Debate On Media influence

Everyone can agree that there is violence in the media, there is no way to deny it. But is that violence influential to the viewers? This is the question that has many people in contemplation.

Some people, such as I, strongly believe that the content in the media influences human behavior. Hundreds of studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found that children may become "immune" or numb to the horror of violence, gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems, imitate the violence they observe on television and identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers. (source: www. aacap.org) As children we observe our surroundings, this is how we grow. If the fertilizer is poison, then what will the plant look like when it is all grown?

While some believe that violence in the media influences violent behavior, others feel that it does not. Looking at video games in particular, some think that there is not a correlation between game violence and real violence. They feel that the research that has been conducted for this subject is insufficient. (www.videogamevoters.org) In truth they do not want to see what is truly happening. The thought of humans being violent, greedy, possessive, conniving, jealous prideful, hateful, beings is unconceivable.

Getting hard evidence that there is correlation between media violence and real violence is hard to accomplish. But if one had any common sense they would realize that the things we associate ourselves with have an effect on our being.

If you do not think that media influences human behavior, put two and two together, use your brain. Just as your voice sounds like your siblings, your behavior mimics your surroundings; this form of copy cat is how we have learned to survive.

Children's Media

Recently there has been much concern for the violence, the sexual content and the bad language that is incorporated into adolescent TV programs and media in general. Today, each and every piece of media available to the public is created with the interest of making money. Coincidentally for some unknown and twisted reason, everything that we would like to ride this world of is what most of us are attracted to. With undiscovered shame, the genre the American people want to see most is that of reality TV shows. Shows with the harsh reality we must face such as sex, violence, and crime. People get wrapped up in television lives where in real reality they cease to live their own.

Our past daily influences are what shaped us into the people we are today. We get our ascents form the language we speak, what would make s think that we would not get some sort of ascent from all of the media influence we get? One might find it disturbing to think about the influences that is reaching our youth, our future. All sorts of explicate content fills our media. How much and to what extent is our youth being exposed to?

The youth in America, ages 2 through 18, participate in six to eight hours of media a day. In one day they watch more TV, listen to more music and read more magazines than they sleep. Think about it. We are most usually always listening to music, on the computer, reading a magazine etc, we are almost always completely immersed in media. There is no way that one can have so much exposure to an outside influence and think that there will be no side effects. That is like staying out in the sun and expecting not to get sun burned. There is always an opposite and equal reaction for everything that happens in this world. One would have to wonder what the reaction is when such a heavy supply of harsh content is weighing on our pliable youth.

One topic in particular that is disturbing scientists and has concerned parents is the amount of violence that is publicized. The National Television Violence Study evaluated almost 10,000 hours of broadcast programming from 1995 through 1997. Nearly 417 days of television programs, more than a full year of material, was studied. The NTV found that 61% of the programs examined portrayed interpersonal violence, much of it in an entertaining or glamorized manner.

Frequently American media portrays violence as a necessary means to succeed; often “heroes” are portrayed using violence as a justified means of resolving conflict and prevailing over others. They observed that television, movies, and music videos depicted weapons as a source of personal power and in turn makes them wanted and accepted in the media.

Alarmingly the highest proportion of violence found in TV programming was in children's shows. Of all animated feature films produced in the United States between 1937 and 1999, 100% portrayed violence. How often is anything 100%? Watching adolescent programs as an older viewer, mush fo the content surprised me.

Just because we are immune to the things that we are watching does not make them ok/acceptable. We are allowing harmful influential content to reach our children. If we are not allowed to go around killing people, then why is it allowed on our TV? It seems to me that we in a way are telling our children to go out I in the rain but not to get wet. Material that is being provided for is affecting; it is cluttering, hazing and creating a thought pattern that would not be found in the mind unless we put it there. It is the lack of processed knowledge that keeps people blissfully unaware of the harsh and soon to be bitter matters of this world. Violence we are expected never to commit is deemed ok in media, People are concerned for the content in children’s media because there is reason to be.

Where am I?

By writing these blog assignments, I have been noticing broadcast indecency more than ever before.

One memory from TV the stuck out to me was a Burger King commercial. The commercial was quite frankly, premeditated murder. Mothers were blatantly, without falter asking a hit man to whack Mr. King. When my friend Steve and I watched this commercial, we sort of looked at each other in shock. Oh did it get our attention.

