Film Analysis: The Merchants Of Cool

MTV, formally known as Music Television, is one of the most viewed networks on television today. Roughly thirty-three years old, it has changed the American culture drastically in more than just one way. Specifically targeting teens and young adults, the MTV network provides all of the most up to date gossip on celebrities, highlights the latest fashion trends, promotes versified lifestyles, and defines the music industry of our generation. However, this so-called “idolized network” has not always been this way. The American culture has been affected by MTV through the creation of the network, the transformation from simply just music television to inappropriate reality shows, and the promotion of inappropriate content.

I am writing you in order to discuss the negative portrayal of teenagers in today’s media. Overall, I fell disheartened about how we as young people are demonized by the media. As you may know, bad press quickly escalates to sweeping statements and stereotypes.

One example why today’s youth is being hooked on media is the TV channel, Adult Swim, which is the nightly block for the channel that most kids watch during the day, Cartoon Network. I can say, from personal experience, that Adult Swim is the first broadcaster to truly embrace the digital platform of the internet. When we look back on some of our most cherished forms of media content from our childhood, we don't just think about the music or the laughs or the rest of the emotions that they evoked. We cherish these films, TV shows, and bands because of their ability to capture the spirit of our youth. Not everyone looks back on The Beatles and wonders what the 60’s were like or you don’t look over The Breakfast Club without constantly thinking

In the article, “Confessions of a news junkie who hides the news from his kids,” Barry Gittins discusses the topic of mass media, he asserts that it has misguided children. Mass media has always been something to inform people. Yet, it’s the over consumption of media seems to affect the mental and physical wellness of children. This new generation of advancing gadgets and devices has altered children’s way of life and connections. The best way to avoid harming the child’s mental and physical wellness is moderation on the screens. Parents claim that in their youth, they used their creativity or sensibility to create things that make them occupied and entertained them. Children are only children once. So, why not bring that back and help the

Not only did these social sages tell what type of look and behavior was cool, they introduced the artists of that generation (Spears, 2011). Without both MTV and the jockeys, artists we still know and love today would not have been pushed into the limelight. With MTV’s popularity soaring, more and more people started watching MTV. The saying, “I want my MTV,” became a generation’s catchphrase (Springer, 2005). With MTV’s handle on teenage culture, the channel set the mainstream image for the age (Springer,

The impact these media representations can have on the overall teen audiences is monumental. The portrayal of adults in teen films creates a negative representation for teens that may watch them. The portrayal of adults in films not only provides teens a vague sense of what their lifestyle should be like, but also gives them a substandard reputation in the eyes of adults. This can have an effect on the teen’s psychosocial, emotions, and mental

The artists themselves serve as role models for modern children and adolescents. As role models and symbols, their sexualized lyrics and videos have a demolishing effect on modern youth. The sexualization of females within the music industry has caused many issues with body image and eating disorders amongst young girls, the glorification of sexual intercourse has led to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases amongst teenagers, and the overall increase in sexualized pop music has caused behavioral issues within children. According to Dr. Justin Coulson, “Our digital diet is desensitizing us… Empathy is reduced. Objectification is increased. Morality erodes.” Sexualized modern pop music is demolishing a happy and worry-free childhood for the youth of this modern era, and something must be

Since adolescents lives are based off technology and the media they are more likely to experience the effects of the media. Significant research has been done about how teenage girls are sexually objectified throughout the media we see today, which can have a negative impact on their physical and mental health. Teenage are portrayed an s sexual object and promoted to be sexually appealing, but cannot appear to be easy. A media literacy intervention presented by Amy Baker and Lyn Brown created this to offer girls and activist to challenge the sexualization of girls. To help girls think critically and try to promote change. This intervention was first implemented in Philadelphia, Maine, and New York City. The results of the intervention was that the content displayed was banned and did not have access to watch certain videos. Another problem that arose was that even though parents signed consent forms the parents were concerned with the content their children were viewing and the type of topics and questions it might raise frightened the parents. It was stated that, “Nonetheless, facilitators and girls considered the groups a success because they enabled media literacy and a sense of agency” (Baker, Brown, & Ragonese, 2016, pg.80). That the sexualization of teenage girls affects how they view themselves. The individual level issues found in this literature is that teenage girl’s self-image is harmed due to the sexualization depicted in the media. The sexualization of women to be sexy, can damage relationships through slut shaming. The systematic level issues is that the girls thought the intervention was a success, but the schools were concerned about the content being presented and what questions might arise from the girls who participated in the intervention. That the

