These days, every time some screwed up, everything but the truth story, video, or conspiracy comes up – the media gets blamed. You may say to yourself: the media manipulated the story, the media blew this story way out of proportion, or even the media only tells you what they want us to believe. But come on, can a single scope of technology really do what you are saying it does?

The answer is yes is has the capabilities to do that, but do you really believe that the media itself does it all on its owns. I surely hope you don't. The media is a mirror of society, directly reflecting what society looks like and even more accurate what society wants to read and hear. The media is like a big 'ole car accident on the side of the highway, everyone can't help but watch and stare, slowing down traffic and feeding into today's society's appetite to see something gory, something that makes them whisper "I'm glad that wasn't me", something that makes them feel better about themselves.

Society influences the media. The media is simply doing its job, would people view their article, news station, or social media site if they didn't appeal to their "must look at a crash" mentality, most likely not. Media shows it's class of viewer what it wants to see, if it didn't, no one would see it. Whether it be controversy over the presidential debate, a spin on a horribly tragic event, or only showing the most interestingly terrible stories instead of the positive and equally important ones, the media is showing society exactly what it wants to see.

It doesn't have to be like that though, but the change cannot be solely within the media itself. Society must change too. Today's society must curb their need to watch horrible and controversial things and reach out for the positive and equally influential stories. They must equally watch good and bad news, different perspectives of news and media, and demand to see the raw and untampered truth, so that they can make the conclusions about it themselves.

Media is a great thing. It is a way to finally have the voices of the few reach the many, spread stories, causes, and information like wildfire, and allow people to well informed before they become opinionated. Media has the potential to do just as much good as it has been doing bad, but it is up the society what they do with it.

So next time you complain about a media outlet's biased or focus on only the bad aspects of a subject, look back at yourself and think about the as a mirror of society. Ask yourself, how can I change the media and use it for the better? Or more importantly, how can we?