I have been observing how much media really influence people. Transformation happens on such a large scale one might not even notice the miniature revolutions that alter nations. Everywhere you turn there is a form of media in your view. It seems to me that we live in some sort of byproduct of mainstream media. It has affected virtually everything that happens in this country.

The media is so large that trying to correct it is quite impossible. Media can be a good thing when it is used properly, but recently it seems to me to be promoting everything that we as a human race should try to eradicate.

Journalistic Standards

I read a chapter from the book Mightier that the Sword, called, “How the News Media Have Shaped History: Focusing on the How.” This was an interesting read about the author’s opinion on what he thought to be common characteristics found in influential journalism. Particularly the organizations that covered 14 of the most historically influential events this country has seen. He made some very interesting points that I most likely would never have thought of otherwise.

He revealed that successful news reporters lead the news and do not merely report it. He stated, “Not for a moment did these fearless journalists waver in their commitment to excellence in news coverage...” Influential journalists try to get the information that is needed to sufficiently report the lead they are following. They do their best to report the whole story to the people, not just chapters of it. Good journalists are steadfast in reporting the news, and do not let self harm get in the way of reporting a story. Journalists do not hold personal interests above their duties as a reporter. Journalists also harness the powerful influence of visual pictures. Ultimately Rodger Streitmatter believes, “the news organizations that have taken leading roles in shaping this country have consistently recognized that the pen, as well as visual image, can be mightier than the sword-and mightier than tyranny or bigotry or demagoguery or political corruption.”

These principles have greatly influenced journalism throughout history. Propaganda in the most concealed form was being created by journalists who had the ambition and brains to be influential in the field of news media. These principles I think keep journalism the cleanest it can be. When journalists begin to stray away from these standards is when things can get dirty and American opinions soiled.

Source: "Mightier than the Sword" Written by Rodger Streitmatter, copywrite:1997

The Growth Of Ethnocentrism

I wrote this for my government class, it in not directly related to media, but I would like for people to read it, hopefully you can get something out of it.



Ethnocentrism grows like a tree; the seed is planted when a blind eye is turned, it sprouts when people allow ignorance to build, grows leaves from the stem of ignorance and connects to the trunk of culture.

One’s culture plays a great role in the growth of ethnocentrism, like the trunk to a tree an individual’s culture supports them. As Ruth Benedict put it, “From the moment of his birth, the customs into which (an individual) is born shapes his experience and behavior. By the time he can talk he is a little creature of his culture.” The most significant of all aspects that one’s culture teaches, are values. Some cultures may teach to value material items, or maybe the land of which they were born. Perhaps some teach to be open to other’s beliefs, or maybe it nurtures fear of things unknown. As Dorothy Thompson made clear by the words, “There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth, the persistent refusal to analyze the causes of happenings.” When your culture keeps you blind to issues in the world, ignorance grows and fear is installed into your being. “You have to be taught to hate and fear, it has to be drummed in your dear little ear. You have to be carefully taught.”- Oscar Hammerstein

When people in society are ethnocentric, unable to except others for who they are, the results can be unthinkable. Social and racial segregation has haunted the human race since the time we first congregated, people have been beaten, spit on, even murdered due to these issues. As history has proven when people of significance fear others and become ethnocentric, this is when the most devastation occurs. “The most destructive element in the human mind is fear. Fear creates aggressiveness.”-Unknown

I think that a person could reasonably argue that most conflicts in history started due to ethnocentrism. The seed of ethnocentrism is planted when people turn a blind eye to matters of the world. When people do not consider the other side of things, they cannot relate in any way. Not being able to relate ends all chances of acceptance, or even tolerance. Tolerance is a powerful force in human nature, because if something cannot be tolerated, then it is most likely brought to an end, no matter what it is. When citizens are ethnocentric the results can be heartrending, but when people with power become ethnocentric the results can be heartbreaking. Governments have done horrendous acts in the past, when a leading system is infected with an infectious disease, the plague quickly spreads. The Holocaust, the slaughtering of Native Americans, the genocide that is occurring in Sudan has all taken place due to ethnocentrism. The only thing worse than the ignorance that causes ethnocentrism, is that when you are ignorant you know not what you do. You are blind to what you have done or what you are doing, and you will keep doing it until you learn, if you learn, that it is wrong. Like a blind man who is not familiar with his surroundings, you will continually keep hitting your shins on tables and walking into walls until you finally learn where you are going.

