Throughout the past fifty years, moral values in the media have plummeted drastically. The entertainment industry focuses on television shows, celebrity scandals, affairs, relationships, and quarrels. Specifically, three television shows perfectly exhibit the lack of morality in the media: American Horror Story, I Am Cait, and 19 Kids and
Do you know the guiltiest pleasure of the American public? Two simple words reveal all—reality TV. This new segment of the TV industry began with pioneering shows like MTV’s The Real World and CBS’s Survivor. Switch on primetime television nowadays, and you will become bombarded by and addicted to numerous shows all based on “real” life. There are the heartwarming tales of childbirth on TLC, melodramas of second-rate celebrities on Celebrity Mole, and a look into a completely dysfunctional family on The Osbornes. Yet, out of all these entertaining reality shows arises the newest low for popular culture, a program based on the idea of a rich man or woman in search of
Television has been used for decades to shape the human psyche. It has also played a major role in the development of American lives, and at times we fail to notice. “People are sheep. TV is the shepherd.” (Jess C. Scott, Literary Heroin (Gluttony): A Twilight Parody).
What was writing like while the Indian Removal Act was going on? The Trail of Tears? Revolt in the young United States? Writing during the 1800’s reflected what was going on at the time. What was going on at that time you may ask, war was going on. War in a country battling other forces and themselves, all while attempting to set up a functioning government. Take the famous writer Edgar Allan Poe for example, most of his works reflect the war and devastation going on in the 1800’s, including some of his most famous works like “The Raven”, “Annabel Lee”, and “Ulalume” which all fall into a literary time period known as American Gothicism. “Ulalume” by Edgar Allan Poe is a wonderful example of the Gothicism Time Period due to its use of the characteristics of gloomy settings, intense emotions, and mythology.
The tremendous moral decline in America is startling, but not sudden. America has suffered from a bankruptcy of ethics for decades. This lack of morality is very evident in such ubiquitous mediums as the entertainment industry, and the beliefs concerning this topic are as varied as the people who hold them.
Modern day television is entertaining, thrilling, mysterious, and comical. However, morality—forgiveness, honesty, loyalty, patience, kindness—is rarely ever considered in any storyline. Whether the audience is composed of children, teenagers, or adults, most television shows today discuss highly inappropriate topics. Consequently, there are a few films and TV shows that bring morality and virtue to the table. Parks and Recreation, Fuller House, Star Trek, and Last Man Standing are all generally clean, PG-rated TV shows that attract teenage audiences. Parks and Recreation is a hilarious sitcom that portrays the lives of average Americans. This series allows its characters to generate certain morals—honesty, integrity, drive—that are otherwise
In sociology, the term deviance refers to behaviors or attitudes which go against certain cultural norms. It is evident that deviance is a fascinating topic not only for sociologist, but for television industry and its viewers, as well. In recent years, increasing number of shows begun to feature individuals violating every kind of social norm from folkways to taboos. The Secret Life of the American Teenager, an American television series on the ABC Family television network, is one of the many contemporary shows that portray deviant behaviors on national television. It’s intended for the target audience of teens and their families who are trying to cope in a culture where teen girls and boys are sexually active.
Since television came into existence, it has evolved into a useful tool to spread ideas, both social and political, and has had a great effect on the generations growing up with these heavily influential shows. To these younger generations, television has taken the role of a teacher, with the task of creating a social construction by which many of us base our personal beliefs and judgments on. This power allows television shows take the opportunity to address problems in a manner that many audiences can take to heart. Many television shows present controversial topics in a comical matter, in some ways to soften the blow of hard-hitting reality at the same time bringing attention to the issue being addressed. In the television show,
The Jersey Shore, The Bachelor, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and The Girls Next Door are just a few of the hundreds of Reality Television shows that are on today and have pushed the classic Brady Bunch family style sitcom aside. According to a study performed by the University of Michigan Health System, an average of children ages 2-5 spend 32 hours a week in front of a TV—watching television and children ages 6-11 spend about 28 hours a week in front of the TV. A majority of shows that dominate the airwaves today are Reality Television shows that can easily influence the young children and teens of society. In “Reality Television - Educational or a Waste of Time?” Marvin Pirila discusses the false realism Reality Television conveys
For close to a decade, the ethics behind the existence of reality TV have been questioned. While there are ardent viewers of reality TV, researchers and other scholars disapprove them, and claim that the world would have been in a better place. Reality TV shows, especially in America, are extremely profitable to media owners, and this has increased their popularity in the recent years. The main target audience for these shows are teenagers and women, who spend a lot of time discussing about them, even hours after the shows. Most of the reality shows in America and other parts of the world have common ideas. The most fundamental aspect of most reality TV shows is that they display people who go through embarrassing, painful and humiliating ordeals. This is what the reality shows expect their audiences to be entertained, and presumably laugh at the situations the people go through. For this reason and many more, it has been found that they are more detrimental than entertaining to the society, and therefore, the world would be in a better place without them (Pozner 89-91).
