Mass Media & Society Essays - Media Studies, Criminology

Mass Media & Society December 8, 1999 COM 150 Final Exam Essay #5: In what ways, and to what extent, has television transformed modern American culture? How is it likely to impact America in the future? Spokesmen for the broadcast industry have taken the position that violence on television has had no effect on the behavior of the viewer. However, considering that television is an industry that sells commercial time with the specific intent to influence the viewers purchasing behavior. Both broadcasters and media activists have collected data on the number of violent acts portrayed during entertainment programming and effects of viewing television violence. More important, the industry conducted research and subscribed to rating systems to ascertain what people were watching. Numbers were most important because network and station revenues were not impacted by the effects of television, but by the numbers of people of a specific age range (market segment) who were watching television. As time went on, it became clear to media researchers that no single study points to television violence as a cause of aggressive or violent behavior, but that television is certainly a contributing factor to an individuals aggressive behavior and to the problem of violence in American society. Research has also pointed towards two other effects. They are developing insensibility to violence and an excessive fear of violence. According to Dr. George Gerbner, this is called the mean world syndrome where the viewer perceives the world as more violent that it actually is. In 1993, a law was passed that requires manufacturers to install a V-Chip in new television sets. But there are many doubts that it will make a big difference in children in society today. Teenagers will find a way around it. Children will still see programs at the homes of other children. It will take years to get the V-chip installed in every television. The V-chip is a gimmick, and what about computer censorship? Children are on the computer almost as much as they are watching TV, how are we to control this factor also? America has been revolving its world around television for the last 40 years. It has had seem negative effects on society and children especially, but now how are we supposed to deal with the Internet? Web browsers like America Online have parental controls which can limit e-mail, control chat, instant message conversations, and more. I think that this is getting to be almost as big as an issue as television. Modern American culture is made up of Briteny Spears, Ricky Martin, the GAP , and Pokemon. Children are growing up faster than normal and in the future who knows what will happen to innocence that children usually had until their mid-teens at least. For example, my cousin who is in the fifth grade, told me that one of her friends was telling people that she had unprotected sex without a condom and was pregnant at the age of 11. When I was 11, I dont think I knew what sex really was, and that was only eight years ago. Specialists may say that media and television isnt effecting our world today, but then what is? What is our excuse for the increased violence in schools and shootings that seem to happen every couple of months? I remember in high school when some of the bad kids would get sent home for bringing a swiss army knife to school and I thought that was bad behavior. It makes me wonder how my kids are going to be in 10 or 15 years from now, and it scares me to death. Essay #4: If one morning you woke up and found that somehow you had been transformed into Bill Clinton and could propose Congress federal legislation to change the regulation of any mass media, what would (or wouldnt) you do, and why? What would the manifest effects be? What latent effects might also occur? Even though I just wrote an essay on how violence on television effects the behavior of people, I dont know what else can be done to prevent it. Broadcasters arent going to take their multi-million dollar industries off the air just because some analysts have said that it effects society in a negative way. Besides,