the effects of online social exclusion 27 .

Using functional MRI (fMRI), researchers have observed increased activity in the orbitofrontal cortex and insula after participants experienced exclusion, possibly signaling increased arousal and negative affect 28 . In addition, stronger activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is observed in adolescents and young adults with a history of being socially excluded 29 , maltreated 30 , or insecure attachment, whereas spending more time with friends reduced ACC response in adolescents to social exclusion 31 . This may possibly protect adolescents against the negative influence of ostracism or cyberbullying, although all these studies are correlational. Therefore, it remains to be determined whether environment influences brain development or vice versa. Moreover, ACC and insula activity have also been explained as signaling a highly significant event because the same regions are also active when participants experience inclusion 32 . Furthermore, studies with adolescents observed specific activity in the ventral striatum 33 , and in the subgenual ACC when adolescents were excluded in the online Cyberball computer game 34 , 35 , the latter region is often implicated in depression 36 . Thus, being rejected was associated with activity in brain regions that are also activated when experiencing salient emotions 37 , 38 . These studies may indicate a specific window of sensitivity to social rejection in adolescence, which may be associated with the enhanced activity of striatum and subgenual ACC in adolescence 33 , 36 .

Social rejection has also been studied using task paradigms that mirror online communication more specifically. In the social judgment paradigm, participants enter a chat room, where others can judge their profile pictures based on first impression 39 . This can result in being rejected or accepted by others in a way that is directly comparable to social media environments where individuals connect based on first impression (for example,’liking’ on Instagram). A developmental behavioral study (participants between 10 and 23 years) showed that young adults expected to be accepted more than adolescents. Moreover, these adults, relative to adolescents, adjusted their evaluations of others more based on whether others accepted or rejected them, possibly indicating self-protecting biases 40 (Fig.  2 ). Neuroimaging studies revealed that, being rejected based only on one’s profile pictures resulted in increased activity in the medial frontal cortex, in both adults 41 and children 42 , and studies in adolescents showed enhanced pupil dilation, a response to greater cognitive load and emotional intensity, to rejection 43 .

Adolescents’ expectations and adjustments of being liked and liking others. Social evaluation study in which participants between ages 10 and 23 years rated other peers on whether they liked the other person, whether they believed the other would like them, and a post scan rating of liking the other person after having received acceptance or rejection feedback from the other person. The faces used in this adaptation of figure are cartoon approximations of the original stimuli used in ref. 40 ; to see the original stimuli, please refer to ref. 40 . The left graph shows that adolescents expect least to be liked by the other before receiving feedback (question B). The right graph shows a developmental increase in distinguishing between liking and disliking based on feedback from the other person (question D). (Adapted with permission from Rodman, 2017, PNAS 40 )

Taken together, these studies suggest that adolescents show stronger rejection expectation than adults, and subgenual ACC and medial frontal cortex are critically involved when processing online exclusion or rejection. In the next section, we describe how the brain of adolescents and adults respond to receiving positive feedback and likes from others.

Neural responses to online social acceptance

The positive feeling of social acceptance online is endorsed through the receipt of likes, one’s cool ratio (i.e., followers > following; Business Insider, 11 June 2014: http://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-cool-ratio-2014–6?international=true&r=US&IR=T .) or popularity, positive comments and hashtags, among other forms of reward 44 , 45 . Neuropsychological research showed that being accepted evokes activation in similar brain regions, as when receiving other rewards such as money or pleasant tastes 38 . Most pronounced activity was found in the ventral striatum, together with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral tegmental area, which is consistently reported as a key region in the brain for the subjective experience of pleasure and reward 46 , including social rewards 47 . Likewise, being socially accepted through likes in the chat room task resulted in increased activity in the ventral striatum in children 42 , adolescents 48 , 49 and adults 41 , 50 . This response is blunted in adolescents who experience depression 36 , or who have experienced a history of maternal negative affect 51 . Apparently, prior social experiences—such as parental relations—are an important factor for understanding which adolescents are more sensitive to the impact of social media 51 . In this regard, media research showed that popularity moderates depression 10 and that attachment styles and loneliness increases the likelihood to seek socio-affective bonding with media figures 52 .

Interestingly, several studies and meta-analyses using gambling and reward paradigms have reported that activity in the ventral striatum to monetary rewards peaks in mid-adolescence 53 , 54 , 55 (Fig.  3 ; see Box  1 for views on adolescent risk taking in various contexts). These findings may suggest general reward sensitivity in adolescence such that reward centers that respond to monetary reward may also show increased sensitivity to social reward in adolescence. Social reward sensitivity may be a strong reinforcer in social media use. A prior study in adults showed that activity in the ventral striatum in response to an increase in one’s reputation, but not wealth, predicted frequency of Facebook use 56 . In a similar vein, adolescents showed sensitivity to “likes” of peers on social media 44 , 57 . In a controlled experimental study, adolescents showed more activity in the ventral striatum when viewing images with many vs. few likes, and this activation was stronger for older adolescents and college students compared to younger adolescents 57 . Thus, the same region that is active when being liked on the basis of first impression of a profile picture 48 , is also activated when viewing images that are liked by others, especially in mid-to-late adolescence, possibly extending into adulthood 57 (see also ref. 58 for similar findings on music preference). These findings suggest that heightened reward sensitivity in mid-adolescence that was previously observed for monetary rewards 53 may also be present for social rewards such as likes on Instagram. However, further research is needed to examine whether this is a specific sensitivity in early, mid or late adolescence, or perhaps this social reward sensitivity emerges in adolescence and remains in adulthood.