With the decline of TV appeal among kids of the latest generation, Hollywood celebrities have lost their appeal with this demographic group as well. My little brother, a sixth-grader who possesses his own tablet, iPod Touch, and Nintendo 3DS, cannot even name three current Disney Channel TV shows (or this year’s Oscar nominees). He can, however, list at least 20 different Youtube gaming channels. In sixth grade, I didn’t even know Youtube existed. I could list every Disney Channel show on the air under a minute, though. Albeit Disney Channel stardom is not commensurate to Hollywood stardom by any means, it was my (and almost every other 12-year-old’s) world. The gravitation away from TV networks like Disney Channel and Nickelodeon among today’s kids indicates a fundamental change in values. This current generation hails Youtube as the new Hollywood with its alternative batch of “celebrities” famous for their relatability and authenticity. No longer a mere form of entertainment, Youtube vloggers have become a form of companionship that this generation veers towards for their attainable and genuine

Adolescent youth within the United States spend between six to seven hours a day with some form of media, including television, music, the Internet, and smart cell phones (Roberts, Foehr, Rideout, 2005). With sexuality being presented in such an insensitive manner, adolescent youth girls are being pressured to confine to society’s expectations at a younger age due to explicit music lyrics and media, consistently being displayed by different outlets. One of the biggest ways that young girls are affected by the media is through television and music content. Within most of our daily life, the social environment from what we view and understand has been mostly characterized by the mass media and internet which have also used musical elements to

The documentary shares a statistical data at the very beginning of the film: in a given year, youngsters burn through 100 billion dollars of their own cash and impact their relatives to spend an extra 50 billion dollars. The film concentrates on this relationship between media, who frequently deals cool, and youngsters. This relationship is examined all through the film. Some trust that media is only the needs and wishes communicated by teenagers. Be that as it may, others trust that the media has made a business sector of cool with a specific end goal to produce benefits. The finish of the film expresses that numerous trust young people and the media are in a criticism circle. This criticism circle is

Many studies have shown how Movies and Television shows are influencing the expectations of what teenagers think life will be like when they group up. The media gives a very descriptive interpretation of what they see as normal. Common topics that are influenced by the media is sex, violence, drinking, smoking, relationships, and body image. As the media presents the perfect relationships and the perfect life, teenagers start to think that they need to change themselves and the way they act because it is not like what they see on television. On average, a teenager watches four to five hours of television a day. This is not including what they see on a phone, laptop, or tablet. In the short story, “The Love of my Life” by T. Coraghessan Boyle, China and Jeremey, the young characters, are realizing that life isn’t exactly what they thought it would be.

However, conventions of comedy film changed by the year 1963, when Stanley Kramer came out with It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. This film in particular is most definitely an epic comedy film chock-full of action and wild misadventures. The plot revolves around the pursuit of $350,000 in stolen cash by quite a diverse group of strangers who compete throughout the entire story to locate this stolen fortune. More specifically, near the beginning of the film, six passerby motorists initially put up a good united front against police officers, yet fail to fairly divide the potential loot due to their own greed.

MTV promotes a romanticized teen lifestyle, reflecting the images of famous artists that differ with the realities of the “Generation X” lifestyle. While some view the station as “illustrated radio” or an entertainment network for viewers’ pleasure, others more accurately consider it as an advertising enterprise that endorses products and promotes attitudes

In Pettit’s (2003) review, it was found that the mass media fill the gap of the sex education in the schools. The study consisted of surveys, focus groups, and interviews to analyze the teen media experiences and response to the media messages. The study found that teens are learning from the sexual content of the MTV music videos, teen magazines and daytime talk shows. The shows on television make it seem like it is appropriate for teens to start having sex early. But he stated that the teens were not “passive sponges at the mercy of all-powerful, sex-saturated mass media … rather they freely acknowledge the complex … of the active media consumer, the media messages, and their social