Media And Its Impact On Society

Everyday we see many images in the media and they suggest what we should be like. While the media says how we should act or look, these suggestions invade people’s thoughts. The images the media portrays make it hard to break out of socially constructed stereotypes in our lives. The media reflects dominate and social values of people’s lives. The media also portrays gender by creating stereotypes and gender roles showing how men, women, and transgenders are seen as deviant. In the media, men are portrayed to be “masculine” while females are shown to be “feminine”. Transgenders are viewed in many negative ways and they are stereotyped. Gender stereotypes are expressed more in mass media because it reaches large audiences. The media can influence people to think that what they see is reality. Most of the time the media shows men to be more dominant than woman. This is a way the media influences people to be someone they aren’t.

Throughout the years the use of technology has increased, and expanded. Mass media plays a vital role in society. Mass media can be defined as any means of communication, to an extremely large group of people. Technological advancements have been extremely beneficial for prior generations, the generation we now live in, and will be for the future generations to come. Such as, providing news for the world to hear, entertainment, and much more. Some examples of media would be television, films, newspapers, and the Internet. Unfortunately along with benefits, there are disadvantages concerning gender discrimination, and sexism. Such as, women feelings forced and obligated to stay at home with their children instead of working, and the representation of beauty involving both men and women. Examples of how the media can accomplish this would be through the use of advertisements, movies, magazines, and the radio. The media has an enormous effect on people within society today.

Women around the world face overwhelming oppressions in their daily lives. That is not news to anyone and these oppressions have occurred for so much of history, that it is often times overlooked by the mass majority; even the younger generations of women do not know the types of oppressions that they will soon have to face. To combat this, FCKH8.com, a well known organization that sells t-shirts and other merchandise with witty anti-racism, anti-homophobic, and pro-feminist catchphrases on them, created the video, “Potty-Mouthed Princesses Drop F-Bombs for Feminism”. As the title implies, the video contains little girls, ages six through eleven, aggressively yelling “FUCK,” towards the camera while rattling off facts and statistics about some of the oppressions women face because of their gender. The comment section of this video is erratic; the viewers often have conflicting views about the meaning of the video as well as whether or not it was successful in its purpose. One thing is for sure, the video makes an impact by using several rhetorical devices including word choice, pathos and logos; all which separate it from other pro-feminism videos that exist.

Looks don’t matter, beauty is only skin-deep, you’re beautiful just the way you are. How many times have we heard this, yet we live in a society that appears to contradict this very idea. If looks don’t matter then why do women and girls live in a society where their bodies define who they are? If looks don 't matter then why is airbrushing used by the media to hide any flaws a person has? What exactly is causing this, why do we feel like we are just not beautiful the way we are? Its the media. It’s because the media promotes a certain body image as being beautiful, and it’s a far cry from the average woman’s size 12. The media may be great for entertainment but it also has the power to destroy a woman 's confidence and self-esteem. Young women are bombarded with this unrealistic standard everyday and everywhere. It gives them a goal that is impossible to reach and the effects are devastating. What is even worse is that society has become so accepting of the idea that size 2 is what defines beauty and perfection. And that needs to change.

“The media 's the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that 's power. Because they control the minds of the [people]” (Malcolm X). The message of this Malcolm X quote is that society can control the mind of the individual. This is true. For many years, society has influenced everyone worldwide both negatively and positively. That is because society has the ability to control the individual’s decisions. They can control the individual in making their decisions that could affect people’s lives worldwide; it also has the ability to control their decisions that could affect the individual’s life. You might be thinking “But why should we care about this topic? This doesn’t seem really important to us” well it’s important because we all can relate to this as everyone has been influenced by society at least once in their lifetime. Just ask yourself this. Have you ever simulated a role model that you had by just copying the actions that they do just because you wanted to be just like them? Have you picked up habits from society that is around you like family or peers that has affected you in your life? Have you ever maybe tried something you found from your family members or from the Internet to get your personal needs? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are involved in this conversation. But there’s a problem. There’s an argument going on about this topic. The controversy of this topic

People have been surrounding by advertisements for so long that is has become a ubiquitous to its audience. Over time the relationship between the media and its society began to develop into a normative relationship which is built on the society’s standard and expectations of what the

Mass media is perhaps the most powerful tool in the world for creating, changing or perpetuating society’s ideas about an issue or group of people. It works both blatantly and subconsciously by deciding which issues are important, how to frame those issues, who to show as affected by them, and, increasingly, providing personal commentaries on the matters at hand. Because the majority of media outlets are owned by corporations dominated by white heterosexual men, many minorities are portrayed in ways that perpetuate negative stereotypes – if they are portrayed at all. Even though men have made great strides in regards to power, but with the black male they continue to experience both misrepresentation and underrepresentation in the modern