Longitudinal neural developmental pattern of reward activity in adolescence. Longitudinal two-wave neural developmental pattern of nucleus accumbens activation during winning vs. losing, based on 249, and 238 participants who were included on the first and second time point, respectively (leading to 487 included brain scans in total). A quadratic pattern of brain activity was observed in the nucleus accumbens for the contrast winning > losing money in a gambling task, with highest reward activity in mid-adolescence. (Adapted with permission from Braams et al. 55 )

Online peer influence

In addition to adolescents’ sensitivity to the feeling of belonging to the peer group 59 , the peer group also has a strong influence on opinions and decision-making 60 . Peers can exert a strong influence on adolescents through user-generated content on social media 5 , 61 . Co-viewing, sharing, and discussing media content with peers is common practice among adolescents in line with their developmental stage in which peers become more important than others. For example, adolescent girls often share pictures and comment on the “ideal” degree of slimness of the models they see via media when deciding how a ‘normal’ body should actually look 62 , 63 . Several recent neuroimaging studies, summarized below, have examined how the adolescent brain responds to peer comments about others and self, and subsequent behavioral adjustments and opinion changes. Even though not all of these designs were specific for online environments, the findings provide important starting points for understanding how adolescents are influenced by peer feedback in an online environment.

Neural responses to online peer feedback

Neuroimaging studies in adolescents showed that peer feedback indeed influences adolescents’ behavior. Neural correlates may provide more insight in the specific parts of the feedback that drives these behavioral sensitivities 64 . One way this is demonstrated is by having individuals rate certain products such as music preference or facial attractiveness. After their initial rating, participants received feedback from others, which was either congruent or incongruent with their initial rating. Afterwards, individuals made their ratings again, and the researchers analyzed whether behavior changed in the direction of the peer feedback. Indeed, both adults and adolescents adjusted their behavior towards the group norm 58 , 64 , demonstrating general sensitivity to peer influence. Furthermore, when receiving peer feedback that did not match their own initial rating, participants showed enhanced activity in the ACC and insula, two regions involved in detecting norm violations 58 , 65 . More specifically, increased ACC activity was associated with more adjustment to fit peer feedback norms in adolescents 58 .

Peer feedback effects are not only found for how individuals rate products, but also can strongly influence how they view themselves. Girls are especially sensitive to pressure for media’s thin-body ideal, and peer feedback supporting this ideal is associated with more body dissatisfaction 62 , 63 . We recently showed that norm-deviating feedback on ideal body images resulted in activity in the ACC-insula network in young females (18–19-years), which was stronger for females with lower self-esteem 66 (Fig.  4 ). Interestingly, the girls also adjusted their ratings on what they believed was a normal or too-thin looking body in the direction of the group norm. Together, these findings suggest that peer feedback through social media can influence the way adolescents look at themselves and others.

The Body Image Paradigm to study combined media and peer influence. This paradigm is designed for experiments to study the influence of peers on body image perception. a Participants are presented with a bikini model, and they can make a judgment whether the model is too thin or of normal weight. Their response appears on the left side of the model. Then, they are presented with ostensible peer feedback (the peer norm). b When this feedback deviates from their own judgment, this is associated with increased activity in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and bilateral insula, regions often implicated in processing norm violations. c Responses are larger for participants with lower self-esteem (Adapted from Van der Meulen et al. 66 )

Neural responses to prosocial peer feedback

Interestingly, however, we also found that peer feedback can influence social behavior in a prosocial direction, for example, by having peers positively evaluate prosocial behavior that benefits the group. Neuroimaging studies of social cognition have demonstrated that thinking about other peoples’ intentions or feelings is associated with activity in a network of regions, including medial prefrontal cortex, the superior temporal sulcus and the temporal parietal junction, also referred to as the social brain network 67 . In an online peer influence study, adolescents could donate money to the group, which would benefit not only themselves but also others. Prior to the study, the participants met the other participants (confederate peers) that were not part of the group that was dividing the money. These peers, however, gave online feedback through likes on the participants’ choices. More likes were given when participants donated more to the group. This feedback was followed by higher donations 68 , and was associated with enhanced activation in the social brain network, such as the medial frontal cortex, temporal parietal junction and superior temporal sulcus 69 . Notably, the change in social brain activity in the peer feedback condition was more pronounced for younger adolescents (ages 12–13-years) compared to mid-adolescents (15–16-years) 69 . Together, these studies suggest that early adolescence may be an especially sensitive period for social media influences in risk-perception 60 as well as prosocial directions 69 . These findings fit well with Blakemore and Mills’ 6 suggestion that, adolescence may be a sensitive period for social reorientation and social brain development, although results vary regarding whether sensitive periods are more pronounced in early or mid-adolescence. Understanding the specific sensitive windows may be important to target future interventions. Therefore, future research is needed to examine whether this is a specific sensitivity in early-to-mid-adolescence, or whether and how social reward sensitivity remains in adulthood.

Precedence of emotions and impulsivity

A third factor that affects how adolescents process (social) media relates to the intense emotional experiences that usually accompany adolescence 70 . Emotional needs may guide adolescents’ media use and processing; for example, feeling lonely may ease the path to connect to a media figure or to rely on social media for one’s social interaction 52 , 71 , 72 . Furthermore, being engaged in media fare may evoke strong emotional reactions, such as when playing violent video games or when experiencing online rejection 73 , 74 . Adolescents in particular appear to be guided by their emotions in how they use and process media 5 . For example, the degree of anger and frustration experienced by early-to-mid adolescent victims of bullying was associated with increased exposure to media fare portraying antisocial, norm-crossing and risk-taking behaviors over time, making these youngsters more likely to become bullies themselves 25 . Another study showed that anger instigated a more lenient moral tolerance of antisocial media content in early adolescents but not in young adults 74 . Furthermore, adolescent victims of bullying who regulated their anger through maladaptive strategies (e.g., other-blame, rumination) showed higher levels of cyberbullying themselves 25 .

