Media - the greatest influence on our minds or is it?

The media again. The media surrounds our everyday lives and we are so used to its presence that we often are oblivious to how influential the media can be. It can alter perceptions and sometimes make us do, say or even believe in things that we never need or heard off.
Whatever it is, the media basically works on three fundamental principles that have been applied in different context of time frames over history. In the early 1930s, the media had total control and that is where the powerful effects theory was applied as the media had total control over the ideologies, believes and perceptions over the general population. This was probably so as the communication was one way where only the receiver gets what the sender sends. Being that most households could only afford a radio or at most a television, the media was mainly through such sources and usually dictated from higher authorities.
However as time progress and the creation of the internet brought about a revolution where information can be easily retrieved through multiple channels and no more through just a few restricted source, this led on to the limited effects theory and the moderate effects theory where the media has no longer total control on its passive audience. With new technologies, censorship and regulation of media becomes very difficult and the audience are now equipped with such tools to help them be more discerning on whatever media they receive.
However this might not be the case for certain countries that have such state of the art communication tools like the internet. Take Singapore as an example where the media model is described to be a teacher giving a lecture to its students. Its still very one way in that aspect so does this means media influence boils down to just an individuals own attitude and mindset? Whatever the case maybe, the media has now changed its focus from just informing but now to also cater for their targeted audience. Why some might ask? Well, money and profit of course! Money makes the world go round and so do media. So is the media now influenced by agendas that are just purely informational? Or is it influenced by political and economical agendas that we might not know of? You be the judge!!!