Assignment: As the documentary Miss Representation explains, “The media is now the message and the messenger.” Every day, we take in countless hours of media that influence how we view others and in turn how we view ourselves. It is our responsibility to consume media in an intelligent way AND fight back against negative messages put forth by the media.…
The media distort our understanding of what is happening in the world? Discuss. Justify your answer with the use of examples.…
Themes are the framework of works of art. Just like a backbone in humans is needed to provide support and aid movement, a theme is used to send a message across to the audience and provide the means used to send it. Appearance vs. reality is a theme most commonly used in writing. It requires the audience to think about the fact that the piece of art they have just read or seen has more to it. This theme is used in Nadine Gordimer’s “Once Upon a Time”, Julio Polanco’s “Identity” and American rock band Evanescence’s song, “Everybody’s fool”. It is used in the plot of each work to give three major underlying messages. The first is that appearance exists to hide the truth, the second is that reality is often a harsher world and the lastly, they use it as an umbrella to express their feelings and thoughts.…
The mass media plays a key role in today’s society. From the young to the old, most everyone relies upon some form of popular media for entertainment, information, communication and education. Additionally, a large part of our beliefs, values and knowledge are gained through some type of popular media. The numerous sources of media in use today make it close to impossible to avoid being exposed to its content. Whether it be newspapers, television, radio, magazines, video games, Internet or one of the many other sources, there is no doubt that the media is everywhere. Furthermore, when something is everywhere, it is certain to have influential effects. If these conditions are accepted as true, then, concluding that the popular media must have influential effects on society, must also be accepted as true. Indeed, society is greatly influenced by the media, specifically, by the values that are being portrayed. Moreover, children/adolescent teens (youth), ages 8 – 17, are the group in society most significantly influenced by media content. It is in this age range that finding individuality and a sense of belonging, or fitting in, is of utmost importance. A youth’s development is effected by what they see and hear, as well as, peer pressure. From eating disorders, behavior issues and self-doubt to teen pregnancy (sex), drugs, alcohol, smoking, and even death, the media’s portrayal of values through TV, magazines, music, and video games can have potentially devastating effects, both physically and mentally on a child. Even though the media can be a positive influence on society, for instance, by keeping society informed in a crisis situation, such as natural disasters, action needs to be taken to protect our youth by reducing the negative influences resulting from immoral and unethical media content.…
Now this statement could be talked about from a broader perspective involving the other many paradigms of today’s media influence such as with deception, disinformation, deliberate spin offs and manipulation of the human consciousness, or media’s influence on a cultural or religious group or regarding a specific problem such as violence portrayed by the media, influence of media on body image or promotion of harmful or useless products, but our goal is to understand the media and why its influential and to what scale it can be under regulation from an ethical and lawful standpoint.…
The media is subtle in its approach and yet so sublime in its execution that today it is the media that decides who is a hero and who is a foe. Because of its speed and interactivity today people use media to give meaning to the world objects and make perceptions about various phenomena. Media has the power of accentuating paltry issues and making them appear ever more significant to the masses. The stark imprints of media penetrate into our minds and shape our thoughts and behaviors and this is ultimately reflected in the society. This entire process along with its affects on the society is known as “popular culture” today (McKenzie 96).…
The media has a great influence on the lives of everyone. To get a better understanding of these effects is to view the media from a sociological perspective. The two perspectives that I choose are the conflict theory and symbolic interactionism. Both of these perspectives have a different approach to how the media affects our society. Conflict theory looks more at how society, as a whole, is affected, whereas symbolic interactionists look more at the smaller groups of the society.…
Today’s television and magazines are influencing many people all around us. Many teens and young people look up to celebrities in magazines, young men look up to the good fighters in action movies, and everyone looks for the perfect diet. Life was so easy when the children looked up to mom and dad for answers, instead of today, where everyone looks to the media for answers. Not all people fall into the trap that the media throws out there. Media has thrown so many distorted images of suicides, sexuality, eating disorders and violence. Many people who grow up with the media feed on these issues end up with problems.…
What is the media? Is it more than our eyes and ears to the world? Is the media more than words and images on a screen meant to provide information? There are many definitions of what the media is and what purpose it serves. Regardless of these definitions, the fact remains that the media shapes the world. It has the capability to drive the world in whatever direction it so desires. The media has become a numbers game, driven by ratings and demographics, seeking to provide information of a shock value-centered subject matter, which will draw more viewers. As such, a story of a graphic or tragic nature would gain more viewers than one of a soft-hearted or positive, humane-centered story. Given these facts, it is a rarity to find a lead story that carries a positive vibe. These stories are usually given brief segments, usually no more than 2 to 3 minutes of spot-light time. The media often misrepresents a person, a people, a place, or an idea, and does so without hesitation. There are many methods and mediums the media uses to reach the great majority of the world. Whether it is by use of print, such as newspapers or magazines, or by broadcast, by means of…
There are two types of media. There can be good media, and there can be bad media. One might also refer to the media as positive or negative. This paper will introduce some negative affects found as a result of children imitating and idolizing the media and the celebrities that go along with it. There are also positive results that come from the media; the media is not all bad. This paper will just focus on the bad affects I have found. The media spends billions of dollars to create advertisements that appeal to our youth. While those companies are just looking to make money and promote their products; they are doing so much more. Today's world is becoming more aware of the problems arising from negative media.…
The media is a great tool for teaching the public. However, this tool can be misused. The information you receive may be inaccurate, exaggerated, stereotypical and biased. Hollywood and the news media both have a significant part to play in feeding off of the general audience’s ignorance. This holds true for how the majority…
Throughout the years, television has brought America entertainment from around the world. In the beginning, the television was used solely for entertainment; however, in today’s society, it is being used to “influence the way people think about such important social issues…
At the heart of understanding the media and its influence on society, one must set out to investigate the…
Now this would be a potentially colossal problem, except for the fact that media influence does not affect the individual, but rather “everyone else”. This is a theory known as ‘The Third Person Effect”. The third person effect hypothesizes that the average person perceives a greater media influence on others than on themselves. Meaning that the majority of us are smart enough to acknowledge and recognize the problem, but not smart enough to realize how our own brains are being influenced on the media we take in. (Salwen)…
The following essay will concentrate on the reciprocal relationship between the media and society, focusing on journalism in particular. A brief overview of the terms used in this essay will be used first to create a common understanding. This will be achieved by discussing theories regarding mass media and journalism as separate entities. The two will then be combined to discuss how mass media affects , and is affected by society. This will be done by referring to the many theories regarding journalism and mass media and how thy correspond with society using theories such as the normative press theories.…