Prompt: It is becoming more and more difficult to escape the influence of the media on our lives. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of living in a media-rich society.

In this day and age, it is almost impossible to withdraw from the effects of media in our daily activities. As a coin always has two sides, there are also several positive and negative effects of living in the exposure of media. Despite of the drawbacks, I am convinced that media benefits humanity. Ċ The most prominent advantage of the media in our lives is it enables information to travel in a blink of an eye. As a result, people can keep up-to-date and take necessary actions afterwards. For instance, when a tsunami hit Aceh region in Indonesia during the last decade, the media provided breaking news concerning the victims and how the area was damaged. Subsequently, people around the globe collected donations as well as volunteered in order to help the recovery after the disaster. From this experience, the media enables mankind to ease sufferings in the world. Ċ Another advantage is the media industry creates job opportunities due to the growing number of mass media companies. As a matter of fact, Manpower Department of Indonesia recently reports that there are more than 1 million people who work in this industry. Moreover, this particular industry ranks the third in terms of the number of employees among the others. Hence, a media-rich society offers significant employment chances. Ċ However, the media tends to report violent and sensational crime stories with the aim of increasing their audience. It results in fear of crime among society. In fact, Indonesia's Censoring Institution points out in 2011 that 70% of news programs were related to criminal cases. Thus, people live in anxiety of being a criminal victim who will end up in one of the news feature. Ċ All in all, it is evident that living in a media-rich society has more advantages than disadvantages. Where possible, media should contribute more for humanity in the future.