Does the media (at large) reflect or dictate public opinion?

[glatt]

You're in England, right? You may not know about this, but a couple summers ago there was a huge amount of coverage of shark attacks in the US. It was like there was an epidemic. But statistically, that summer was identical to every other summer that came before. There was no increase in shark attacks. They scared a lot of people and hurt a lot of tourist towns. So yeah, the media definately has power to move society in a particular direction.