Media's Influence On American Culture

The media has been a part of the daily life of the American people for the longest time, because of this fact, the media influences the decisions and views of how people should live. One big part of the media that tends to start to develop a sense of how the day-to-day American should live is Disney. Since kids are the main source of Disney’s billion dollar industry children have become an important dimension of the social theory (Giroux 1999: 65). “Within this context, television emerges as a consumer-oriented medium that reflects advertisers’ desire to reach a young, upscale, and primarily White audience” (Goodale1999; Henderson and Baldasty 2003: 100). As a result other races and ethnic groups other than white Americans are often put

Mass media has experienced many major developments over the past hundred years. As the manner in which media is communicated to the world evolves a definite shift to American culture has occurred in the process. Mass media has undergone numerous changes in the way it is distributed to the general public, going from newspapers, to radio, to television, and now to the World Wide Web. American culture is so ingrained in technology, that distributing mass media in this format seems like a natural step in the evolutionary process of distribution.

There have been so many major developments in the evolution of mass media we now live in a day and age where we are constantly continuously connected. I have greatly always been fascinated by how much things have changed in just fifteen years. Fifteen years ago when I was sixteen and looking for a job. I would have to walk into an establishment and physically fill out a paper application and sometimes get an immediate interview. The other options were to use a news paper to look for jobs. Now just fifteen years later not even a century I can down load an application have my resume uploaded and apply for twenty jobs in a matter of minutes and receive call backs the same day it’s incredible. In the last century we have gone from the radio invention with just sound listening to movies, to black and white TV set, to color TV set to big flat screen TV that can go 3D.

In a study done of female beauty icons, two time frames were studied, 1959-1978 and 1979-1988. In the research, the women who were portrayed as beautiful, and the icons in the media, were observed and over half of them had fit into the standards of having one of the eating disorders, anorexia nervosa (Vonderen & Kinnally, 2012).

Mass media is communication that reaches a large audience. This includes television, advertisement, the Internet, newspapers, and so on. Mass media is a significant effect in modern culture in America. It creates ideas and sustained within society not only send ideological messages out to the public but to advertise this ideas which are tend to manipulate our mantalities.

The new era of technology led to major developments in the evolution of mass media, worldwide. In our society, we originally communicated orally before the Internet and wireless devices existed. Individuals relied on traditional forms of mass media, such as the television, radio, newspapers, and magazines, to attain knowledge of the outside world. Thereafter, the development of new forms mass media evolved, and we were introduced to the Internet and other wireless communication devices such as IPads and tablets, smart phones and social media sites. Regardless of the rise and fall in popularity of certain forms of mass media, the evolution of mass media influenced the American culture greatly.

In what ways have various forms of entertainment media shaped American culture and its values?

In modern day United States, the media is a huge pool of information that is always apparent. Almost every household in America has a television; hundreds of channels on the television are mainly news, local or national such as Good morning Colorado, Good morning America, and World News Tonight, even talk shows such as Late Night w/Jimmy Fallon are fueled by the media.

In today’s society, media is present in our lives 24/7 allowing it to have a major influence on our culture in both positive and negative ways.

Luke Scott once stated, ¨Crime is actually less in places where people own guns. Washington, D.C., is a case in point. It has the strictest gun laws, but who has the highest crime rate in the country? Washington, D.C.¨ Many people in the United States of America own firearms and use them in a proper, safe manner. Yet, gun control advocates pursue in trying to ban and put limits on the purchase and ownership of guns because of rare mass shootings that the media portrays to the general public. The media never shows the public the good that firearms do, the way firearms saves lives and keeps people safe. Gun control advocates believe that minimizing the availability of purchasing guns will decrease gun violence. This is ignorant and not a

There is no doubt that the media has a huge role in American culture. The media is prevalent on every medium, from newspapers, to television, the Internet, and mobile applications. However, the controversial argument of whether American culture is more influenced or more informed by the media still stands. “American culture” is what I consider to be the social norms, fashion, topics of discussion, current events, and mindsets that are popular within the general American population. The “media” to me refers to all forms of news and popular culture from sources such as television news sources, online news websites, online blogs, and social media networks - basically any public medium with a large audience (in this case, the American

Beauty is defined in American culture by the dominate ideology of white middle class males. Hegemonic ideology is promoted by online media outlets with femininity communicated as a way to serve the sexual desire of men (pp. 449). The pressure on women to look and behave certain ways is deeply imbedded in our everyday life. I will use two online media stories; the PBS online video, Merchants of Cool, and Yahoo Style as the basis of this essay.

Media includes broadcasting mediums such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone, fax, and internet. The Business Dictionary defines media as, “communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated” (“Media.”). With the right instruments, media has had a very sizable impact on American society and culture. Media has grown immensely popular and has remarkably gained influence that it’s altered the way we judge each other. American culture has exposed young children to many varieties of media; they watch TV more than once a day, some have smartphones to search the web, a few are even on Facebook; media’s become a vast component of American culture. Unfortunately, media exposes youngsters to exaggerated stereotypes, which subconsciously changes the way they perceive their peers. The media’s inaccurate illustrations of racial and gender stereotypes have done a very poor job in creating gender and race equality; they constructed the building blocks that produce repudiate feelings, which leads to discrimination. This underlying violence is a systemic violence, so as victims, we are incapable of comprehending the detrimental repercussions. American racism has evolved from this hidden violence; the media initiates the production of negative observations regarding different races through wrong representations of stereotypes..

Former SIS agent and novelist David Cornwell once said, “I suffer from the same frustration that every decent American suffers from. That is, that you begin to wonder whether decent liberal instincts, decent humanitarian instincts, can actually penetrate the right-wing voice, get through the steering of American opinion by the mass media.” In this weeks reading we read about the events happening after the cold war and beyond. These being subjects like the NATO expansion to internal reform. However in one section of the reading it talk about the events of the Somalia and Bosnian humanitarian effort and the shocking reality of America’s view on it. Being born in America, we have all have heard and influenced by the idea of America being a peace keeping and leading Humanitarian force in the world. Yet the history of America is anything but. With fights only

Back in the 1920s people had receive news and entertainment through the radio, which then in turn out-shined newspapers and magazines. Now day’s social media sites have become the most popular form to get the news and information. The biggest tool in the media that generates revenue by the millions every day, is advertising. The media has its way of showing us constructive information when it comes to news channels, travel and other educational shows. Kids benefit from watching these, since it can boost self-esteem, heighten interest levels in a particular subject, or encourage them to ask relevant questions.