Attainment Target D3.2

The media is newspapers, TV, radio stations, adverts and the internet. The main way they influence us is by affecting the things we buy. They do this through advertising.

Newspapers, TV, radio (except BBC) and the internet all have adverts. These are put in by companies trying to sell things. These go from washing machines to holidays to chocolate bars to the latest films. They want us to buy these things, so they tell us their washing-machine washes whiter, or their holiday will be sunnier, or their chocolate bar is more chocolatey, or their film is funnier.

Some people believe whatever the adverts say. This is stupid. Adverts are not allowed to lie, but they say things in ways that make us think things without lying. They say ‘possibly the best beer in the world’ and people don’t notice the word ‘possibly’. Or they show a beach where it is sunny and it is deserted with no-one on it. People don’t know that the photograph was taken at six o’clock in the morning, and that if you go there in winter it will be freezing. Sometimes they describe things as ‘New’, and people think that means something when it doesn’t really.

Another way that the media influence us is by the way they describe people. Sometimes they make a celeb look good, other times they make them look stupid, even though the person hasn’t changed. That makes us not buy their CD, or not watch their film.

These are some of the ways the media can influence us.