Media is a major contributor of how social groups are perceived in today’s society. Mediais around us every day almost all day, and it constantly sends messages about the world’s environment. There are many indicators shown pertaining to how media really affects society. One of the most prominent explanations of those questions is the way media influences stereotypes. There has been previous research linking media sources and biased attitudes. This research paper explores articles supporting media as an influence of stereotypes. The perceptions of society are influenced by media. The media influences perception in many different aspects of life. Stereotypes act as cognitive schemas, used to help us process and organize information about the social world. They help us to separate and group others as we strive to make predictions and interpretations about others. One of the most common cognitive processes associated with stereotyping is social categorization. Social categorization is the tendency to classify people into groups. Other sources of stereotypes are in-group/out-group categorization, which place individuals in categories based upon who may be similar to us, versus who is not. Negative stereotypes can lead to prejudice and discrimination, which demonstrates the unjust attitude, or unjustified negative behaviors toward members of other social groups. The generalizations can be negative, positive, or neutral. Stereotypes influence the way we perceive others and also

Are you comfortable in your own skin? As a result of spending too much time associating with the media can make you believe differently. While the media commence to advance and develop an incomprehensible factor, the appearance of civilization begins to mold and shape as a reflection to equally match. Despite the element of using false advertisement or infringement, society is charmed by the sense of exhilaration that is generated by the media. Yet civilization remain uncomprehending to the natural effect that the media leaves printed on them. The media is one of the largest and main sources to express ethnocentrism which leads to stereotyping, while intensifying and supporting the fact of self-consciousness. However society is partially to blame for the gossip and wrongful act of civilization in the media.

On April 29th, 2013, two rivaling gangs, the Valley Hood Piru and the East Union Street Hustlers, claiming stakes to the Central District of Seattle, result in the shooting of two victims. Ronald “Messy” Massey, a member of the East Union Street Hustlers, was reported to have shot two members of the rivaling gang at a local convenient store (Vaughn, 2013). Reports suggest that the shooting was accredited to the gangs ' "violent clashes in the past” and possibly Massey’s intent in solidifying his standing as a gang member (Fucoloro, 2013). Furthermore, detectives believe that Massey may have been pressured to prove his loyalty (Vaughn, 2013). The media emphasizes that the rising intensity of the rivalry is the main factor that is resulting in the increase of gang activities, but the lack of questioning by the media on the possible causal factors that lead to the crime limits the understanding of the motives.

These days, sexism in the media is one of the top issues confronting women in Canada. Female political candidates often experience a toxic environment that can adversely affect their campaigns. The constantly changing media scene regularly permits harmful remarks to exist without responsibility. The under-representation of women in media is an all-inclusive wonder. Despite the fact that there have been improvements, women still fall behind men in numerical representation in government. The sexual orientation depiction studies have recorded that the media have been careless in reacting to sex equalization. Women are either overlooked totally or are lessened to imperceptible status through under-representation in innovative and basic

"Media Violence - American children and adolescents are exposed to increasing amounts of media violence, especially in television, movies, video games, and youth-oriented music. By 18, the average young person will have viewed 200,000 acts of violence on television" (http: //www.karisable.com/crssmv.htm)

In our society, the media play a critical role, they provide us with definitions about who we are as a nation, they reinforce our values and norms and they perpetuate certain ways of seeing the world and the people within the world. The media have provided us with image of prescription and description. They tell us how society sees us and tell us how to behave in society with the help of media hegemony which is “a condition that occurs when dominant groups in society control the mass media, largely through ownership” (John V. Pavlik). With media hegemony in our media conveys and reinforces negative stereotypes of a group of people. Users online is posting, uploading photos, videos, and commenting without considering how it vilifies other groups or persons. Since images are present around us everywhere we go. Our mind consumes and registers these images without a consent. Whether we want to view these images or not our subconscious uses them to construct our social behavior. Not only do these mediated images penetrate our minds, but they shape and re-create the world we live in and the way we view it. The danger lies in stereotypes that are integrated into these online photo, video and messages are used to spread hate. This online user is using propaganda which is “the regular dissemination of a belief, doctrine, cause or information, with the intent to mold public opinion (Pavlik)”to share this belief. However, the liking for freedom of expression has led to appearance of

A single day does not pass without the average American engaging in some form of technology laced with advertisements, whether it be a minute long video prefacing a Youtube video or a thirty second long Pandora audio commercial. A common theme emerges throughout these forms of media, the subordination of women. TV shows, video games, movies, and songs frequently portray women as objects, dehumanizing them by showing them as being subservient to men, or showing them as adhering to stereotypical behavior. On one hand, some argue that the information is not processed by the people watching and therefore has no impact on behavior. The skeptics say this has no impact on people’s action, pointing out the fact that people rarely watch an intense movie where many women are harmed, then proceed to go out in public and duplicate those actions. Though I concede that our society does not directly act on what they have seen, the information diffuses into their subconscious. The constant bombardment of media endorsing mistreatment of women affects people’s thought processes, diminishing reactions. “Thought processes are greatly impacted by the subconscious influence of media.” “The negative portrayal of women in media greatly influences subconscious thought processes.”

Violence is much more socially acceptable in today’s society than it was hundreds of years ago, which is mostly caused by technological advances. As technology expanded, so did our generation’s tendency for violence. With all the breakthroughs in social interaction using technology, the media has become a large contributor to society. Coinciding with the first amendment to free speech, the media is a very valuable and powerful tool in spreading information when used for important purposes. However, many people abuse this power and sometimes spread the wrong message. Due to the vast amount of people promoting the wrong values, our society suffers the consequences through the immature minds of those who are easily swayed. Therefore, this