During the immense changes in the social structure of the past quarter-century, the media have been the instruments through which the promoters of change have advocates, as the campaign in progress.
In general, the media science than have done an adequate and occasionally excellent job in identifying and reporting social tends, Changing relationships between men and women, both in the workplace and in personal life, the problems of racial inequality, alienation of young people and their rejection of traditional living patterns, the increase in violence and growth of the drug culture all of these have been examined in broadcast book, magazine, articles, news stories, and films.
The media are an integral part of society, not an unrelated force, and their treatment of social change is influenced and constructed by other portions of the social fabric. Social change often does not come easily, and, as the messengers of society, the media must suffer the business of conflict.
The media as a whole are concerned in a news sense with reporting and interpreting society’s conduct, in an entertainment sense with presenting material that will earn a profit because it pleases audiences, and in a commercial sense with marketing goods and services through advertising at a profit themselves.