Pathetic Fallacy In The Media

Today, Film and Television are among the most internationally supported commodities. Financially, their contributions are enormous: both industries are responsible for the circulation of billions of dollars each year. Since their respective explosions into the new media markets during the mid-twentieth century, film and television have produced consistently growing numbers of viewers and critics alike. Sparking debate over the nature of their viewing, film and television are now being questioned in social, political, and moral arenas for their potential impact on an audience. Critics claim that watching films or television is a passive activity in which the viewer becomes subconsciously

Media has been playing a significant role in our daily lives by developing our personalities, enriching our knowledge and providing us with different sorts of information. It has a tremendous power in framing cultural guidelines and shaping political dissertation. If the information provided to the U.S. citizens is distorted, then they cannot make informed decisions on the matters of public policy. Thus, it becomes vital to the American democracy that the news media and its institutions remain unbiased, fair and accurate. Media bias happens when a media systematically and persistently emphasize one particular point of view that is usually below the standards of professional journalism. There can be various reasons for media bias, some of

In Neil Postman’s novel, Amusing Ourselves to Death, he argues that rationality in America has become dictated by television. Through the use of ethos, pathos, and logos, Postman demonstrates that his claim is valid and reliable. These are three forms of persuasion that are used to influence others to agree with a particular point of view. Ethos, or ethical appeal, is used to build an author’s image. Ethos establishes a sense of credibility and good character for the author (Henning). Pathos, or emotional appeal, involves engaging “an audience's sense of identity, their self-interest, their emotions” (Henning). If done correctly, the power of emotions can allow the reader to be swayed to agree with the author. Logos, or logical appeal,

Confirmation bias is the tendency for a person to search for information that solely helps support their opinion or hypothesis. For example, I’ve observed the media doing this a lot. One example that’s trending now, is that Kylie Jenner is pregnant. The media keeps going on and on about it, although none of the family members have confirmed this. The media seems to keep bringing to light the fact that she’s wearing baggy clothes, buying a box of donuts, or having a party in her backyard, which they say was her baby shower. They media ignores the fact that she’s a teenager and lots of teenagers eat unhealthy. Or the fact that she always hosts lots of different events for other people at her house, which we see on their show. The media

Often times, we rely on the world to we live in to shape us. From mass media, to magazines to commercials, we always find ourselves seeking the next best thing instead of what we already have. The way society shapes us develops each and every one of us because we are persuaded by such advertisements. Robert Scholes of “On Reading A Video Text”, and Shirley Jackson of “The Lottery”, show appropriate examples of the world we live in today. Robert Scholes proves how distorted and misconceiving people construe the world through the “Lottery”, proving his idea of cultural reinforcement.

Although the best reasons for “going to the movies” are to be entertained and eat popcorn, understanding a film is actually quite complex. Movies are not only a reflection of life, they also have the capability of shaping our norms, values, attitudes, and perception of life. Through the media of film, one can find stories of practically anything imaginable and some things unimaginable. Movie-makers use their art to entertain, to promote political agendas, to educate, and to present life as it is, was, or could be. They can present truth, truth as they interpret it, or simply ignore truth altogether. A movie can be a work of fiction, non-fiction, or anything in-between. A film is an artist’s interpretation. What one takes away from a film depends upon how one interprets what has been seen and heard. Understanding film is indeed difficult.

Rather instead we are actually left with the author’s notion television is not yet a fully utilized tool. Through the use of these rhetorical strategies the author has created a convincing argument against a widely held belief of the general public, effectively evoking critical thought unto the public and possibly even changing the view in whole. Even though these strategies alone do not make an argument, when used in order to support one you canget a very effective persuasive, even informative, piece like the one presented

This model serves to illustrate that media “is an integral part of the continuous process of cultural production and reproduction that characterizes everyday life.” (Steele, 556) This means that the media serves to shape values, as well as reinforce existing values and meaning that individuals attribute to their everyday

Humans are curious creatures, we try to find the meaning in everything. Whether it is through our relationships, school, or life in general, we are always exploring to find the answer. In Robert Scholes’ article, On Reading a Video Text, illustrates how pop culture seems to demolish the meaning that people find in simple things like commercials and videos.