Neural responses related to retaliation and emotion regulation

Neuroscience studies can potentially provide more insight in the moral leniency following adolescents’ anger. Neuroscience research on adolescent development has shown that the development of the prefrontal cortex, an important region for emotion regulation, matures until early adulthood 15 , 75 . A better understanding of the interactions between brain regions that show direct responses to emotional content, and brain regions that help to regulate these responses can possibly elucidate how adolescents regulate their behavior related to media-based interactions.

Several studies examined this question by focusing on anger following rejection. Rejected-based anger often leads to retaliatory actions. Several paradigms have also shown that adolescents are more aggressive after being rejected online. For example, they gave longer noise blasts and shared less of their resources with people who previously rejected them in an online environment 41 , 73 , 76 . More activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) after rejection was associated with less subsequent aggression 41 and more giving 76 , possibly indicating that increased activity in the DLPFC helps individuals to control their anger following rejection. Other research showed changes in neural coupling when young men played violent video games 77 . Thus, social rejection can evoke anger, but some adolescents may be better at regulating these emotions than others. Adolescents who regulate these emotions better show stronger activity in DLPFC, a region known to be involved in self-control 41 , 75 .

Applying adaptive emotion regulation strategies (e.g., putting into perspective, refocusing, reappraisal) possibly requires enhanced demands on DLPFC 78 . Possibly, the late maturation of the DLPFC, together with heightened emotional reactivity, may make adolescents more likely to be influenced by media content. For example, research showed that emotional experiences biased participants’ perception of media footage: despite being told beforehand that the footage contained fiction-based materials, they attributed significantly higher levels of realism to it under conditions of emotional arousal than in a neutral state 79 . Subsequently, participants attributed more information value to the fiction-based footage up to similar levels as to the reality-based clip.

One possible direction to better understand how adolescents deal with emotional media content is by examining parallel processes. It is likely that engaging in media is associated with multiple processes 79 such as the fast processing of emotions associated with engagement, sensation-seeking and emotional responses to media content, as well as more reflective and relatively slower processes, such as perspective taking and emotion regulation 80 . We interpret such parallel processing as coordinated networks of an inter-related imbalance between heightened emotional responsivity and protracted development of reflective processing and cognitive control 75 . For example, adolescents show a peak in neural responsivity to emotional faces in the ventral striatum and anterior insula, compared to children and adults 81 , 82 . In addition, adolescents show protracted development of social brain regions implicated in perspective taking 6 , 83 , and flexible engagement of lateral prefrontal cortex, possibly depending on personal goals 84 . When media encounters are emotionally gripping, such parallel processing may explain why people may take (fake) information from media as real—‘it just feels real’ 79 . The emotional response seems to blur the borders between fact and fake; the instantaneous response based on emotional or accompanying sensory feedback apparently takes (momentary) control precedence over cognitive reflection and biases subsequent information processing 79 . These findings may perhaps also explain how social reality can be perceived in accordance to how the world is represented in emotion-arousing, sensationalist or populist media messages, even when it concerns so-called “fake news”. In all, these suggestions call for further empirical testing, specifically also comparing adolescents and adults, in which the pattern of brain changes is combined with behavioral research and opinion formation.

Another intriguing question for future research is whether regulation or control of media-generated emotions can be trained. It was previously found that training of executive functions is associated with increased activity in DLPFC 85 , but it remains an open question whether activity in DLPFC can be influenced by (aggression) regulation training and behavioral control, and whether this results in changes in the functional and structural properties of the brain. If such training were possible, video games and immersive virtual environments might provide even more useful training environments. In this respect, promising projects are ongoing, testing the use of biofeedback videogames to help youth cope with stress and anxiety and identify physiological markers, and patterns of emotion regulation 86 . Game interventions are also developed to help children to cope effectively with anxiety-inducing situations 87 . These enrichment and training programs may also be useful to test specific media sensitivities by controlling the amount of media exposure. Such designs will have important benefits over studies examining correlations between naturally occurring behaviors and developmental outcomes, which often do not allow for control of other variables such as temperament or environmental changes.

Taken together, individuals differ in how they respond to media content, especially when these evoke emotional responses or are evaluated in an emotion-aroused state. There are only preliminary studies available that link these individual differences to brain development, but possibly the regulating role of DLPFC is important to control emotional responses to rejection, fake news, violent video games, or appealing ideals. These are all questions that need to be addressed in future research, but are highly relevant given the developmental stage and time adolescents engage with these prevalent forms of media.

Outlook for future studies

We described research in three directions that we believe are crucial in understanding how the omnipresent use of (social) media among today’s adolescents may influence them, through the following: (1) social rejection and acceptance, (2) peer influence on opinions of self and others, and (3) emotion precedence in media use and effects. We have provided a first overview of how neuroscience research may aid in a better understanding of these influences in a mediated context. However, study results appear to vary regarding the specific adolescent age ranges; sometimes effects seem specific for early- or mid-adolescents, while in other studies adolescents and (young) adults do not differ and the indicated age ranges also vary widely (e.g., for some, ‘late adolescence’ is between 13 and 17 years old, whereas in other reports, 17–25 years of age is referred to as ‘late’, see also ref. 88 ). Most adolescent samples are relatively older, whereas early adolescents (aged 10–15) are understudied and seem of particular interest in regards of sensitivity in these three areas. Therefore, further research is needed to align specific age ranges to developmental stages.

Current media technology opens possibilities to understand sensitivities to media and peers in adolescence. For example, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram provide excellent environments to study combined with media content and peers’ feedback in adolescence 27 , 89 . Moreover, such social media platforms introduced so-called user-generated content 90 and options to present and express oneself in media environments have increased tremendously, thereby increasing media’s social functions. Taking the ethical aspects of performing social media research into account, as it can impinge on users’ privacy, social media devices also provide great opportunities to understand how media exposure affects day-to-day fluctuations in mood and self-esteem.

