Media Gatekeepers

Media had had a long influence on society, and top to bottom take a gander at its most famous forms today would most certainly uncover a few glaring disparities in the way TV network and print media communicate the information to the public. Many media are slanted, and somehow they are inclined to cover events and support people similar to their beliefs or ideas. Television and newspaper dominated the average American household in terms of being used to access information, nonetheless new ways of obtaining news like online web, and films are steady growing day by day into major ways in which people learn about what is happening close city and in the word. For instance, deportation has been a hotly debated issue in the media, especially during

We live in a society in which media has such a great influence on us, yet the influence is only in certain aspects and on certain people. “Mass media is arguably the most influential in molding public consciousness” (562). People might think that media is managed by a combination of different people but in reality, since the number of media companies is decreasing, only certain people control the industry and what gets to be put out to light. Since media is mostly controlled by a few people who belong to the 1%, the information that goes into the media is influenced by their beliefs as well as race, class, and even gender. Media influences every aspect of our lives since “media plays a key role in defining our cultural tastes, helping us locate

Media has changed a lot over time, and it can play a role in not knowing your true self. It can take you away from not knowing your true self by changing your thoughts over something. The media plays a large role because it is our main source of information, we listen to weather reports, financial reports, political reports and we let that information lead our lives. It often times relates to how we feel, are

Katrina was the first hurricane to hit the United States to the accompaniment of continuous (24/7) TV coverage. Certainly, Andrew (1992) had considerable TV coverage, but that was before competitive twenty-four hour cable coverage. In social science terms, television constructed the frame of meaning to which audiences and decision-makers came to understand Katrina. For some along the coast, personal experience with Katrina might have helped. If you were on Dauphin Island or in Moss Point, Biloxi, Bay St. Louis, north or south of Highway 10, in Kenner or in a bar on Bourbon Street, the storm was slightly different. However, for most of us, the reality of the storm came through TV networks. Even for “victims” who lost electrical

“Public opinion is formed and expressed by machinery. The newspapers do an immense amount of thinking for the average man and woman. In fact, they supply them with such a continuous stream of standardized opinion, bourne along upon an equally inexhaustible flood of news and sensation, collected from every part of the world every hour of the day, that there is neither the need nor the leisure for personal reflection. All this is but part of a tremendous educating process. It is an education at once universal and superficial. It produces enormous numbers of standardized citizens, all equipped with regulation opinions, prejudices and sentiments according to their class or party.” – Winston S. Churchill

Have you ever felt like you are living in a world where humanity isn’t at its best? Have you ever felt mixed emotions by watching a TV show? Is it possible for a show to represent love, hate, anger, drama, pain, sadness or even cause you a sense of distress? The Walking Dead is the perfect show to make you think about how people act in different situations in life and shows us what type of people these circumstances can create. The show is based on a post-apocalyptic time where the existence of humanity is near its end. The Walking Dead represents themes of fear, betrayal, sacrifice, hope, leadership and, the conflict between good and bad. Some aspects of the show such as the character development and how, psychologically, the characters tend

You brought up an important point on how the media can connect people. I recall being fixated on any updates regarding the 9/11 and feeling more stress out.. The more I watch the news the more my environment felt unsafe. The media can also portray one side and therefore the public must learn to try and read between the lines. Good or bad, I’m glad to be part of a society of technology, I can only imaging how boring it might have been without TV, Radio, Books etc.

A brilliant example of this are the many climate change protest the occur, primarily the “People’s Climate March”. This is a yearly protest whose leading objective was to stop global warming and climate change by any way possible. When the marches happen, the media covers them heavily, and, in great light. However, after the march has ended, people stop talking. Despite the 2646 individual marches in 162 countries, and President Barack Obama mentioning the protests, nothing has changed.