    As previously stated, the Cultivation Theory is the belief that prolonged exposure to the media will condition your thinking. To be specific, repeatedly seeing something (or the lack thereof) on TV or in movies affects the way you view the world around you. According to “Living With Television: The Violence Profile”, “All societies have evolved ways of explaining the world to themselves and to their children. Socially constructed ‘reality’ gives a coherent picture of what exists, what is important, what is related to what, and what is right.” (Gerbner). This quote relates to the idea of media representation by implying that what is shown on the media is portrayed in such a way that makes the consumer believe it is reality. As an example, if the media portrays homosexuals as sassy and bossy, it will be done repeatedly until that single idea becomes a ‘reality’. The media also uses this tactic in reverse, which is called symbolic annihilation. This concept says that lack of representation in the media equates to lack of existence in society. The less you are seen in the media, the more you are deemed imaginary and will be treated as such.

Media plays a huge role in today's society. Media, in its many forms, can be very persuasive and can change how people view a certain topic. The past few years, media has greatly affected how people feel about topics such as: gay rights, abortion, racism, and anything political. Depending on what site, or source you are on, media can depict the topic you research however it wants. It has been argued that there are political bias in media, which is not wrong. You can find just about anything in whichever political view you want. When talking politics, there are multiple media outlets that are party-based. Even in print, you can find just about anything in favor of what you believe if you look for it. Media does a fantastic job of manipulating people to believe certain things without the audience realizing it. The media provides constant information about politics, and in more times than not, political rather than professional. In this lesson, we learned about liberals and conservatives and how political parties can be affected through media bias and public opinion.

There are many different hidden truths in the media that people do not know about due to the fact that the media emphasizes on just one particular point of view. Throughout the years, people have been biased in the media and the reason as to why this happens is that people choose to lean on one side such as republican, democrat, libertarian, or conservative. To be biased means to only be on one side of an argument or situation and only favor more of what one person has to say. There are a variety of different news channels in which they all tend to lean more on one side, there is not a single news channel that is on the same side as another. There are many current events that have multiple contentious between other news channels. The viewers

In today’s society, remaining connected and knowledgeable of current events and the newest trends is vital to staying ahead in business, education, and social standing. This information is supplied to everyone through the internet, newspapers, television, and radio. One can tune into stations such as CNN, NBC, Fox News, Al-Jazeera, and many others (“SQs of Media Outlets”). In order to meet the needs of viewers, readers, and listeners, the ideal media system would contain accurate, quick information, with a purely impartial view on the facts as they are known. However, this modern media system has not maintained an objective view, pushing opinionated and slanted reporting onto the population in order to create profit and gain customers. The exploitation of information media for personal gain has created a toxic and inaccurate present, constant in today’s society.

As Brooke Gladstone stated in The Influencing Machine, “The media machine is a delusion. What we’re really dealing with is a mirror: an exalting, degrading, tedious, and transcendent funhouse mirror of America” (Gladstone xxi). It often goes unnoticed how frequently the media reflects America as if it were a mirror. Popular culture, television, and nearly every social media platform essentially showcases a mirror of American society as a whole. The media typically displays exactly what society wants to see which evidently, is just an exaggerated or glamorized mirror of themselves and their own lives, thus creating a distorted view of reality. Similar to Gladstone, David Foster Wallace also refers to the media as a mirror in Television and U.S. Fiction. He explains this further: “If we want to know what American normality is- what Americans want to regard as normal- we can trust television. For television’s whole raison is reflecting what people want to see. It’s a mirror” (Wallace 152). One important aspect of society that is reflected through the media are Gender roles. A gender role is defined as any behavior or characteristic that is put into a “male” or “female” category. Society has always had gender roles that help to add structure to everyday lives. Although gender roles have changed greatly over time, they have always been an important part of society. In the TV series Mad Men, audiences are able to see how main character Don Draper’s life

The vividness of presentation is one way to raise the level of salience of an issue. A story that is presented with graphic detail can cause the public perception of the issue involved to greatly increase. If a story is sensationalized by the media, the audience will unconsciously attach themselves to that particular topic. A story that shows graphic details and pictures of the events of that story cause people to feel as if they were a part of that event. For example, pictures of the crash of Flight 800 stick in the audience’s mind. This leads the audience to believe that the crash of Flight 800 is an essential story that we must learn more about. The problem with this is that the audience sometimes focuses too heavily on the story to see the issue at hand. This can negatively affect the media’s agenda setting power because the story is too detailed for the audience to see the issue behind the story (Baran 302).