Though many people do not realize it, ethnocentrism is as great of a force as it has ever been. It is the twenty first century and many people are under the impression that racism is behind us. “To assume makes an ass out of you and me.”-Unknown. This assumption is just another seed that is being planted, the beginning of more problems. In order to truly end ethnocentrism we need to step into other’s shoe’s, see where they are coming from and how they got there, only then can we really see where they are.

Censorship

It is difficult to say whether or not certain subjects in our media should be censored. I am sure you as well as I enjoy the freedom that in particularly the First Amendment gives us.

I am sure you have heard "Ignorance is bliss." I often wonder if people would be better off remaining ignorant to some of the matters in this world. Then I think again, what would happen if we did not know. Just because we are blissfully unaware of something that is going on around us doesn't make it unreal.

But then again maybe it was the freedom of expression that got us in this tight spot in the first place. The human mind is darker than anyone really knows; when voiced and able to influence others the whiplash can be back breaking.

I don’t; think we should live in a place where we are unable to voice what we please. I just wish we could live in a place where we do not have to worry about what is being said.

You’ve All Heard it Before

You’ve All Heard it Before

You’ve all heard it before,

Many end up wanting more.

If you left this world tomorrow

Would you be wishing for more time to borrow?

You’ve all heard it before,

We too easily ignore

What this life is truly for.

Think on it, it will shake you to the core.

You’ve all heard it before,

If only this life was filled with love, and nothing more.

Things would be different,

Things would be decent.

You’ve all heard it before,

We are only waiting for an outpour.

Changes will be quicker than ever before.

Listen to my words I am sure you will concur.

You’ve all heard it before,

Live each day as if it were our last,

Because each day lived is a day of your past.

My only advice is to open your eyes. This is the first step in becoming wise.

-Melissa Nelson

The Spawn of Media

In the late 1990’s Senator Sam Brownback helped persuade the American Medical Association to declare a casual connection between violent entertainment and individual acts of aggressive violence. When this statement was released many respectable organizations such as, National Institute of Mental Health, American Psychological Association, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Pediatrics supported it.

In the twenty first century entertainment is more filled with sex and violence than ever before. If being exposed to vulgar material affects the behavior of individuals, what can really be done about it? Living in America we reside under the 1^st Amendment, the people have freedom of speech and press and can publish anything really.

In the 1930’s when America’s media was much more conservative than it is today, Hollywood in a sense regulated itself. In 1930 American movie industrialists created their own Production Code Administration (PCA). This was first supervised by William Hays. The Hays “code” presumed that movies were much more influential that books and that the standards of cinematic morality needed to be stricter than those that governed novels and other literature. The Hays code forbid any mention of certain controversial topics such as, “illegal drug trafficking,” “sex perversion,” “white slavery,” and “miscegenation.”-the idea of inter racial marriage. Some crime and immorality was allowed to be aired, but none that encouraged sympathy for illegal or immoral acts.

The Hays code assumed that adults and children could and would be sharing the same entertainment in the movie theater, film makers wanted the material that would be watched to be acceptable for all age groups. This code though was only regulating movies that were made in the USA; Hollywood soon found that they were losing money to European made movies. In 1968 Hollywood replaced their code for a system of age-based ratings. This was the beginning of a new era in mainstream media.

Labels were put on movies in order to regulate who was watching the material, but in truth these labels worked no better when someone tells you not to look, you instinctively look anyway. Explicit material was provided for the public and there was no real way of monitoring who was watching it. Like a child who has never tasted candy before Americans fell for the violence that was quickly consuming their TV screens. In 1971 only three years after Hollywood quit restricting what they aired, a movie called Clock Work Orange hit the screens. Though I have never seen this movie I have heard people describe it as a, “F^*%ed up movie.”

