Research Topic Proposal
Maria Gamez and Ross Warner
Andrews University
Statement of the Problem
The “Media” or medium is defined and described by encompassing television, music, radio, Internet and the newspaper to effectively communicate to populations worldwide. With all these mediums to ensure communication and information to communities globally, it has become a great staple in how many conduct their lives and communicate to others. While many would suggest that we are to not believe everything we read or see, could that mean that it has the ability to have a negative effect on some? And if so what age, demographic or social group could be considered to be more vulnerable to these effects?
Melissa A. Milkie (1999)
…show more content…
In general, the respondents indicated that the feminine images in the magazine presented an unrealistic appearance, both in the style of clothing and in the perfection of their faces, hair and bodies in comparison with the largely imperfect local girls” (p. 198). Alyson Kay Spurgas (2005) also stated, “influences on body-image perception among participants take many forms. The main influences were location or environment, family, friends/peers, men, individual psychology, cultural background, race or ethnicity, and media imagery” (p. 305). Peers have a great impact with how girls view themselves. Friends or peers are supposed to be a big support system and what they say is greatly taken accounted for. Ethnicity can be correlated with friends and peers. Girls who have friends that are of the same ethnicity may also have concerns with their body image, because they are comparing themselves to how they look like. Alyson Kay Spurgas (2005) states that, “the combination of ethnicity and media not only had a significant influence on the way a participant perceived her body, but seemed to form the distinct origin of beauty standards for participants” (308). Girls look at how their own ethnicity looks like and when this is in the media, it has a strong effect on girls.
While this matter seems to be an ongoing issue and topic of conversation the reality is that young girls, within all cultural backgrounds are
Journalism is an industry that provides a source of information and news for the public, while popular culture is a source of portrayal of the image of the journalist. Popular culture provides a glimpse and “shapes the people’s impressions of the news media”, whether it is portrayed in a positive or negative light. There is no denying that popular culture possesses a large effect on what the public perceives and thinks about journalists and the industry through how the characters, plotlines are presented. Sociologists have even argued that “popular culture’s depictions…of real world professions” have a major influence on the public’s realistic perception of that respective field. Thus, it is not a surprise that in the 1930s, journalist organizations deliberately advocated positive portrayals of the press in Hollywood. An example of a film that stands as a positive representation is The Front Page. Although the film presents reporters and editors “lying and hurting innocent people”, the audience is able to fall for their unique charm and charisma—they are brash, fast-paced, intelligent, composed, independent, passionate and investigative. They embody what America ultimately champions: self-reliance, drive for action and accomplishment. However, popular culture also perpetuates negative, unlovable notions that “journalists [are] hard drinking, foul-mouthed social misfits concerned with only twisting the truth”. In novels like John Andross written by Rebecca Harding
History has changed. Ideas and standards have also changed. Back in the day, when the media or movies showed a hint or a dash of blood, the reaction of the average person was shock and disgust at the blood and gore shown. These scenes and clips shown have become more and more extreme over the years to the level of being hazardous to society. Even in the videogame industry, certain scenes that may have caused outrage and commotion fifteen years ago are now seen as childish and may even be considered as humorous. To put it candidly, most of the mass media has been used widely to its ability to influence and persuade, to glorify, and diabolize thoughts and actions of individuals. Yet people of this generation still spend a great percentage of
It’s difficult to envision a world where idealized female imagery is not plastered everywhere, but our present circumstance is a relatively new occurrence. Before the mass media existed, our ideas of beauty were restricted to our own communities. Until the introduction of photography in 1839, people were not exposed to real-life images of faces and bodies. Most people did not even own mirrors. Today, however, we are more obsessed with our appearance than ever before. But the concern about appearance is quite normal and understandable given society’s standards. According to Jane Kilborne, “Every period of history has had its own standards of what is and is not beautiful, and every contemporary society has its own distinctive concept of the
“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
Humans have been a focus for marketers for over 100 years and at the rise of the twentieth century, mass media became widely recognized. In a period of mass availability, people today have entry to more media outlets than ever before. According to media scholar Jean Kilbourne,“the average American is exposed to over 3,000 advertisements a day and watches three years’ worth of television ads over the course of a lifetime” (back cover). It is all around us, from the shows we watch on television, the music we listen to on the radio, and to the books and magazines we read each day. Media is the number one source for advertising. Advertising is “a manipulative enterprise that uses subtle techniques to persuade consumers into accepting whatever sales pitch [that is] presented to them (Blades, Oates, and Blumberg 3). The vast majority of people do not think that advertising has any influence on them. To their surprise, “this is what advertisers want the general population to believe; however, if that were true, why would companies spend over $200 billion a year on advertising” (Kilbourne 33)? The media has full control to decide what the public sees and how it is portrayed.
