Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on media influence on individuals sense of personal identity.

Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on media influence on individuals sense of personal identity. Whereas culture comprises a collection of symbols, the media acts as the carrier of cultural messages that completes the line of the communication process. given that culture is central to man’s existence and survival, it inevitably forms the basis of individuals’ self-identities and self-definitions. Different cultures are peculiar and their distinctiveness has different influences on the attitudes, aspirations, motivations, representations, skills as well as behaviors of people that are defined by each. Mass media creates and circulates meaning through the use of language thereby perpetuating certain ideas and beliefs amongst the audience. in that respect, mass media actively shapes people’s perception of reality through language, the single most crucial aspect of culture.

The advent of globalization and the birth of new information communication technologies herald a potential threat to nations' cultures since the cultural values and ideals of the west are being imposed on the rest of the world (Muscat 2013, p.293). People from all corners of the world are increasingly getting Americanized or westernized in every sense of the words, either consciously or unconsciously, thanks to the globalization forces, since global media is dominated by western Hollywood values, western products, perspectives as well as cultural ideals (NUJ Lecture 2009, p.9).

In that respect, African media has the most daunting challenge of propagating, enabling as well as safeguarding aspects of the African culture against the devastating influences of westernized global media in the name of globalization. Media’s strong influence on individuals’ opinions and sense of their own personal identity as well as self-definition is reflected in the increased bastardization of native African cultures and values in favor of western cultural ideals perceived to be the golden standard. Media has profound effects on the social identity formation of young people as news stories of how media is increasingly shaping the youth are rampant in society. precisely, sexual promiscuity, violence, as well as gender-stereotyping are increasingly being perpetuated through media outlets (Sabrina, 2011).&nbsp.