A critical question that remains largely unanswered is how adolescents’ abundant media use may impact them developmentally in terms of structural brain development, functional brain development, and related behavior. The scientific evidence thus far is still scarce and results are mixed 91 , 92 . For example, digital-screen time and mental well-being appear to be best described by quadratic functions with moderate use not intrinsically harmful 93 . Several recent studies have shown that habitual use is associated with a reduced ability to delay gratification 94 , but can also have positive consequences such as increased ability to flexibly switch between tasks 95 and feeling socially connected 96 . Adolescents who spend more time on their mobile devices may engage less in ‘real’ offline social interactions and the consequences of these communication changes are not yet well understood. Perhaps, consequences differ among those who experience their online interactions as similar to their offline interactions, or as separate worlds. Important moderators and mediators should also be taken into account to understand how online communication is processed. Finally, being constantly online also affects sleep patterns, which impacts mood as well 97 . In all, the majority of these studies are based on self-reported new media use and outcomes. Integrating both experimental methods and neuroscientific insights may advance our understanding of who is susceptible under which circumstances to which effects, positive or negative.

In this review, we described the emerging body of research focused on how new media use is processed by the still developing adolescent brain. In particular, we highlighted the neural systems that are associated with behaviors that are important for social media use, including social reward processing, emotion-based processing, regulation, and mentalizing about others 98 . As these neural systems are still underdeveloped and undergoing significant changes during adolescence, they may contribute to sensitivity to online rejection, acceptance, peer influence, and emotion-loaded interactions in media-environments. In future research, it will be important to understand these processes better, especially the specific developmental sensitivities, as well as to understand which adolescents are more and less susceptible for beneficial or undesirable media influences.

The review of the literature suggests that peer sensitivities are possibly larger in adolescents than in older age groups. Peer influence effects have been well demonstrated in adolescent decision-making research, showing that adolescents take more risks in the presence of peers and when peers stimulate risk-taking 99 . This seems to hold similarly for peer influence online through online comments, also with less risky behaviors 62 . These findings have been interpreted to suggest that adolescents have a strong need to follow norms of their peer group and show in-group adherence 100 . There is a strong need for studies that experimentally test whether increased influence of peers, possibly through developing social brain regions, combined with strong sensitivity to acceptance and rejection, makes adolescence a tipping point in development for how social media can influence their self-concept and expectations of self and others. It is likely that these sensitivities are not related to one process specifically, but the combination of developmental brain networks and associated behaviors 75 , 84 . A critical question for future research is how neural correlates observed in this review predict future behavior or emotional responses in adolescents.

Social media have at least the following two important functions: (i) socially connect with others (the need to belong) and (ii) manage the impression individuals make on others (reputation building, impression management, and online self-presentation) 98 . The emerging trajectory of acceptance sensitivity, peer ‘obedience’, and emotion precedence may make adolescents specifically susceptible to sensationalist and fake news, unrealistic self-expectations, or regulating emotions through adverse use of media. Important questions for future research relate to unraveling whether adolescents are more sensitive to these news items than children and adults, who is most sensitive to which kind of media influence, how (one-sided) media use may influence adolescent development over time, and understand not only the risks but also how media provides opportunities for positive development, such as engaging with friends, forming new peer relations, and experiment with uncertainties or overcoming fears. Studying the interplay between media use and sensitive periods in brain development will provide important directions for understanding how media may impact youth and who is most vulnerable and under which conditions. Key questions for future research are to understand whether recent changes in media usage, delivery, dosage, and levels of engagement (e.g., as more active creators and participants, for example) are leading to different or amplified neural responses in adolescents relative to adults. Using longitudinal research, it will be important to test whether there is evidence that the still developing adolescent brain is more sensitive to, or more likely to be shaped by these changing patterns of media usage. 1

Box 1 Multiple perspectives on adolescent risk-taking

Adolescence is often defined as a period of increased risk taking and sensation-seeking, this is observed across cultures 101 and across species 102 . However, the way risk-taking is expressed differs across generations. In middle ages, risk-taking in adolescence took place through reckless fights and wars. In contrast, in the late 20th century and early 21st century, adolescents were more prone towards risk-taking in context of alcohol, sex, and drug experimentation 103 . Recently, through social media, new forms of risk-taking are expressed, such as excessive or unlimited self-disclosure or sexting 104 . These observations suggest that social media may be the new way in which sensation-seeking behavior is expressed, which is possibly an adolescent-specific tendency to explore and learn to adapt to new social environments.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the reviewers for their detailed and insightful comments on the manuscript, and Lara Wierenga for providing helpful comments on previous versions of the manuscript. This work was supported by The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO-VICI 453-14-001 E.A.C.) and by an innovative ideas grant of the European Research Council (ERC CoG PROSOCIAL 681632 to E.A.C.). Both authors were supported by the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS: September 2013–September 2014).

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13.6 Globalization of Media

Learning objectives.

• Identify three ways that technology has helped speed globalization.
• Explain how media outlets employ globalization to their advantage.
• Describe some advances that can be made in foreign markets.

The media industry is, in many ways, perfect for globalization, or the spread of global trade without regard for traditional political borders. As discussed above, the low marginal costs of media mean that reaching a wider market creates much larger profit margins for media companies. Because information is not a physical good, shipping costs are generally inconsequential. Finally, the global reach of media allows it to be relevant in many different countries.

However, some have argued that media is actually a partial cause of globalization, rather than just another globalized industry. Media is largely a cultural product , and the transfer of such a product is likely to have an influence on the recipient’s culture. Increasingly, technology has also been propelling globalization. Technology allows for quick communication, fast and coordinated transport, and efficient mass marketing, all of which have allowed globalization—especially globalized media—to take hold.