In today’s society, people believe everything that they see on the media. From the celebrity life to family time, every aspect is soaked up into normal everyday life and taken as the truth. Alex Williams, author of Quality Time, Redefined says that the way people use technology today can affect quality time within family and friends on a daily basis. In theory, media takes the view of family time and shows it only in one way; which, is ironic because media also destroys peoples view on sex. Jean Kilbourne author of Two Ways A Woman Can Get Hurt, she discusses how men and women in the media are misrepresented as sex objects. But more so that women are characterized as inferior in comparison to men. If media is able to show false information and make people have a different mindset on the way simple aspects of life should be, wouldn’t it just be easier if sex was shown as love, not just people as sexually objects and quality time was shown as togetherness and instead of family game.
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 influences many things from politics to public court hearings, giving there opinion on it all. Lots of times the media uses reputation to make a broadcast about their discussion topic. People with a bad reputation will not be treated as fairly as one with a good reputation. The media influences people in many ways such as food and drinks, medicine, products, and many other advertisements. They manipulate minds to think these products are built very well or tastes very well and that it comes at a cheap price, or their is a sale on the product. They advertise medicine and say that it will make you feel better when really you don 't know what will help you because you should consult a doctor. The news feeds so much garbage into our minds with drama and advertisements along with opinions of politics. A recent debate in news was the Presidential election for 2016 between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton ( who had
It’s pretty clear that the elections are much different than they used to be, and we can blame our easy access to media for that. The people learn everything they know about politics through things they see on television and the link they just shared on facebook. But is that even real, are they polluting our minds with unnecessary drama? Anything from magazines to the social media on our iphones help influence the opinions of voters, set the behavior of the candidates, and the public agenda.
Unrealistic body image and eating disorders are perpetuated by the media in women of ages 5-24
The extent at which media effects society has been up for debate as more research has be conducted. Some believe that media can control what we think. This idea is known as the powerful effects theory. It stated that consumers would absorb everything the media put forth without control or the ability to reason it. Many however disagree with that early model leading to an opposite extreme theory called the minimalist effects theory. This theory included that we don’t believe what the media says, but rather people we respect. Furthermore, some minimalists will claim that we are overloaded with information so much so that we exhibit an effect called narcoticizing dysfunction. The idea of narcotizing dysfunction suggests that are so overwhelmed with media
In today’s culture, it’s hard not to come across some form of media, whether that is an advertisement on a roadway, a commercial on the television, or even an ad on the portable games you play on your phone. The average 8-18-year-old experiences about 7.5 hours of some form of media a day. [1] Out of the 24 hours in a day over a quarter of it is spent looking at or listening to advertisements for products, the news, video games, television, movies, music, books, and the internet. A common way to make a product, character, etc. is to make them or something associated with it look appealing. For beauty products, this is done with models with unhealthy or unrealistic images. [2] When did this idea start? And why would a model or actor go out of their way to obtain an an image that could potentially kill them? How can we help those who’ve been affected by these false images?
Cheerios is a household name that has kept General Mills restocking the shelves for years. Its advertised potential health benefits have made it even more popular over time. Yet that household name is not immune to the backlash from risky advertisement. In a day and age when it seems like anything goes, a simple commercial sparked a nationwide controversy. While the issue at hand may be about race, the following analysis will show that in any piece of media we could pick all day long at the potentially politically incorrect content within. While none of these other issues may have been noticed or addressed, the company was faced with the dilemma of continuing to air the content. One side always has to prevail, and in the case of this ad campaign it is on the side of equality, and they are not losing any sleep or loyal customers over the decision.
Throughout history, we have seen the wrongdoings of western societies and the resulting influence of their actions in several different countries across the globe. Their actions have led to prejudice and manipulation of the present history. Numerous people do not comprehend that the actions taken in the past from these western countries are the reasons for the chaos and turmoil in societies such as those in the Arabic culture. Misconceptions about Arabic people and their beliefs have originated due to past policies that were implemented upon them, the media perception, and lack of cultural knowledge. The media has popularized several negative attributions and encouraged the spread of animosity toward Arabs worldwide. Preconceived stereotypical ideas of Arabic cultures can be attributed to the misunderstandings of the Islam religion and the impact of colonization.
It seems that the cultural landscape is ever changing and evolving. Issues that were rarely discussed in media are now at the frontline of our media coverage, such as police brutality, racial disparity and immigration reform. Everything from political party preference to the increasing diversity of race and sexual orientation in each generation has an effect on the values portrayed in media. The value of each new generation effects how the media shapes itself to market to that general public. In order to understand the fluidity of the media, it is important to examine the change in the landscape of media, and how it has adapted to meet each generations needs.