The First Amendment is the one of the 27 that has greatly sculpted what America has become today. Early Hollywood regulated their movies willingly. Under the 1^st Amendment they have the right to censor their movies and they have to right not to. I would like to say that there should be some government regulations on what is being broadcast in today’s media, but this would create a whiplash larger than we could handle. The freedom to say what we please is one of the greatest freedoms Americans have, but what happens when too much has been said? I have and hopefully some who are reading this have been witnessing the ethics of the American people degrade more and more over time. Each generation gets worse and worse. The generation that are now teenagers have grown up around sex, violence, drugs, we know things that older generations would never have dreamed. If you are a teenager in modern day and observe the things that happen daily, sex, drugs, cheating, stealing, lying, you could come to the conclusion that our generation has become almost completely amoral. We have sex with strangers and do all different kind of drugs and we self criticism nearly runs our lives. We do anything that gives us a “high,” a high that only lasts for a short amount of time, then leaves us feeling ashamed and full of grief. It seems to me that teenagers go through a sort of identity crisis. We cling to things close at hand to give us a sense of self. Sadly the things that we use to form a sense of self are filled with sex, violence, drugs and even hate.

It is agreed that one's culture is directly linked to the type of person one becomes. I want who ever is reading this to look around and actually see with clear eyes what the American culture is becoming. We commit acts that are thought common in todays culture. Though they are thought to be OK, truly they are not. One day, sooner than later we will be thinking of the words we may once have read, "What do you reap from those things you are now ashamed of?"-Romans 6:21

Source: REF SIRS, 2003

Check this Site Out!

http://www.media-awareness.ca/
"MNet focuses its efforts on equipping adults with information and tools to help young people to understand how the media works, how the media may affect their lifestyle choices and the extent to which they, as consumers and citizens, are being well informed."

The founders of this site believe that in order to be functionally literate in the modern world, critical thinking must be taught. At www.media-awareness.ca information is provided as a resource for this goal. This site provides surveys, research, opinions and even games. This site is a collective source for broadcast indecency. The gathered informaion makes learning about this issue quick and easy. Broadcast indecency is a very broad topic, unless there is a collective site like this one, education on the issue can be very tedious. This site is very interesting, I hope that you check it out!!

Broadcast Indecency Introduction

"I don't know what kind of weapons will be used in the third world war, assuming there will be a third world war. But I can tell you what the fourth world war will be fought with -- stone clubs." - Albert Einstein

Countries are on the brink of nuclear warfare, young children are using illegal drugs, teens are getting abortions and 1 out of 4 people have a sexually transmitted disease. The existence of humanity is towing a thin line and people, especially Americans, are not even aware of the danger we are living in. Horrendous mishaps are occurring daily and our media, which we are surrounded by on a daily basis, only seems to promote the human crisis we are presently in.
The music that the youth of this country is allowed to listen to preaches how well endowed, "gangstas" are to be big drug dealers. And rap music refers to women as bitches and hoes. The young generation of this country is surrounded by this egotistical bullshit daily and as a side effect they are under misconceptions that it is OK to call women bitches! The saddest factor about this epidemic is that if the children in our country had had better leadership, this fault would not be a part of our culture.
It is well known that sex sells, and because of this greedy factor, sex is everywhere. In movies, commercials, music videos, magazines, even geeky video games. With all of this exposure, the place where sex is aired the most is in our thoughts. Combine this with the natural hormones of a sixteen year old, there should be no confusion to why there are so many teen pregnancies. We expose our youth to sex, then we do not embrace it. On one side of a billboard is an orgasmic Herbal Essence commercial and on the other is an add against abortions. With all of the sex exposure that is in our media, we are provided with barely no safety measures. For very 100 Viagra commercials there may be one condom commercial. The amount of sex in our media and the way that it is presented is unacceptable.
Even our News system shows visible signs of corruption. Today a headline story in the news is the OJ Simpson ordeal; a has been football player who got away with murdering his wife. In reality people do not truly want to hear about this crook and yet that is what the news provides. The people in this country are not supplied with a sufficient amount of news and we are unknowingly suffering for it.
We are in the middle of a war, a war where the outcome is either the end of our existence in this world or a trial of peace; and yet most American people are kept in the dark, and preoccupied with stories of celebrity's murder trials and pointless news occurrences.
Most of the contents in our media are ridiculously irrelevant to our daily life. The indecency of our broadcast does nothing but pervert the American psyche. A great benefit of living in America is that we are allowed to say what we want when we want, many countries do not receive this privilege. But there is a point where to much is enough. I believe what is aired on our televisions should be monitored a great deal more than it is today, if not monitored then just not aired; this country would be better off for it.