“Today, media, culture and society are truly inseparable and one cannot exist without the other. » Today, media have become complex institutions that shape and are in turn shaped by society. Media facilitates communication between the sender and receiver and acts as a source of information and knowledge. When we compare ourselves to generations of the past, we, as residents of the 21st century, have access to an enormous amount of information. Every day we witness conflicts and disasters around the world and are exposed to information on thousands of topics ranging from politics to social issues to cultural issues and more. We constantly ask ourselves: what gives the media so much power that we live our daily lives influenced and dependent on the media? This essay will explore examples from South African media of how, in today's times, media, culture and society are inseparable and how one cannot exist without the other. The story that has currently shocked not only South Africa but the world is the story of South African Olympic and Paralympic athletics star Oscar Pistorius, who shot dead his girlfriend, former FHM model Reeva Steenkamp, ​​at his house in Pretoria on February 14, 2013 (Motsoeneng, 2013). Within hours of Reeva's murder, the world knew the story of what happened. Every media and social network, from television to newspapers to Twitter, covered the story of Oscar Pistorius. “The Trial of Oscar Pistorius” is the name of the 24-hour carte blanche channel which was dedicated to the trial of Oscar Pistorius so that audiences in South Africa and around the world can follow live and... journal environment ......critical culture (Rivero, Kotze and Du Toit, 2002). We can therefore see that in today's society, technology has become the main source of information for the public and that the media must act as a father figure in order to inform, influence and to speak on behalf of the public. Taking a stand is a problematic situation for the media because people will be offended no matter which side they choose. The media has a great ability to manipulate and persuade the public, whether for selfish reasons or simply on behalf of the public. The media has the power of government and the public, a tool they use to benefit or disadvantage their audience. So, looking at the three examples of South African media, we can conclude that in today's time, media, culture and society are interrelated and interdependent and one cannot exist without the other..