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1、The Impact of Media on Society Medium is the transmission tool that helps deliver information in communication （Noll，2007）. They are not only overlapped with culture and society， but also connected with many areas such as politics and economics （Lawrence，2005）. Therefore， media are closely involved
2、in peoples daily lives and it is significant for us to have a better understanding of media， particularly on how they influence people and society. Brown（1987） argues that “media are considered powerful for bringing changes to human lives， they invade and eye the whole societybut still make it possi
3、ble for human beings to communicate with other millions of people”. Thus， media cause social changes on one hand and provide social control on the other（Lawrence， 2005）. This essay aims to discuss the impact of media on society by focusing on two types of media-photo and film. Photo is a medium whic
4、h transmits the information via visual representations（Manohar，2011）. Geertz（1994） claims， “since the beginning of photography， images have provoked reactions in people and those reaction caused people to make a change”. And film， as a part of electronic media， transmits its information electronical
5、ly（Manohar，2011）. It is considered to have large impact in audiences for it is not imposed and audiences are willing to get transported to another world for two or three hours （Bharti，2008）. Two case studies， which are a photo which “Princess Diana hugs an AIDS child” and the movie Kill Bill， are pr
6、esented in the following text to illustrate the impact of media on society.According to Heidegger（1930s）， we are now entering a world image era， the image here does not mean the worlds photo， it means that the world is grasping as image. Therefore， photo plays a more and more essential role in the v
7、isual communication era. As important visual communication symbol， picture has a strong appeal and wide applications（Brown，1987）. Picture contains the advantage of transmitting meaning as clearly as words can， while at the same time does not bother people to read. Xu Cai（2002） argues that “the exper
8、ience of human today is much more visualized than any time in the past”. In general， photo has the following functions： the visual impact， the social responsibility and humanistic care spirit （Xu， 2002）.The picture “Princess Diana hugs an AIDS child” is a good example to explain how a photo transmit
9、s meanings and influences humans attitude towards AIDS.The text， context and subtext in this picture are as follow. According to Bharti（2008）， text means the media form and content； context is the historical and cultural environment behind the text； subtext is the secondary or implied meanings. Thus
10、 in this picture， the text is the picture itself and the content in the whole picture including the figures， clothes， color， eyes and facial expression， etc. We can see the costume of Princess Diana is appropriate； the facial expression on her face is sincere and pitiful. However， the most important
11、 text in this photo is the action that Princess Diana is hugging the little Ethiopian child who has been infected with AIDS. The context of the image is the historical and cultural background at that time. This photo was taken in 1987 and back then people are scared of AIDS and stayed far away from
12、AIDS patients partly because they knew very little about AIDS （Fei， 2004）. The meaning behind of this photo is mainly about the care for the AIDS patients， social responsibility and anti-discrimination on race. Former President Bill Clinton said in 1987 that “when many people believed AIDS could inf
13、ect through body touch， Princess Diana sat on the HIV patients bed and hugged him， she told the world what AIDS patients needed is not isolation but caring” （Fei，2004）. The appearance of the little Ethiopian child in the content， no matter chosen intendedly or randomly， conveys a connotative signifi
14、cance of the anti-discrimination on race. After the spreading of this image， wide attentions were drawn and people began to understand that AIDS cannot be infected by physical interaction evident by the photo in which Princess Diana hugged the little boy tightly. Gradually， people started to know mo
15、re about AIDS and remove their misconceptions towards AIDS patients. What is more， people around the world receive the same message from the picture without language barriers. Therefore， photo， like the one illustrated above， could have huge influence on people and society.Like photos， movies also e
16、njoy the advantage of minimal language barrier（Bharti，2008）. However， unlike photos which are motionless， movies is combined of motional pictures and sound， which makes them very vivid and attractive to audiences（Bharti，2008）. As it is appeared in the 19th century， film medium have been very influential in many different aspects of peoples life， for instance， recreation， business， culture and education（Bordwell， 2011）.The second case t
