The role of media in our society has increased dramatically over the past hundred years. We went from taking weeks to send a message thousands of miles to being able to send a message instantly anywhere in the world. The effects this has had on information exchanged across many different forms of media is staggering. The question that has arisen over the years is what effect this has had on us. The media not only influences how we perceive world events, particularly 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 has at times been the focal point of the entire nation at once, such as 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 that effect has been positive or negative. I think that, taken as a whole, the effect has been negative, even catastrophic. Over time, the media has made us into people who are incapable of thinking for ourselves. Today, most people cannot form an opinion without first going to television or the Internet to find out what others think. This has led society to become indecisive on some of the most important issues of our time. Not only has the media negatively impacted our ability to think for ourselves, but it has also had an incredible effect on our political landscape. Politicians are using the media to deliver messages at an unprecedented rate. They pay hundreds of millions of dollars to these entities to ensure their message is sent to as many people and as frequently as possible. A...... middle of paper ......t Journal 46.2 (2012): 405-418. Premier Academic Research. Web.December 16, 2013.Perse, Elizabeth M.. Media effects and society. Mahwah, New Jersey: L. Erlbaum Associates, 2000. Print. Timmer, Joel. “Restricting depictions of cinematic violence to reduce the likelihood of negative effects on viewers: Did the authors of the film production code get it right?.” Journal of Popular Cinema and Television 39.1 (2011): 29-36. Academic research Premier.Web. December 16, 2013. “Is Constant “Facebooking” Bad for Teens? » LiveScience.com. Np, and Web. December 16, 2013. "What did the rapid development of mass media lead to in the 1920s?" WikiAnswers. Answers, and Web. December 16, 2013.ring_the_1920s>.