The role of the media in our society has increased dramatically over the last hundred years. We've gone from taking weeks to send a message thousands of miles away to being able to send a message instantly anywhere in the world. The effects this has had on the exchange of information across different forms of media are staggering. The question that has been asked over the years is what effect this has had on us. The media not only influences how we see world events, for example through the news media, but also how we spend our money through commercial media. It has had an effect on the way we entertain ourselves and, at times, has been the focal point of the entire nation at once, as in the case of the Kennedy assassination and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. So while there is no debate about the extent of the effect the media has had on our society, the question remains whether it has been positive or negative. It is my belief that, overall, the effect has been negative, almost catastrophic. Over time the media has transformed us into people incapable of thinking for themselves. Most people today cannot form an opinion without first going on television or the Internet to find out what other people think. This has led to society becoming indecisive about some of the most important issues of our day. Not only has the media negatively impacted our ability to think for ourselves, but it has had an incredible effect on our political landscape. Politicians use the media to spread messages home at an unprecedented rate. They pay hundreds of millions of dollars to these entities to make sure their message gets out to as many people as frequently as possible. A...... middle of paper...... t Journal 46.2 (2012): 405-418. Premier of academic research. Web.16 December 2013.Perse, Elizabeth M.. Media effects and society. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates, 2000. Print.Timmer, Joel. "Limiting depictions of cinematic violence to reduce the likelihood of negative effects on viewers: did the authors of the Motion Picture Production Code get it right?". Journal of Popular Film & Television 39.1 (2011): 29-36. Academic Research Premier.Web. December 16, 2013."Is constant Facebooking bad for teenagers?" WordsSideKick.com. Np, nd Web. December 16, 2013. ."What did the rapid development of mass media in the 1920s lead to?."WikiAnswers. Answers and Web. December 16, 2013.ring_the_1920s>.