The Connection and Effect of the Media on the Economy Research Paper

The Connection and Effect of the Media on the Economy - Research Paper Example According to Biagi (2006), this theory posits that media could inject ideas into someone the ways liquids are injected through a needle and that these ideas were in direct causal relation to behavior. (256) This is demonstrated best in the shift of supply. Media is crucial in the changing tastes and fashions of the public and that this factor is fundamental in creating demands for certain products and services. For instance, the supermarket Sainsbury's was inundated with requests for specific ingredients for particular recipes being shown in the cooking shows by Delia Smith and Jamie Oliver, to the extent where stores ran out of food items that were previously only moderate sellers. (Dransfield 2004, 288) Media changes knowledge, attitude, the behavior and sentiment of consumers and these make it a powerful force in the movement of the market and the aggregate supply and the demand for products and services as revealed by the Sainsbury’s case. The argument in regard to the media’s impact on variables such as aggregate demand is demonstrated in the potency and efficacy of media advertising. Advertising and promotions placed on all media platforms have the power to reinforce the use of products and the choice of particular brands. A study cited by Martin, for example, found that advertising reinforces the demand for alcoholic beverages, specifically highlighting that the reinforcing effects account for 1 to 3 percent of the variability in drinking. (p. 220) Again, in the context of shaping perception and changing behaviors, the media can be directly responsible in regard to how inflation is viewed by the public. In a study conducted by the Glasgow Media Group, for example, it found that the news stories in the British media – those about union and management portrayals - is partly responsible for the errors in public perception on inflation.