What do you think is the most damaging effect that the media has on today's society?

With the development of communication technology, the old media like newspapers had been replaced by multimedia like watching TV, the Internet, Facebook and so on. I think the main damaging effect of the media is reducing the function of traditional ones.

I think media has too much negativity. 

That's a loaded question! But for me... Media, whether it be television, or print, everything I see is all about the "negative" never anything good from watching or reading or even listening to news. I really get tired of seeing all negativity in the world especially when I see so many good things happening just where I live (and I'm sure it's everywhere) that never makes it into the media. Shame really.

Your question contains unverifiable assumptions.

I think the media is responsible for causing a lot of damage by manipulating the way people think.

From entertainment to news, I think TV, the internet and newspapers have a great influence on how we perceive the world beyond our own eyes.

The damaging affect of media

Some stations and publications have been known to outright fabricate things, for example Fox News was recently forced to apologize when a "terrorism expert" they'd invited onto a show claimed that entire cities in the UK had become no-go zones due to ethnic divides.

This proved to be an outright lie.

Other times, it's not so much outright fabricaton, as it is the "spin" or angle that the media purposely portrays in order to focus our attention on one thing, rather than another.

A good example of this would be the situation in Syria.

When looking through TV and newspaper headlines, terror organizations like ISIS feature quite prominently.

As disgusting and depraved as ISIS and its affiliate groups are, in pure terms of fatalities caused, the Syrian regime is actual responsible for far more civilian deaths than ISIS.

Here's an overview of fatalities in Syria during December 2014:

Both groups are murderous.

And yet, ISIS makes the headlines, and they are responsible for 18% of deaths.

The Syrian government more than 3 times that many people, and they hardly receive any TV coverage, making them seem "not as bad".

Why?

Some people in the media are guilty of being misinformed and not doing their job properly.

But when it comes to national networks that have millions of viewer/readers/subscribers, it's hard to argue that it's simply misinformation.

Instead, it's more likely that there is a political agenda behind their reporting, and that they are somehow influenced by factors they are not disclosing.

This poses a great danger, because it means the general public can invariably only ever know "the truth" as the media tells it, rather than the truth as it actually is.

Probably the biggest problem is the representation of women in the media, because they are so commonly objectified and made to seem as objects made for men. It's a huge issue, and the objectification of women has become so common mostly because of the media.