Does media influence our behavior and beliefs, or doesn’t it?

Question

This is a bit of a long train of thought, so bear with me. It seems that propaganda and advertising work, in the sense they can influence behavior and beliefs. On the other hand, I remember reading repeatedly that violence in video games doesn’t lead to violent behavior, which seems to imply that people can differentiate media and reality. On the other other hand, people call for sexist, racist, and other bigoted stereotypes to be removed from media because they might influence people’s behavior/beliefs. So, which is it? Are people influenced by the media they are exposed to, or can they tell the difference between reality and media? Is there a subtle that I’m missing? Or am I mistaken in one of my examples? This is my first time posting here, so if this would be better answered elsewhere, please tell me so.

Answer 1

I absolutely believe that people are influenced by media; especially visual media, such as news. Most people under 40 have grown up with revisionist history being taught in school. Many of the radical hippies of the 60's who leaned toward communism and socialism; glorifying North Vietnam and communism (at the time of the Vietnam war), are now today's university professors. Many times their views have not changed, and they easily interject them into today's textbooks and lectures. Thus, today's youth have these idea instilled in their minds from a young age.

Media makes no secret of trying to shape public thought. We have no pure unbiased or subjective media.

Youth want to emulate what they think is a glamourous, fun-filled life that they see in music videos. It does influence them sexually and morally. I have worked in the public school system for years, and today's heroes are often Rappers and Football players. Their words carry meaning for vulnerable youth.

There are other people, however, who do think for themselves, and examine many things. They don't take just one train of thought and run with it. They are not automatic psycophants of the aforementioned people or thought processes..