does media merely reflect society?

Does the media merely reflect society or is it instrumental in constructing it?
In this essay I will be sharing my opinions and attempt to answer the question to whether media really is a reflection of society or is it simply friction for the audience to be interested in, I will be looking at different types of media for example magazines, TV programs, internet, etc.
Different types of media suggest different aspects. Magazines are all about the gossip and headlines usually attract the target audience of that magazine, for example Look, OK! Heat, Closer, More, Hello, Cosmo, is based on woman from the age of 14 to the age of 45. The headlines like ‘Jordan and Pete at war’ and ‘Leona’s secret’ which will make its audience want to buy and read more about the story to catch up with the gossip. Magazines are all about the Gossip, so women will want to know gossip about well known celebrities. What’s well known right now is the “Pete and Jordan” situation, when they were together they where hassled an awful lot, about petty arguments they had and simple rumors going round about them. But now they have broken up they are in every magazine going with headlines everywhere seen, even newspapers have them on their first page. I feel that magazines are cheeky with their way of getting the target audience to buy their magazines, as they have really shocking quotes on the front page, soothe audience will buy it, but when they go to read it to find that the story is completely different to its heading, it’s a rip off but it sure does work. This kind of media doesn’t merely reflect the society completely even though it does tell the audience the top gossip; it really is a load of rumors. But there are some very rare magazines that do reflect society in a way that these magazines teach us about a different culture or places around us, or how to handles and do things, for example some magazines are on how to handle pregnancy, there is a magazine called the ciam, that tell the audience about a culture that they are advertising. Most magazines tell us about the celebs and the gossip but only few reflect on the society.
The TV is also a key way of media expressing society. There are all different types of channels for the different kinds of media for example, channels 1,2,3,4 and 5 presents the news giving us all the top news we need to know or want to know, which is mostly the truth. The TV also presents different kinds of way about talking about the society around is, for example ‘Watchdog’ this program is merely a reflection of what the society is like in the company world, the program has one big known character, one of them is Anne Robinson, she is very big gobbed and loves to have a go at many people and point out the bad sides of them and nag allot, this side of her was recently shown on a quiz show called “weakest link”. This show I feel does reflect on society it’s more like a chat show with a tint of undercover, by this I mean that it catches out and argues with the people who might be ripping us off.
But a game show that does not reflect society is called “Big Brother” which is worldwide, the people that go in to this are fake or has a plan, I feel that if they were to present a real show the fake ones shouldn’t enter, it is a huge rip off. But this is the key off the show, the fact that fake people are on their makes us hate them which makes us watch the show, which I feel is what the producers want us to react like. This show does not reflect society in any kind of way as it is simply a waste of money and time.
Although I feel this I do enjoy watching shows like ten year younger, how to look good naked, but my favorite kind of shows are called the chat shows, when celebs gob off about one another. This does not reflect society at all. Which I feel is a very bad influence on teens and adults infact everyone, we should be learning about society in a fun sort of way not celebs and gossip. I feel the media does effect us as a community so much it unbelievable, we just don’t know it, I mean if we were to watch shows about our society we would feel the same way about that subject than we would feel the same way about that than how we feel about gossip and society and this fake world we are living in.
Internet is an obvious basic of reflection to the society; it covers everything in the world. Facebook, bebo, hotmail, myspace, twitter, are what we all go on, our minds are totally around it, we don’t think about anything else but that in our free time we spend it on that, but you could say that these were set out to make us become more social and learn about different types of cultures, but we have formed that into a subject of talking to friends and causing arguments. When we could be exploring what there is out there. This kind of media does reflect society but only if you are looking for that kind of subject, if not then you will be on the internet doing different things.
In conclusion to this question I don’t feel at that the entire media does reflect society at all it just reflects things that we should stay clear of. I mean learning about the Hollywood, or celeb life is not as exciting as it sounds, it isn’t society at all its just peoples dream. Magazines, TV, and internet don’t reflect society entirely at all. The sad fact is that if you want to know about society then you have to search deep for it. Do you think that is right, or should society be noticed as much as everything else we obsess over?