Media 's Influence 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.

Media plays an important and influential role in society. The media effects so many different institutions throughout a society that researchers have began to wonder how the media is really effecting these processes. Over the years many models have been developed to explain this process. The models that I will look at, include the hypodermic model, the mass society theory, the minimal effects model, and the agenda setting and priming model. Before looking at these models, we must first look at some of the challenges researchers ran into while trying to understand the media effect. Many researchers believed that media had influence on the public, but did not change or have an effect on what the public believed in. However this was false statement, “This idea contrasted sharply with the public’s general perception that media play a very influential role in society. There are three major reasons for this gap in perceptions” (Graber 2009a). The first reason for this misperception was because of how narrow researchers looked at the effects on media issues. An example of this is when researchers looked at voters and whether certain media exposure would alter their vote. They concluded that there was no media influence, but the catch was that these studies were conducted during a time when party loyalty was very strong. This would be an important factor in the reasons why media did not influence the publics vote. To gain a better understanding researchers should have,

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

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

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.

The media immensely affects how issues are perceived in the society. To constantine the cultural set up is, in actuality, to dismiss the world "as seems to be," and rather to demand twisting it to people’s inclinations, as though authority and predominance were outmodelled. The act of technological metamorphosis in culture is due to the media and its uses in our daily lives. Every conventional society comprehended the unprecedented change and viewed affliction as securely attached from, and vital to, the postulation of independent people.The media directs the political structure, the modes of business operation, the dressing code and even the behavior of different industries.

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.

"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)

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.”

The media is full of countless things, it has completely changed the world and is now a part of our everyday lives (Bookman, 64). With television, radio, newspapers, books, etc… working their way into our everyday lives it is impossible to live without the media today. Along with it being persuasive, informational and a great source for entertainment it also has a large binding influence on societies all over the world. Media aspects are radically reshaping the world (Marina 240) and though some may argue that media has more negative aspects associated with it, there are many positives to it as well. One of the positive aspects of the mass media is the binding influence associated with it and how it is changing our society making the world one large global village — the world as a single community. We now see everything everywhere and it is causing the world to change in the way that people are adapting to new cultures they may not have even known about in past decades.

Unfortunately, in today’s society people do not have the time, dedication, or the urge to simply google everything that passes through their ears. When people get news/current events by unreliable sources (social media) they fail remarkably when it comes to being skeptical of everything. Today’s media is being politically fueled, provoking biased news coverage, especially now that the United States is about to have its Presidential elections in November. One specific candidate, Donald J. Trump (GOP), has been targeted by the media by being called slurs. As a result, I realized exactly how biased the media is.

Can you believe that 600 million more people own a smartphone in comparison to those who own a toothbrush? Apparently, media plays an important role in today’s society, from the shows we watch in several different technologies (laptops, smartphones, television, etc.), the music we listen on the radio, and to the magazines we read. Let say most people have goals and expectations for their future. They set specific requirements, they work hard, and hope for the best. However, individuals happen to set their goals based on media and advertisement that approaches to the world. They become more materialistic and put first the perception of their image. Social media has changed drastically, including how people tend to rely on it and it keeps affecting them by shifting the way they act, dress, and think. It has showed the audience how much capability advertisement has on us, how meaningful first impressions are, and they tell us how you can live the finest life.