Globalized Culture, Globalized Markets

Much globalized media content comes from the West, particularly from the United States. Driven by advertising, U.S. culture and media have a strong consumerist bent (meaning that the ever-increasing consumption of goods is encouraged as an economic virtue), thereby possibly causing foreign cultures to increasingly develop consumerist ideals. Therefore, the globalization of media could not only provide content to a foreign country, but may also create demand for U.S. products. Some believe that this will “contribute to a one-way transmission of ideas and values that result in the displacement of indigenous cultures (Santos, 2001).”

Globalization as a world economic trend generally refers to the lowering of economic trade borders, but it has much to do with culture as well. Just as transfer of industry and technology often encourages outside influence through the influx of foreign money into the economy, the transfer of culture opens up these same markets. As globalization takes hold and a particular community becomes more like the United States economically, this community may also come to adopt and personalize U.S. cultural values. The outcome of this spread can be homogenization (the local culture becomes more like the culture of the United States) or heterogenization (aspects of U.S. culture come to exist alongside local culture, causing the culture to become more diverse), or even both, depending on the specific situation (Rantanen, 2005).

Making sense of this range of possibilities can be difficult, but it helps to realize that a mix of many different factors is involved. Because of cultural differences, globalization of media follows a model unlike that of the globalization of other products. On the most basic level, much of media is language and culture based and, as such, does not necessarily translate well to foreign countries. Thus, media globalization often occurs on a more structural level, following broader “ways of organizing and creating media (Mirza, 2009).” In this sense, a media company can have many different culturally specific brands and still maintain an economically globalized corporate structure.

Vertical Integration and Globalization

Because globalization has as much to do with the corporate structure of a media company as with the products that a media company produces, vertical integration in multinational media companies becomes a necessary aspect of studying globalized media. Many large media companies practice vertical integration: Newspaper chains take care of their own reporting, printing, and distribution; television companies control their own production and broadcasting; and even small film studios often have parent companies that handle international distribution.

A media company often benefits greatly from vertical integration and globalization. Because of the proliferation of U.S. culture abroad, media outlets are able to use many of the same distribution structures with few changes. Because media rely on the speedy ability to react to current events and trends, a vertically integrated company can do all of this in a globalized rather than a localized marketplace; different branches of the company are readily able to handle different markets. Further, production values for single-country distribution are basically the same as those for multiple countries, so vertical integration allows, for example, a single film studio to make higher-budget movies than it may otherwise be able to produce without a distribution company that has as a global reach.

Foreign Markets and Titanic

Figure 13.5

The movie Titanic , which became the highest-grossing movie of all time, made twice as much internationally as it did domestically.

Scott Smith – Best In Film: American Film Institute Showcase – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Worth considering is the reciprocal influence of foreign culture on American culture. Certainly, American culture is increasingly exported around the world thanks to globalization, and many U.S. media outlets count strongly on their ability to sell their product in foreign markets. But what Americans consider their own culture has in fact been tailored to the tastes not only of U.S. citizens but also to those of worldwide audiences. The profit potential of foreign markets is enormous: If a movie does well abroad, for example, it might make up for a weak stateside showing, and may even drive interest in the movie in the United States.

One prime example of this phenomenon of global culture and marketing is James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic . One of the most expensive movies ever produced up to that point, with an official budget of around $200 million, Titanic was not anticipated to perform particularly well at the U.S. box office. Rather, predictions of foreign box-office receipts allowed the movie to be made. Of the total box-office receipts of Titanic , only about one-third came from the domestic market. Although Titanic became the highest-grossing film up to that point, it grossed just $140 million more domestically than Star Wars did 20 years earlier (Box Office Mojo). The difference was in the foreign market. While Star Wars made about the same amount—$300 million—in both the domestic and foreign markets, Titanic grossed $1.2 billion in foreign box-office receipts. In all, the movie came close to hitting the $2 billion mark, and now sits in the No. 2 position behind Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster, Avatar .

One reason that U.S. studios can make these kinds of arrangements is their well-developed ties with the worldwide movie industry. Hollywood studios have agreements with theaters all over the world to show their films. By contrast, the foreign market for French films is not nearly as established, as the industry tends to be partially subsidized by the French government. Theaters showing Hollywood studio films in France funnel portions of their box-office receipts to fund French films. However, Hollywood has lobbied the World Trade Organization—a largely pro-globalization group that pushes for fewer market restrictions—to rule that this French subsidy is an unfair restriction on trade (Terrill, 1999).

In many ways, globalization presents legitimate concerns about the endangerment of indigenous culture. Yet simple concerns over the transfer of culture are not the only or even the biggest worries caused by the spread of American culture and values.

Key Takeaways

• Technology allows for quick communication, transport, and mass marketing, greatly contributing to a globalized marketplace.
• Media economies of scale achieve much larger profit margins by using digital technology to sell information instantly over a global market.
• Foreign markets offer excellent profit potential as they contribute to media companies’ economies of scale. The addition of new audiences and consumer markets may help a company build a global following in the long run.

Think of a U.S. product that is available throughout the world, such as an athletic brand like Nike or a food product like Pepsi or Coca-Cola. Now go online to the different country-specific branches of the company’s web site.

• What differences are there?
• How might the company be attempting to tailor its globalized product to a specific culture?
• What advances into the foreign market does this use of the Internet allow the company to make?
• What advantages does this globalization of its products give the company?
• In what other ways has technology helped speed this globalization?

Box Office Mojo, “All Time Domestic Box Office Results,” http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic.htm .

Mirza, Jan. “Globalization of Media: Key Issues and Dimensions,” European Journal of Scientific Research 29, no. 1 (2009): 66–75.

Rantanen, Terhi. The Media and Globalization (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2005).

