IELTS Essay # 41 - Some people think that there is a great influence of news media on people’s lives and this is a negative development. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give your opinion and relevant examples.

N.B.: We have published answers to the entire Writing module of the IELTS test in the UK and India – April 2016 (Academic Module). To read the solution to Task 1 (graph – pie chart) of this exam, click here.

Essay # 41

Some people think that there is a great influence of news media on people’s lives and this is a negative development. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give your opinion and relevant examples.

The influence of media is growing stronger and stronger as time passes. The speed at which news travels around the world has become faster with the advancement in technology. A lot of people believe this influence to have more drawbacks than the merits. This essay shall discuss both views and offer a reasonable conclusion.

Gaining information on current events has become quicker and easier as people have a host of resources on which they can depend on for news about the world, like TV news channels, radio broadcasts, newspapers, internet, smartphone applications and so on. Sharing and exchanging of views on the same has also become quite popular. Apart from panel discussions on news channels, public forums on the internet also let us know the various reactions people have to a certain piece of news – like the comments on Facebook under any news article – that shape our opinions. However the pressing question is whether these determinants are for the better or worse.

Too much dependence on anything is never good, which exactly sums the scenario of people’s growing dependence on news media. For instance, many news channels nowadays keep on looping the same (maybe insignificant) news piece all day long, hammering it in the minds of unsuspecting people. The many small media houses that are cropping up are deemed to be corporate sell-outs that publish news relating to the interests of the party that funds it, and cater to the masses by putting out the most sensational news stories.

The freedom of sharing opinions about any issue also can be feared to seed stereotypical judgements into people’s thinking. This is bad especially for developing and under-developed nations, where a majority of the people are not rational enough to be exposed to the press. For example, news about a plane crash focusing on the casualties and the dangers of the crash, instead of the relevant things like structural stability, changes the attitudes of such kind of people towards that risk regardless of its real probability.

Weighing all the arguments presented above, I can conclude that the growing influence of news media is definitely a bad development on people’s lives. Unless the news informants take a firm hold of their responsibilities towards journalism, over-reliance on such news sources can be detrimental.

(379 words)