does media affect us bw 3rd hr 07

8/15/2019 does media affect us bw 3rd hr 07

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Breeana Wakild

3rd hour

Does Media Affect Us? No, It Controls Us!


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The first book was printed in China in 868 A.D. (10) The earliest printed mass medium was

European prints from about 1400. The printing press changed the way the world received printed materials,

but it wasn't until the 20th century that technology allowed the mass duplication of material. Do you know

what mass media really is? According to Wikipedia, "mass media is that section of the media specifically

conceived and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state, this could be

radio networks, newspapers, magazines, out-of-home advertising, cinema films, television, the Internet,

books, CDs, DVDs, VHS, computer games, and other forms of publishing." (10)

Media has an affect on everyone, especially teenagers. Teenagers are probably exposed to more med

than any other group of people, with children under the age of thirteen next.(1) Actually, by the time

teenagers are seventeen years of age, they have spent 40,000 hours watching movies, videos, TV programs,

playing video games, listening to music, and reading popular books and news stories.(4) That is more than

twice the number of hours of school attendance for the same amount of time... which in some aspects may

mean that the media is a stronger teacher to our children than real teachers, especially since they are

delivering their message in an entertainment aspect. This means media can be a prime source of values,

spiritual instruction and behavior modification.(3) I believe that media is influencing us in more wrong way

than right ones.

I found the best quote ever, and it's so true, "Whoever controls the media controls the culture that

elects the politicians who appoint the judges who shape our political, social, legal rules, laws, and spiritual

worldview." according to Caryl Productions.(3) "This means that whoever controls the media controls our

government which controls us, but it doesn't stop at politics, it's everything. Media influences our views on

race, gender, politics, and body images, as well as many other views."(3) Media's ability to influence peopl

is obvious for the simple fact that media is everywhere. Nowadays, media is our culture. All of us are swaye

in one way or another by the many varieties of media we see each day.


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I believe that media producers don't care what message they're sending out to people. The only thing

that they really care about is the millions of dollars they are making on the shows and movies that they are

producing. And according to one of my sources, the TV producers, network executives, motion picture

companies, and others in the media world deny that they have any impact much less 40,000 hours of impact

on the attitudes and actions of youth. In fact, they blame other factors such as high divorce rate, single pare

house holds, women working outside the home, drugs, the gap between the rich and the poor, and high male

to female ratios.(5) If the producers, network executives, motion picture companies, and all the others in

media took more responsibility in the attitudes they are creating, we could possibly start making the world a

better place.

While the media is denying that there is an impact on youth, they are continuing to spend millions on

special effects to try to make each production a little bit more exciting than the last. One of the only reason

they use special effects is because they know that people respond to visual things such as advertising,

violence, and eye-catching media. This is so youth will want to visualize themselves using the product or

service, or doing the action portrayed. Media offers them the chance to pretend they are somewhere that

they're not, with power that they don't have, just like heroes.

American media, in particular, tend to portray heroes using violence as a justified means of resolving

conflict and prevailing over others.(1) Media can influence us by just putting a hero fighting a bad guy and

much, much more. Prolonged exposure to media that contains violence results in increased acceptance of

violence as an appropriate means of solving problems and achieving one's goals.(1) It actually has been

estimated that by age 18, the average young person will have viewed 200,000 acts of violence on television

alone.(9) This is because television, movies, and music videos normalize carrying and using weapons and

glamorize them as a source of personal power.(1) Children learn by observing, imitating, and making

behaviors their own. Aggressive attitudes and behaviors are learned by imitating observed models. Repeate

exposure to violent behavior can lead to increased feelings of hostility, expectations that others will behave

aggressively, desensitization to the pain of others, and increased likelihood of interaction and responding to

others with violence.(1) Experimental studies have also shown that after playing video games, young peopl


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exhibit measurable decreases in pro-social and helping behaviors and increases in aggressive thoughts and

violent retaliation to provocation.(1) Research has associated exposure to media violence with a variety of

physical and mental health problems for children and adolescents, including aggressive behavior,

desensitization to violence, fear, depression, nightmares, and sleep disturbances.(9)

I know I keep talking about the youth, but even adults are manipulated by these producers. And thes

producers are tricky. They put music that you know, and maybe even like, so that you focus on their

commercial, not the other twelve things that you are doing while watching TV. They put the music in to catc

your attention, and so that you subconsciously associate the product with fun and excitement just like the

music. This is an example of how even the simplest form of media influences youth's culture!

