You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:
At present, the media affects people's lives significantly.
What impact does this have on society?
Is it a negative or positive development?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge and experiences.
You should write at least 250 words.
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IELTS Task 2 Band 9 Sample Essay
During this modern era, the media has a huge impact on people’s lives. In my opinion, this is a positive development because the revolutionary advancement of media platforms offers people a ubiquitous access to information which eventually help them view the world in different perspectives.
In recent decades with the advancement in media, many men and women have started to change their way in viewing their surroundings. Previously, people used to rely on newspapers or regular broadcasts from radio to learn about the world, however, they can now get instant updates from various media sources including the online social networking platforms or freelance journalists every minute. In fact, people are enthusiastically engaging into these diverse media platforms, for example, the hit rate of news reports from social media in Hong Kong was much higher than online streaming rate from the radio websites during 2009-2010.
I believe this new phenomenon is a positive development to the general public intelligently because it can help develop people's critical mindset when different perspectives emerge. With the growth of information from various media platforms, people may approach to the same story in separate angles. To avoid confusion, they would easily identify the differences instead of accepting completely what has been written. This plants a seed for the culture of critical thinking. For instance, research from the Hong Kong University shows more local residents, especially the younger population aged below 40, appraised information from the newspaper critically than that of the same age group 5 years ago. One of the attributing factors of this unprecedented improvement was the widespread usage of social media websites.
To conclude, media reshapes the lives of people considerably especially in the way how people recognise the world. I strongly believe this can positively yield a more intelligent society by enhancing the critical appraisal ability of the public.
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