Mass media have become the principal infrastructure for sense-making in contemporary life. From newspapers and television to streaming platforms and algorithmically curated social feeds, media systems shape the stories people encounter, the identities they adopt, and the collective projects they pursue. In this paper, I review both classical and modern scholarship to examine the individual, societal, and cultural consequences of mass media, particularly regarding its educational implications. It articulates the historical development of mass media, discusses the agenda-setting, framing, cultivation, uses and gratifications, social learning, spiral of silence, encoding or decoding, public sphere, and the “network society” theories, and assesses the culture impacts (homogenization vs. hybridization of culture, representation and identity, cultural language, and social norms), the individual (attention and cognitive processes, attitudes and behaviors, general well-being, parasocial relationships), and society (the public sphere, political communication, social polarization and misinformation, the creative economy, and social inequality). The appropriately titled “translating theory to practice” pedagogy section, focused on media and information literacy, critical digital pedagogy, and production-based practices, attempts to balance the insights of the preceding sections, around educational practices and risks and ethical issues such as privacy, platform dependence, and dependence on content moderation. The paper ends with well-considered limitations and actionable steps for educators, policymakers, and platforms. The core assertion across these various domains is that while media effects and consequences are significant, they are also conditional; the outcomes depend on audience agency, social context, institutional incentives, and the technical architectures through which contemporary media flow.
mass media, culture, education, media literacy, algorithms, public sphere, representation, polarisation
. Effects of Mass Media on Culture, Individual Society and Educational Perspectives. Indian Journal of Modern Research and Reviews. 2026; 4(1):01-08
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