After a major weather incident happens we do see the good come out of ordinary people on the news. The news after Hurricane Katrina started off with acts of courage by the Coast Guard, rescuing roughly 34,000 people. We saw stories of ordinary citizens helping their neighbors and even strangers with shelter, food and water. It did not take long for the media to find the stories that would make us ask how, and why is this happening. The people that were stranded in the Super Dome while it was falling apart around them. They went to seek shelter because they could not get out of the city quick enough. They had little supplies, and when the news learned that they were stuck there without a legit plan by the city, state or federal government to get them out, or supply others with the help they needed. It took days for FEMA to set up operations in New Orleans, and the focus turned for the media to why it took so long for the government to help the people there instead of the heroic storied that we would not hear of

I most definitely agree that TV and audio off of radios and screens can be “unfiltered, not always factual, and too often fail[ed] to provide any [important] context.” Understanding your statement, I believe that media has changed the ways that we are introduced to the topic of Katrina. During Katrina, the news provided first hand reporting only a few hours after the story hit, but others from the news, real effected people, told unfiltered content on the news in “apocalyptic” voices, as you had mentioned.

The media we view helps us to understand and help shape our ideas of society. For example, after you watch a show it helps you pick out your deepest values. What you consider to be good or bad, positive or negative, moral or evil. Along with helping you pick out your morals media spectacles help you understand who has the power and who is powerless. Often, the media will dramatize the symbolism of power.

The absence of media attention stops the immediate terror from the citizens, making the whole event seem less important, and "because the evacuees are attuned to the forms, genres, and in fact the larger aesthetics of television, they experience a lack, a sense of emptiness" (Duvall 130). According to Duvall: The heart of the TV man's anger is that for those who experience disaster, the presence of the media makes the experience "real;" that is, as part of our cultural repertoire, people know, like the TV man, that the media is supposed to be interested in marketing disaster. Therefore, the airborne toxic even cannot be a real disaster if the media shows no interest (133).

You see things in shows like girls playing with their barbies wearing cute pink outfits while the boys roughhouse in the background playing sports. The media has a very compelling influence on today's society, its shapes our perspective on life without us realizing it, all the while altering our behaviors and attitudes towards social norms. One example is If teenagers see unrealistic ‘thin’ or ‘muscular’ body types often enough, it can have an impact on their body image and dieting behavior. But it doesn't start with the media, of course, it starts with our parents  and their own gender orientations. As we grow up, other groups influence

Therefore, what we mostly see on the screen is what the sponsors promote, which are usually mechanisms to keep society stable. This exactly what American media was doing from the muckrakers of the 20's to the war in Kosovo in the 90's. Let us now look at some examples of the use of TV as a mean of control over society. Before January 1991, public opinion polls showed that the American public was split into two groups, 50% each, about whether the U.S. should attack Iraq or not. Historians say however, if any anti-war voices had been heard in the mass media at this time, the outcome could have been completely different. The second example turns out to be a tragic one, when we talk about the freedom of speech. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the pictures of the irradiated Japanese were not made available to the American public until the 1980's. In both cases we see the control of society through TV, by those who control it, and directing society toward a certain destination, which is found to be the "way forward for the humanity", and keeping the system together by creating a popular culture based on consumerism; turns out to be a modern way of practicing authority in our lives.

As discussed in class, one of the most influential agencies of socialization is the media. The way we see ourselves or the way other people see us come from what we are told by others and what we tell ourselves. In the Better world handbook, the chapter on media states that “the way we think and act in our daily lives is inextricably linked to the information we receive about the world” (Jones, Haenfler and Johnson). The chapter continues to discus how information delivered to us can be bias and this raises the issue on who controls the media and what we see through it. The problem with this could be that that whoever controls the media does not necessary have our best interest in mind and the content that is transmitted through the media is profit driven. . In the article “Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got wrong” gives a perfect accept of how easy it is for information to get omitted based on what people what you to know and what they don’t want you to know. From a young age, people decide what they want you to know, so that they can decide on what they want you to think about certain topics whether its American history or something else, its like the