Mass media of the 21st century brings a very different meaning of the term. Toward the end of the

20th century the "World Wide Web" marked the first era that any individual could have means of exposure o

a scale that can compare to that of mass media.(10) Which means that this is the first time that anyone can

address a global audience easily as an individual. The perfect example of this is YouTube. Anyone can tape

anything and put it on the internet. And before you know it, people have it on their Myspace, and they are

sending to their family and friends, and their friends friends, and so on, and so forth. Anyone can have

influences on today's youth through mass media.

There are many techniques that adults can employ to help children use entertainment well. Some of

them are to be what you want them to be, to model responses to entertainment, to affirm who they are, to

trust the child's desires, to pay attention to how they're using their fantasies, to encourage them to tell their

stories, to give them the tools to take control, to help them distinguish fantasy from reality, to allow them

their own reactions, to intervene when necessary-but with care, and to help them make entertainment into

more.(6) If we do have the adults use these techniques it would make media less uncontrollable.

Media affects us every waking moment. As we watch TV, listen to the radio, glance at a newspaper,

listen to our downloaded music, read a blog, check out our Myspace, listen to a podcast, read billboards, flip

through a magazine, or even just walk down the street, we are bombarded by media. It controls what we


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wear, the music we listen to, the visual entertainment we watch, what products we buy, the motions we mak

and the very actions we take. We spend more time every day absorbing media than we do any other thing i

our lives. Mass media doesn't just affect us, it controls us.


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Bibliography

1. American Academy of Pediatrics. Media Violence is a Health Risk to Adolescents. Is Media Violenc

a Problem? (page 15-21). Thomson Gale. 2007.

2. Anderson, Craig A.; Bushman, Brad J. Media Violence Contributes to a More Violent Society. Is

Media Violence a Problem? (page 11-14). Thomson Gale. 2007.

3. Caryl Productions. Gods of Entertainment: The Power of Mass Media to Influence and Corrupt.

http://www.caryltv.com/details/inv-003.php. Caryl Productions. 2003.

4. End Youth Violence. Media Influence. http://www.youthandviolence.com/gpage25.html. End Youth

Violence. March 23, 2007.

5. Freedman, Jonathan L. Television is Unfairly Blamed for Violence in Society. Is Media Violence a

Problem? (page 49-54). Thomson Gale. 2007.

6. Jones, Gerard. "Shooters" (165-182). "Model, Mirror, and Mentor" (183-204). Killing Monsters.

Basic Books. 2002.

7. Kilbourne, Jean. The Media Influence.

http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_2002/tows_past_20020228_e.jhtml. The Oprah Winfre

Show. 2002.

8. McLaren, Carrie. The Media Doesn't Influence Us...Except When it Does.

http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/media_influence_intro.html. Stay Free Magazine.

March 26, 2007.

9. Parents Television Council. Television Violence Is a Serious Problem for Children. Is Media

Violence a Problem? (page 36-48). Thomson Gale. 2007

10.Wikipedia. Mass Media. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_media. Wikipedia. March 22, 2007

11.Wikipedia. Media Influence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_influence.Wikipedia. Feb. 22, 200
http://www.caryltv.com/details/inv-003.phphttp://www.youthandviolence.com/gpage25.htmlhttp://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_2002/tows_past_20020228_e.jhtmlhttp://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/media_influence_intro.htmlhttp://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/media_influence_intro.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_mediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_influence.Wikipediahttp://www.caryltv.com/details/inv-003.phphttp://www.youthandviolence.com/gpage25.htmlhttp://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_2002/tows_past_20020228_e.jhtmlhttp://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/20/media_influence_intro.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_mediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_influence.Wikipedia

does media affect us bw 3rd hr 07

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