Mass media

Anything that serves as a carrier of various forms of communication to the public is among the 'media'. Included are dailies, weeklies and other periodic newspapers, magazines, letters and bulletins, etc, among the forms of written media. Audio-visual media include films, television and radio broadcasts. The mass media reach millions of people and are powerful means of educating and informing. They are also subject to exploitation or control so as to overtly or covertly represent a particular ideology, political party or interest. For such purposes programming may be distorted and news censored or manipulated.