The media form a powerful force in our society. They influence virtually all aspects of our life, for example:
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Government elections
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Consumer purchasing decisions
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Consumer trends
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How wars are fought (e.g. consider the recent coverage of the IRAQ war)
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What sort of "news" we discuss in our daily lifes
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etc. etc. etc.
Who controls the media? This varies from country to country, but we have probably all heard of media moguls like Rupert Murdoch, John Mallone and Summer Redstone. The folks who control large chunks of the media industry, certainly have some influence over what kind of content gets distributed. I'd bet on that.
And what's our most popular medium? Probably the TV. Just like Oppenheimer was not fully aware of all the "effects" of the A-Bomb, the folks who invented the TV could have not foreseen all its the "effects" either.
Just look at what happened in Bhutan. Apparently ever since Satellite TV was introduced into this innocent place a few years back, it's crime rate has drastically shot up (from virtually nothing). Co-incidence?
Personally, I think that the "TV" has become more of a curse than blessing due to the excessive amounts of bloody advertising. I think it's ridiculous to have ad-breaks every 5min-10min, which seems to be the norm now on most American, Australian and even British public TV channels. And bear in mind that this is just one medium that bombards us with ads...
I think we should always bear in mind what effects the media have on us, who controls the media and what kind of stuff "they" want to feed us. At the end of the day, we should never stop to make up our own mind. How I wish to have a chat with George Orwell now :-)