Santos, Josefina M. C. “Globalisation and Tradition: Paradoxes in Philippine Television and Culture,” Media Development , no. 3 (2001): 43–48.

Terrill, Roman. “Globalization in the 1990s,” University of Iowa Center for International Finance and Development , 1999, http://www.uiowa.edu/ifdebook/ebook2/contents/part3-I.shtml#B .

Understanding Media and Culture Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Your Article Library

Mass media: role of mass media in development.

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This article provides information about the role of mass media in development:

The significance of communication for human life cannot be overestimated. This is true because beyond the physical requirements of food and shelter man needs to communicate with his/her fellow human beings. This urge for communication is a primal one and in our contemporary civilisation a necessity for survival.

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That is to say without communication no society can exist, much less develop and survive. For the existence as well as the organisation of every society communication is a fundamental and vital process. A free press is not a luxury.

It is at the core of equitable development. The media can expose corruption. They can keep a check on public policy by throwing a spotlight on government action. They let people voice diverse opinions on governance and reform, and help build public consensus to bring about change. Such media help markets work better. They can facilitate trade, transmitting ideas and innovation across boundaries.

The media are also important for human, development, bringing health and education information to remote villages in countries from Uganda to Nicaragua. But as experience has shown, the independence of the media can be fragile and easily compromised. It is clear that to support development, media need the right environment in terms of freedoms, capacities, and checks and balances.

The World Development Report 2002, “Building Institutions for Markets” devoted a article to the role of the media in development. This volume is an extension of that work. It discusses how media affects development outcomes under different circumstances and presents evidence on what policy environment is needed to enable the media to support economic and political markets and to provide a voice for the disenfranchised. To this end, it draws together the views of academics as well as perspectives from those on the front line-journalists themselves.

The success of agricultural development programmes in developing countries largely depends on the nature and extent of use of mass media in mobilisation of people for development. The planners in developing countries realise that the development of agriculture could be hastened with the effective use of mass media. Radio, Television has been acclaimed to be the most effective media for diffusing the scientific knowledge to the masses.

In a country like India, where literacy level is low, the choice of communication media is of vital importance. In this regard the television and radio are significant, as they transfer modern agricultural technology to literate and illiterate farmers alike even in interior areas, within short time. In India farm and home broadcast with agricultural thrust were introduced in 1966, to enlighten farmers on the use of various technologies to boost agricultural development.

At present, there are about 50 such radio units all over the country. With the main stream of Indian population engaged actively in agriculture, television could serve as a suitable medium of dissemination of farm information and latest technical know – how. The farmers can easily understand the operations, technology and instruction through television.

Among the several mass media, newspaper and farm magazine are commonly used. They have a vital role to play in the communication of agricultural information among the literate farmers. Increasing rate of literacy in the country offers new promises and prospects for utilising print medium as a means of mass communication. The print media widened the scope of communication. It is cheap and people can afford to buy and read them at their convenience.

It is a permanent medium in that the message are imprinted permanently with high storage value which makes them suitable for reference and research. Agricultural journalism is of recent origin in India. It came into existence just five decades ago. It is now gaining importance, particularly after the establishment of agricultural university in India technical information needs to be provided to the farmers at the right time and in the right way, so that the productivity can be increased.

In the view of increase in literacy level to 52.11 per cent during 1991, print media has acquired a greater role in dissemination of information on improved agricultural practices to the farming community and also to inform the public in general. India has farm magazines in every state, published mostly in local languages. Agricultural department also encourages the publishing of such farm magazines particularly through farmers association.

The coverage of different subject matter by radio, television, newspaper and farm magazine are almost similar with regard to agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, agricultural marketing, agricultural engineering and cooperatives. In this paper, an attempt is made to deal about the importance of radio, television, newspaper and farm magazines and their effect in the field of agriculture through sound communication.

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• Internet: Essay on Internet as a Mass media
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Understanding How Digital Media Affects Child Development

Technology and digital media have become ubiquitous parts of our daily lives. Screen time among children and adolescents was high before COVID-19 emerged, and it has further risen during the pandemic, thanks in part to the lack of in-person interactions.  

In this increasingly digital world, we must strive to better understand how technology and media affect development, health outcomes, and interpersonal relationships. In fact, the fiscal year 2023 federal budget sets aside no less than $15 million within NICHD’s appropriation to investigate the effects of technology use and media consumption on infant, child, and adolescent development.

Parents may not closely oversee their children’s media use, especially as children gain independence. However, many scientific studies of child and adolescent media use have relied on parents’ recollections of how much time the children spent in front of a screen. By using software embedded within mobile devices to calculate children’s actual use, NICHD-supported researchers found that parent reports were inaccurate more often than they were on target. A little more than one-third of parents in the study underestimated their children’s usage, and nearly the same proportion overestimated it. With a recent grant award from NICHD, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine plan to overcome the limitation of relying on parental reports by using a novel technology to objectively monitor preschool-age children’s digital media use. They ultimately aim to identify the short- and long-term influences of technology and digital media use on children’s executive functioning, sleep patterns, and weight. This is one of three multi-project program grants awarded in response to NICHD’s recent funding opportunity announcement inviting proposals to examine how digital media exposure and use impact developmental trajectories and health outcomes in early childhood or adolescence. Another grant supports research to characterize the context, content, and use of digital media among children ages 1 to 8 years and to examine associations with the development of emotional regulation and social competence. A third research program seeks to better characterize the complex relationships between social media content, behaviors, brain activity, health, and well-being during adolescence.

I look forward to the findings from these ongoing projects and other studies that promise to inform guidance for technology and media use among children and adolescents. Additionally, the set-aside funding for the current fiscal year will allow us to further expand research in this area. These efforts will help us advance toward our aspirational goal to discover how technology exposure and media use affect developmental trajectories, health outcomes, and parent-child interactions.

