In what way and how strongly do the media influence our perception of the world?

The media influence our lives. Film, television but also the newspapers contribute to almost all people of the western civilization and manipulate them in their thinking. If a person is aware of the steering through the media he can accept it or try to reject it. If the manipulation works over the unconsciousness the person runs the risk of owning another’s opinion.

Media have a power to influence the view on life and politics in such a way unlike any other. As a political example you can name the methods of the Nazis. They used the media for their propaganda and reached their goal: to manipulate the thinking of millions of people.
Even though this is an example of the past it is still happening today. Journalists forget to report certain aspects on purpose but stress out others to guide our thinking in their ways. This brings us to judge in the media’s wishful manner. If the news declares someone as guilty, most of the time, we will share this opinion, too.
But not only the news reporting, which works with overweighting of topics or selection of facts, forge our opinion. Even documentaries, books or television series influence our opinion by a skillful selection of topics and through a clever presentation of those. Some of them manage to give us only the facts which are, in their opinion, the right ones. Or they question the facts in light of good or bad depending on what is more useful for them. Returning to the example of the Nazis, they spread out lies and had totally wrong conclusions which sound maybe at first pretty comprehensible but with the right background it turns out to be an empty shell.
And that is how it works. How many hours a day do we watch TV, listen to the radio or read the newspaper? But how many hours do we actually spent on thinking about what we heard or read?

But manipulations are not only found in the politics. It can be found in every part of our lives. The media wants to show us how to dress, to style or to live. And we get the feeling we actually have to be that way so we do not stick out of the crowd. It is an individual choice of how much do we want to get guide by this kind of manipulating. This does not mean that it is easy to decide whether we want to stick to the brighter mass or stand out.

There is no real trueness and no “the one and only manner” in the world. We have to build our own opinions and make our decisions on what we think is the right thing to do.