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nly one type of communication. However ‘media’ is the plural form of the term ‘medium’. It includes any type of information giving whether it is print (articles and photos), audio (radio), or audio-visual (internet, television and movies). All of these media are used to provide information to the masses in a relatively quick fashion. Nowadays certain media proves to be more efficient than others. In this new age of communications, the audiovisual media has more impact than the others; especially the Internet, which is proving to me more popular due to its easy accessibility and wide amount of information. Audiovisual media may reach more of the masses and provide the most information in the shortest amount of time, however when dealing with public preference, photographs are the medium of choice. Oftentimes there is a race to get the most personal, real life photo to mirror what is occurring on the war front. Photos are popular because it is believed that there is more difficulty manipulating a photo than a verbal account of an event. Photos also take less energy to process and do not take time to analyze. As people become lazier and want information quickly to match the fast speed of their lives, it is no surprise that wartime photos are in high demand. 

The debate on public opinion and the masses is a large one that has two extreme sides proposed by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw. One theory is known as media agenda. Media agenda proposes that media content heavily influences public opinion. The media thus “sets” the agenda for the public, telling them what issues are of importance and what to think of those issues. In the media agenda corporate heads, investors, and news editors determine which stories are of importance and those are the ones covered. The alternate opposing theory is known as the public agenda. The public agenda proposes that it is the public that determines the important issues. The media adjusts itself to the information about which the people want to know. Those who are strong advocates of the public agenda theory deflate the influence of the media and feel that it does not affect how people think about war. In their War and Media, Miles Hudson and John Stainer comment on the public agenda. They argue that although it has some good points it seems against common sense to argue that such is the case with foreign affairs because the majority of the public cannot bring their own experiences with international affairs in order to have their own opinion (304). Whether advocates of the public agenda agree with this way of thinking, there are some historical accounts that would prove that it is fairly accurate. 

The type of influence that media has had in the past can be seen through the example of the Third Reich and World War II. Under circumstances so drastic, the media in Germany provides one of many explanations why a whole country blindly believed in the ideals of one radical man. During the wartime the German press offered very little variety in its articles and story topics. Every piece of written work could somehow be traced to Nazis and Nazi belief. In fact the German newspaper was described as being, “… a means of propaganda, not exclusively an organ of information, it has to serve the movement and without it, it loses its justification”(Herzstein 170). Newspapers had no obligation to the people but rather were allied with the government. The means of regulation w本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。