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Media and Communication for Gender and Development

All development issues have gender implications. Such implications occur in both public and private sphere. Much of the writing on gender and development has not addressed communication issues directly, while those in the communication sector have often examined communication in narrower contexts: for example, how communication strategies might be used to address issues that have a direct impact on women (i.e. health), how message design processes might include women’s participation, and so on (Einsiedel 1996). Many studies in the 1980s, some focusing on communication issues, documented women’s continued marginalisation and deteriorating status as a result of development. Anecdotes abound of unsuccessful projects whose planners have failed to consult with women and hence worsened their situation in the process (Steeves 2000). Although it still remains debatable whether the objectives of some gender and media development interventions are always attainable (Kamal 2007), this paper seeks to highlight that communication can in reality be an invaluable tool in raising awareness of and ultimately challenging gendered power structures. What needs to be recognised are the limitations that media can have when employed as a merely technical channel of communication. In order to utilise the media at their full potential, their use needs to be effectively incorporated within the planning of development interventions. This requires an examination of gender communication patterns within a community and an investigation of the issues that can be successfully tackled through media projects. Through an overview of the debate around gender and communication, and the presentation of case studies that offer examples and insights on media interventions in the context of gender, this paper shows the different impact that media can have on the social construction of gender.

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Annabelle Sreberny

This paper explores the interrelations of globalisation, communication, and democratisation, particularly in relation to gender equality and empowerment. It provides a historical analysis of the development of global women's networks, especially in the substantive areas of media and communications technologies, and the politics of their process and their achievements. It examines the convergences in media and communications technologies, and hence the continuities and changes in analytic foci, between the 1995 Beijing Summit on Women and the 2005 World Summit on the Information Society. Also explored are the gender politics and the range of gender-related issues that emerged through the WSIS process, especially the growing centrality of ICTS for development but also the limits of a solely technologistic approach. The paper argues that a gender lens can provide a holistic analysis of global issues, which include the democratisation of communication, the communication of democracy, and the emancipation of the world's women.

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Mobilizing communication globally: for what and for whom? This question motivated this special issue of Nordicom Review (with open access via their website), grounded in a concern over the future of communication for development as a field of theorization and research tightly linked to practice the world over. Against this background, for this special issue we invited critical contributions that would address the relationship between communication, development and social change beyond so-called “success stories”. We called for papers attentive to the potential of communication and media interventions to provoke unexpected outcomes, at times harmful or unfair, and alert to the fact that “caution must be exercised in the adoption of social diagnoses based on specific, very narrowly conceived empirical constraints, and subsequent prescriptions” (Cabrera 2010: 156). In the context of increasing inequalities in both developing and developed countries (Wilkinson and Pickett 2010), for whom and for what to mobilize communication remains an open question. We propose that this question should be at the heart of future efforts to theorise and research in what ways and under which conditions communication might contribute to equitable development and social justice.

Global Media Journal - Indian Edition University of Calcutta

This paper aims to study the inter-relationship between Feminist thought and development communication. The second point of study in the complex structure of support these two different disciplines receiving in varieties form in mass media. Conclusion of the study is based on content theorization of two national dailies Milap and Nai Duniya. The content study deals with six months’ editions. Contents of advertisements are not included in the data pool. Contents of newspaper were residualzed accordingly to the feminist perspective. Here, feminist approaches represents both physical and psychological state of emancipation, empowerment and on the other hand humiliation too. Thus present study will purely conclude according to the above said facts and relationship between these two different disciplines that feminism and development communication.

Valentina Baú , Tait Brimacombe

In June 2017, a group of researchers from Australian universities and practitioners from different not-for-profit organisations came together to share knowledge and experience in the study and practice of Communication for Development (C4D). This Roundtable was organised as a side-event to the RDI (Research for Development Impact) Network Conference, held at the University of Sydney on 13th-14th June. The aim was to strengthen the value of C4D research and practice by facilitating connections between practitioners and researchers on C4D-related research projects. The focus of this Roundtable was to review and discuss the different uses of the media in ‘communicating for development’. This specific area of C4D is also known as ‘media for development’. Within this framework, both practitioners and researchers shared their experiences in either using or studying particular media channels or media productions designed to address development issues both in the Global South and in Australia.

Jan Servaes

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The Impact of Communication Media on Economic Development Essay

Economic development requires flow of information as part and parcel of the issues that should be advanced. People need to know what happens in other parts of the world so that they may be able to determine whether to invest in these areas or not. Similarly, media is very crucial in ensuring that the citizenry gets to know what their government officials are doing.

In this regard, many people have argued that media freedom is very essential in ensuring free and unbiased production of news. However, there has been a long standing disagreement regarding whether media ownership should be limited for the public interest or not (Fenton 61).

For several years now, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been implementing strict rules which are aimed at regulating media ownership. It should be noted that all these has been done to ensure that listeners and readers of news have a choice regarding what they can hear or read (Gillmor 37).

The limitations were put in place to ensure that one media group does not own a huge percentage of the media industry such as to have a monopoly in determining what is broadcasted. FCC therefore deemed it right to regulate the percentage of ownership for each individual in the industry.

Nevertheless, given the current wave of technological advancement, it is becoming extremely hard to control media ownership. The number of people who have access to internet is increasing each day. Nevertheless, the number in itself is not a problem; the problem is that nowadays all news as well as other issues that were initially a responsibility of television and radio stations are found on the internet. As a result, it is quite impossible to regulate who owns what percentage.

Economic freedom is one of the pillars of social development. However, media ownership regulation is a hindrance to freedom of doing business. People have the freedom of choosing what to read or watch. By limiting media ownership, the FCC may actually be limiting diversity of programs for the citizenry. Moreover, gone are the days when people were not informed and making a choice would have been a problem.