Although it is notable that audience is sensitive to the quality of media content, in particular, the upholding of certain norms and values present in the local community such as morality and sensitivity, it is in human nature to give in to curiosity (McQuail D., 1997).
This hype was called “The Moral Panic. ”A moral panic is said to be the term for an issue that is exploited by the media and moral authorities in society due to its controversial nature. When a media panic occurs, it is usually when an episode, person, group, or condition emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests. This occurs when the situation is stylized in stereotypical fashion by the mass media including people who are usually “right thinking people”. (Cohen, 1973) When the moral structure of society is seen as threatened, there are many steps that happen that turn the controversy into a media panic. The TV show’s main goal is to be an inside look at the lives of average teenagers as they struggled with substance abuse, emotional issues, and sexuality. Some viewers might go into depth with this meaning, though. This mix of topics led the Parental Television Council (PTC) to strongly oppose the show. The show was rated TV-MA on MTV which means the content is unsuitable for audience members under the age of seventeen. This rating caught the attention of many people and activists groups, such as the Parental Television Council, that would publicly oppose the show’s content. The controversy stirring because of the show involves the Parental Television Council giving a “red light” because the show may include explicit dialogue, violent content, or mainly images that are unsuitable for children. Older viewers refuse to acknowledge the meaning behind the show’s purpose because of these reasons. The group of protesters against this show explains that teenagers being displayed influence younger viewers to commit crime or violence on school grounds, at home, or even attempt to commit other wrong-doings. These protesters feel that the behavior on the show is “too graphic and extreme” for a young audience or for young actors to be
Late night television shows have taken every serious incident in our country and made it into a funny joke. Even newspaper’s typos are made humorous with the help of shows across the nation. Incidents and accidents should not be made fun of on national television, instead it should be corrected. Tosh.O makes fun of average Americans, yet if a student was to mimic those behaviors in school, they would be chastised for bullying. Young adults are not advised to watch late night TV, but that does not stop them. These youth are very likely to copy actions of these figures and will be punished by adults. Teenagers are often looked down upon for their manners, but these are the behaviors taught by those on television and in society all around them. People watch talk shows, normally staring celebrities, to investigate other people’s opinion on issues and how the superstars believe. Celebrities have “acted as cultural magnets” in the way “we frequently copy traits they” acquire because we believe that is “what made them successful in the first place” (Tehrani). Once again, individuals have stopped standing up for themselves and have let other people’s opinion override their own principles. By never questioning the celebrity, their intentions and motivations, the viewer never creates an opinion based on the whole story, but instead on half-truths. The virus continues to
Some of the most popular television shows in today’s society are The Biggest Looser, Jersey Shore, and Big Brother. These programs and many others are classified as reality television. Reality television’s main purpose is to attempt to portray ordinary people in unscripted situations. Recently, however, many of these shows have achieved in creating the complete opposite, and have earned an immense amount of criticism as a result. Reality television programs are detrimental to society because they influence bad behavior among teenagers, do not produce authentic real life situations, and they humiliate many of the characters.
If we examine the first impact of abusive authority, we will find that moral standards are today, at its lowest percentile. It is fair to say that America has lost its morality. No longer are we conservative or discreet. Yet, we are outspoken and boastfully filled with pride and our very own alto ego; living for self. No longer are we caring or outreaching. Yet and still, we build a wall. For example, there are many obscurities that can be easily witnessed while watching American television. Whereas, many actors are now shown at their least of clothing or somewhat nudity in the midst of primetime broadcasting. What happened to broadcasting services only allowing such nature of television that is shown at a specific time during the night? Has the media authority taken advantage of our innocence, our kids innocence? Maybe! Another example, there have been many shootings and
Can T.V. shows be the reflection of our society or influence the behavior of the members of our community? Since 1936 when television broadcasting begin, it priority was to inform and to entertain our society; subsequently, a massive amount of rules and regulations were created to control the material presented in TV, which principal goal was to safeguard the moral and ethical standards of it time. Nevertheless, from its beginning to the present home entertainment television standards contents have change; likewise, the moral an ethics values of our society have change and continuing changing from generation to generation. TV shows from the 50’s, 80’s, and the present exposed many changes in the way human role are exposed, the language