Media 's Effect On Society

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.

“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

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

Media plays a significant role in the way it can influence our culture. The media can produce positive and negative impacts on our society. It has the power to produce messages that can manipulate the way people think as well as influencing attitudes and actions taken towards the opposite sex. In the video Tough Guise: Violence, Media, and the Crisis in Masculinity Jackson Katz discusses that the rampant of male violence that affects American society needs to be comprehended and concentrated as part of a much larger cultural predicament in masculinity. Currently, stereotypes exist in all societies. How we initially identify them, characterize each other can be determined through generalized assumptions about people which were constructed around specific traits such as race, sex, age, and sexual orientation (unwomen, 2011). Presently, the differences one may see between traditional gender roles have been reduced when compared to years past, however mass media still maintains conventional gender stereotypes, which affect the way someone can or will view the opposite sex. When mainstream advertisers send messages to their consumers, they know that their influence is significant and a great platform to control or at the least, shape the way people perceive our world.

In today’s world, the large problem with the way the media advertises the human body is growing every day. From digitally editing magazine ads, to starved models, to plastic people, advertising paints an unrealistic and unhealthy body image to the public. Advertisements that display these plastic people as the epitome of beauty, cause otherwise normal, healthy people to invest in unhealthy diet plans which can lead to eating disorders, and even premature death. Women desperately trying to compete with plastic models are not the only casualty of this cruel psychological war; men are envious of the perfectly toned six packs on underwear models just as much. Eager to compete, steroids clog up the hearts of those who just want to meet the

With reference to academic sources and focusing on one particular example of your choice, how do the media challenge or reinforce traditional ideas about gender.

When we look at the media’s impact in our world it reaches far beyond the individual. While we may spend a large portion of our day individually consuming media, it affects us all in a way that has begun to shape our society. What we see on the news, TV, movies, advertisements, and the internet, all influence what we think and how we act. A quick example is how body image is affected by what we see in media. Teenage girl’s body image is especially distorted based on what the media says they should look like rather than what is realistic. In many more ways, mass media has integrated its way into our lives and it affects us at a societal level when it comes to what we think, how we act, and how we perceive violence in our world.

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.

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.”

Mass media has been the greatest source of entertainment and communication in history, and even greater with the explosion of new technology. It is defined as the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazine that reach or influence people widely. It is a huge part of our everyday lives; we see media everywhere, and we know the latest news and trends right away because of this. It is attributed, according to Denis McQuail in his book Mass Communication and Society, to “influence opinion and belief, change habits of life, and actively mold behavior.” Unfortunately, media affects the public in a way that it could control what a person does or thinks. More and more people see in media the

In today’s society if one were to walk down a populated sidewalk, it would seem merely impossible to spot a sole not twiddling away on their phone. With an entire world unfolding at their fingertips, we witness a society that has become addicted to media. Used as a powerful source of knowledge and entertainment, media plays an enormous role in the development of human life and gender distinction. Through the use of media, guidelines consisting of generated ideas and ways of living, affect both men and women. This then creates an altered thinking process that leads to an environment susceptible of stereotyping and ridicule. For both sexes, this negative portrayal of media causes a constant downfall of self-image and media persuaded decisions that influence unhealthy lifestyles. Functioning as a tool in our society, this essay will examine how the media negatively causes and constructs gender-based stereotypes.

"It occurred to me I was approaching the project in the wrong way. The only way to tell the story was as a black comedy, or better, a nightmare comedy, where the things you laugh at most are really the heart of the paradoxical postures that make a nuclear war possible” –Stanley Kubrick (Phillips, 97)

Racism has always been, and continues to be, a relevant issue in our society. While racism is not as prevalent as it was in the 1860’s, it is not any less significant. The relevance of racism today can partially be blamed on how the media portrays race. Media comes in all forms; print media, broadcast media, social media, etc. Each of these forms play an important role in our society. Media is the main communicator in today’s society. Society looks to media for information. This is a problem because media does not always have the proper answers in regards to certain issues. One of the main issues with media is how it regards race When it comes to the issue of race, society should not look to media for answers. The media does not portray racial problems accurately because it is unreliable, it affects the way society perceives race, and it generalizes stereotypes.

Over the years the media has been a regular part of our societies life. Whether we are watching our favorite television sitcom or watching our favorite news program almost all of society is somehow attached to some sort of media outlet. We turn to our televisions when we want to have a laugh or when we want to know what is going on in the world and our communities during the evening news. And when we want answers about why things are happening around us we turn to the media. The media has been referred to at times by conspiracy theorists as “The Fourth Branch” of government (Neumayr, 2014) because of the influence that it has over the mass population. So why is the media such a big part of everyday life in society that such a bold statement can be made, comparing the media to the other branches of government? What power and influence does it have over us?