Nevertheless, failing to limit media ownership can lead to a scenario where large media corporations would be in control of what the public is told and these is not right (Fenton 78). Having diversity of media owners directly translates to increased diversity of views and thus fair coverage of issues.

With increased global corporations owning American media, people have argued that the media industry has had several challenges. To begin with, global corporations that own most of American media are less conversant with the local issues facing American people. As a result, these corporations concentrate more on international issues and overlook important local issues (Fenton 79). Consequently, international issues which are less important to the common American the get more coverage at the expense of local American issues.

It should also be noted that media houses can actually determine what people think. This is because the news that people read or watch ends up forming the basis of their thinking behavior. Global corporations focus more on issues that affect the world as a whole because they want to remain globally relevant (Gillmor 37).

They are also bound to focus more on negative issues about the government and forget the good things that government has done. Similarly, these corporations will tell the public anything just to maintain their relationship with big advertisers. This has eliminated objectivity in reporting.

Another important issue in media industry is cross ownership. This is a situation where one corporation or individual can own different media platforms for example, a television station and a newspaper. This is important especially to a business because it allows cheap and internal advertisements. Moreover, this leads to increased distribution. Unfortunately, cross ownership is not very good to the citizenry.

Cross ownership increases monopolistic powers which are detrimental not only to the freedom of media, but also to objectivity in reporting (Gillmor 121). It is easy to manipulate news especially for the government because all that is required is to talk to a single corporation. Moreover, when a corporation becomes too big there is a possibility of ignoring outside opinion thus sometimes giving wrong information.

All in all, it should be noted that television stations, cable television and radio stations serve adults and young people alike. Consequently, there should be some limit as to what content is aired at a particular point in time. It is important to note that these three types of media have the highest number of followers.

As a result, there should be some sort of ethical code of conduct regulating them. More often, children below the age of eighteen will be found listening to radio or watching a program on television. If the content of these programs is not controlled then the effects to society are negative (Fenton 57). However, care should be taken to ensure that regulation does not interfere with the freedom of speech. Media houses should be free to broadcast what is good whether it negatively exposes someone or not.

Notably, there is a great difference between new media and old media. To begin with, technological advancements have highly changed the way news is transmitted or even received by people. Gone are the days when breaking news had to be brought only by radio or television stations. Nowadays, people have internet and they can get news on various gadgets wherever they are as quickly as possible.

One big difference between the old and the new media is that while only qualified personnel used to broadcast news and other information in the old media, in the new medial anybody can do that (Gillmor 165). Anybody can get pictures of an event and post them on facebook or twitter. This will spread very fast to various parts of the globe. On the same note, production of the old media basically took place in buildings because various tools had to be used.

On the contrary, new media has its production taking place anywhere because it is all about using technology. Moreover, technology in the new media has allowed a lot of manipulation of news. Notably, while the old media takes care during news to present views that are positive or rather not adverse, new media gets views from all extreme ends. New media provides news in form of a discussion where both ends of the divide are given time to reply.

On the contrary, old media broadcasts in a lecture format where news is just read with no room for immediate reaction (Gillmor 95). In this regard, new media allows interaction between people as they can directly contribute to news. As a result, people have a sense of ownership of the subjects of discussion.

Nevertheless, these two types of media have various similarities. Firstly, all these media serve the society and they therefore discuss matters that affect people’s day-to-day lives. On the same note, top trending stories in both media is mostly the same. Gaining high number of followers is crucial.

Therefore, they all fight to maintain as well as increase their client base. On the same note, in both the new and the old media advertisement plays a crucial role. In this regard, the news from these media platforms is always skewed towards their advertisers (Fenton 78). Arguably, nobody would want to bite the hand that feeds him or her.

As a matter of fact, the new media platform is taking root very first. Many people are nowadays turning to the new media because of the increased mobility. Moreover, new media has gained popularity especially among the youth due to advances in technology. Consequently, the effects of new media on the future of news cannot be assumed.

Firstly, posting of news on the internet is almost instant. Something happens in a given area and a person posts it on the internet (Gillmor 48). This has changed the way professional journalists are working. Unlike the old days when journalists aimed to be the first ones to post breaking news, nowadays they aim at being the first to validate any breaking news.

Similarly, readership of news among the youth, who form majority of media readers, has increased. However, the increase is in internet news while newspaper readers and radio listeners have drastically reduced. The problem is that internet news is generally concentrated on specific and repetitive subjects.

As a result, in the future people will be less informed regarding certain issues of importance in society. Moreover, the new media has introduced a platform where by people forward a topic they like talking about and comment on the same (Gillmor 143). This is against the traditional ways where a person just read what journalists decided was good for people. In the future, the topics of news will have to be proposed by people and not by journalists. Otherwise, people will not listen or read the news.

On the same note, all old media will have to incorporate a facet of the new media in their programs. This has been depicted by the increasing trend whereby old television stations, radio station and news paper printing houses are coming up with blogs and twitter accounts for the public to comment (Fenton 49).

This implies that in the future, participatory sessions will have to be included in the news. Nevertheless, this has negative effects because news will then not be edited (Gillmor 178). Consequently, it is becoming hard to implement journalists’ ethical code of conduct because many of the people posting news on social media are not qualified.

Media determines what people read, hear and by extension what they think. If media misinforms the society about a given issue, chances are that people will take the message as being true. Objectivity is therefore crucial in news reporting. On the same note, media is very crucial in enhancing moral values in the society. However, the emergency of new media is changing the way news is posted. As a result, control of media ownership is crucial. However, this should not limit the freedom of media in reporting.

Works Cited

Fenton, Natalie. New Media, Old News: Journalism and Democracy in The Digital Age . Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2009. Print.

Gillmor, Dan. We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, For the People . Sebastopol: O’Reilly Media, 2008. Print.

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Bibliography

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