This is the ability of the media to influence the importance placed on the topics of the public agenda. The media does not control what the public thinks, but it plays a part in what they should think of, they paint the idea as important and the public would consider it important.
The media uses the agenda setting theory to teach and notify people about the dangerous of corona (covid 19) this has been all what they talk about from social issues, environmental issues and economic issues surrounding this pandemic. When the President announced that the lockdown will be put into place, the media was buzzing on the issue and what they should and shouldn’t do to protect themselves. The following day stores were full of people doing panic shopping because they thought we had run out of food. And when the president gave out the budget for corona everyone thought they would get the R350 though it was only for the unemployed and unfortunate.
Innovators (2.5% of users) these are mostly high social and have enough money to buy/try the product immediately. In this case these are going to be our lectures, we’ll convince them to buy the sneakers as majority of students will also want to purchase them if they see them wearing them. Early adopters (13.5 0f users) they’re visionaries and opinion leaders, they have a high influence on others. The SRC has a big influence at campus so they’ll be our brand ambassadors.
Early majority (36% of users) these want to see if the product will work first before they buy it. The first years, because majority of them want to fit in and any chance of that they will jump at it. Late majority (34%) They are sceptic and would mostly adopt the product after the society has accepted it, the 2nd and 3rd years they will be influenced by the fact that almost the whole campus is set. Laggards (16% of users) they are the last to adopt the innovation and they’re persuaded by close friends and family. Postgraduates, they will not really care about the innovation and would be influenced by their friends and friends.
Fake news are reports made in order to mislead people, deceive or worse damage reputations. And most people would believe everything that they read on the internet without even verifying with other sources. That may be dangerous and may affect the other individual/group.
A lie created out of nothing, that would take the appearance of real news with the aim of deceiving people. The information is usually fake but would seem to be true, stories like these are created to influence people’s views or push a certain agenda. There are many types of false news mostly what people would read on sites or social media. For instance Clickbait these stories are published to gain more website visitors and increase their revenue, the use of propaganda as they are created to mislead audiences and promote a biased point of view or particular political cause of agenda to mention few like sloppy journalists , as they sometimes publish stories with unreliable information, misleading the audience.
There are many ways to spot fake news, these days people believe everything they read on social media, without even validating the information. One thing you can always do is check the date, some people or an organisation would repost old news. And always consider if your sources are reliable or not you can do so by investigating the site and its about, there are also apps used to validate sources like Bot-slayer to name few. But you can also use the CRAAP test, [Currency, relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose]. And if there are other reliable news outlets reporting on the issue.
Fake news can have a heavily negative effect since we depend on information to make decisions. So, the fake information we hear or see will only lead to us making wrong choices and decisions. And bad advice can circulate very quickly, Misinformation are times like these will only make a havoc, after the corona outbreak there were news that the world is running out of newspaper and food, which lead to people doing panic shopping. In South Africa President Ramaphosa saw it fit that anyone who is going to be found creating or circulating fake news will be locked away and will serve a sentence. Nothing good ever comes out of fake news, it can sometimes be as extreme as taking somebody’s life. Over some fake rumour and social media has normalised this, though social media is not the enemy we are. People need to stop circulating fake news.
The transformation from an intensely oppressive oppression divided country to a multiracial democracy was very hard. In South Africa, the mass media was a battlefield, mostly divided by race and language. The media excluded vital coverage of oppression and white instigated violence while they headlined black-instigated violence. And finally, after apartheid there was finally hope for the media industry. (Armoudian, 2013)
Till this day its still a work in progress for instance look at the four major media companies that control South Africa’s newspapers, Caxton, Independent media, Times group and Media 24. The composition of their ownership is speaking for itself Media 24 for instance owns about 90 newspapers including six out of the big 10, according to its website the company claims to have about 47% black ownership.
Black ownership at Caxton is just about 19%, Times media group ownership is 41%, so Independence media is the only company with significant black ownership. (Muirhead, 2016) In terms of gender diversity in south Africa these are late available figures for 2017-2018. 36% female in the workspace and 64% male. Board members 55% female and 45% male. (Dept of Labour, Media houses)
One of the biggest challenges I have identified is gender inequality, which remains as a challenge, in most cases Men are the ones in high positions, whilst women are journalists, men are editors etc. Race is also a common issue from my point of view nothing has changed really. Its just what blacks are given opportunities though they are limited. Its said that the media is used to serve the public, but some use it for their personal gain, we still have a long way to go really.
In conclusion the media is not transformed, it is still a work in process and hopefully by the next 10 years it would have transformed judging by the increasing number of journalism students more especially blacks, gender equality is still in place today, woman are not given the same opportunities as men and as soon as that also changes, then the number of men in higher positions will be even with the number of women in position.
