What are some mass media effects and their impact on society?

With the exorbitant amount of edited images we see in the media, our lines of reality have been blurred. We have grown desensitized by being constantly bombarded with such powerful and often manipulated images. It is not just the drastic images that are causing an impact, but the frequency to which our society sees them. It is still being debated whether or not violence in the media affects societal violence, but recent research is showing that it has a heavy impact on children. It is recommended that children under two do not even watch television because they cannot yet distinguish fantasy from reality. Albert Bandura also concluded that children may imitate acts of violence if they see it ‘benefitting’ in some way shape or form. Adults can certainly distinguish fantasy from reality but even our view of realistic body image has been skewed. Mass media portrays all these images because they know we want to see it and they know it sells, but the impact has become irreparable in many ways. We as a society must realize this about the media and ourselves so we do not get caught in between fantasy and reality.