| Does Media Affect Us? No, It Controls Us! |
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| Wednesday, 07 May 2008 | ||||||
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Do you know what mass media really is? According to Wikipedia, "mass media is that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state, this could be radio networks, newspapers, magazines, out-of-home advertising, cinema films, television, the Internet, books, CDs, DVDs, VHS, computer games, and other forms of publishing." by Breeana Wakild The first book was printed in China in 868 A.D. (10) The earliest printed mass medium was European prints from about 1400. The printing press changed the way the world received printed materials, but it wasn't until the 20th century that technology allowed the mass duplication of material. Do you know what mass media really is? According to Wikipedia, "mass media is that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state, this could be radio networks, newspapers, magazines, out-of-home advertising, cinema films, television, the Internet, books, CDs, DVDs, VHS, computer games, and other forms of publishing." (10) Actually, by the time teenagers are seventeen years of age, they have spent 40,000 hours watching movies, videos, TV programs, playing video games, listening to music, and reading popular books and news stories.(4) That is more than twice the number of hours of school attendance for the same amount of time... which in some aspects may mean that the media is a stronger teacher to our children than real teachers, especially since they are delivering their message in an entertainment aspect. This means media can be a prime source of values, spiritual instruction and behavior modification.(3) I believe that media is influencing us in more wrong ways than right ones. I found the best quote ever, and it's so true, "Whoever controls the media controls the culture that elects the politicians who appoint the judges who shape our political, social, legal rules, laws, and spiritual worldview." according to Caryl Productions.(3) "This means that whoever controls the media controls our government which controls us, but it doesn't stop at politics, it's everything. Media influences our views on race, gender, politics, and body images, as well as many other views."(3) Media's ability to influence people is obvious for the simple fact that media is everywhere. Nowadays, media is our culture. All of us are swayed in one way or another by the many varieties of media we see each day. I believe that media producers don't care what message they're sending out to people. The only thing that they really care about is the millions of dollars they are making on the shows and movies that they are producing. And according to one of my sources, the TV producers, network executives, motion picture companies, and others in the media world deny that they have any impact much less 40,000 hours of impact on the attitudes and actions of youth. In fact, they blame other factors such as high divorce rate, single parent house holds, women working outside the home, drugs, the gap between the rich and the poor, and high male to female ratios.(5) If the producers, network executives, motion picture companies, and all the others in media took more responsibility in the attitudes they are creating, we could possibly start making the world a better place. While the media is denying that there is an impact on youth, they are continuing to spend millions on special effects to try to make each production a little bit more exciting than the last. One of the only reason they use special effects is because they know that people respond to visual things such as advertising, violence, and eye-catching media. This is so youth will want to visualize themselves using the product or service, or doing the action portrayed. Media offers them the chance to pretend they are somewhere that they're not, with power that they don't have, just like heroes. American media, in particular, tend to portray heroes using violence as a justified means of resolving conflict and prevailing over others.(1) Media can influence us by just putting a hero fighting a bad guy and much, much more. Prolonged exposure to media that contains violence results in increased acceptance of violence as an appropriate means of solving problems and achieving one's goals.(1) It actually has been estimated that by age 18, the average young person will have viewed 200,000 acts of violence on television alone.(9) This is because television, movies, and music videos normalize carrying and using weapons and glamorize them as a source of personal power.(1)
I know I keep talking about the youth, but even adults are manipulated by these producers. And these producers are tricky. They put music that you know, and maybe even like, so that you focus on their commercial, not the other twelve things that you are doing while watching TV. They put the music in to catch your attention, and so that you subconsciously associate the product with fun and excitement just like the music. This is an example of how even the simplest form of media influences youth's culture! Mass media of the 21st century brings a very different meaning of the term. Toward the end of the 20th century the "World Wide Web" marked the first era that any individual could have means of exposure on a scale that can compare to that of mass media.(10) Which means that this is the first time that anyone can address a global audience easily as an individual. The perfect example of this is YouTube. Anyone can tape anything and put it on the internet. And before you know it, people have it on their Myspace, and they are sending to their family and friends, and their friends’ friends, and so on, and so forth. Anyone can have influences on today's youth through mass media. Media affects us every waking moment. As we watch TV, listen to the radio, glance at a newspaper, listen to our downloaded music, read a blog, check out our Myspace, listen to a podcast, read billboards, flip through a magazine, or even just walk down the street, we are bombarded by media. It controls what we wear, the music we listen to, the visual entertainment we watch, what products we buy, the motions we make, and the very actions we take. We spend more time every day absorbing media than we do any other thing in our lives. Mass media doesn't just affect us, it controls us.
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