Rodneycia Green Ap English Mrs.

Verdun March 26, 2014 Research Paper

Does the Mass Media Influence Americans?

Do you ever find yourself mimicking your favorite celebrity? The debate on whether or not mass media influences Americans has surged around the nation. Americans are not only influenced by mass media, but most of their ideas, values and feelings come solely from Mass Media. Mass media has been the shaping factor of todays America. It is sometimes used to control and change the minds of Americans. It creates problems and deters solutions. In the 1920s television struggled to gain a rank as a mass media of the world. Today, it is the main source of mass media. It wasnt until the 1950s that television started to gain its respect, but television in that day was much different than todays box of visuals. Like T.V., sex has always been a reoccurring topic. Sex on television however is new. The amount of sex we see on television is controlled by the Federal Communication Commission, or the FCC. The FCC in the 1950s didnt even allow married couples to be seen sleeping in the same room let alone, in the same bed. They were always shown in separate beds reading books, fully clothed in some type of modest pajama. Todays FCC allow people, married or not married, male or female, to not only be seen in the same bed with much less clothing, but making sexual gestures towards each other as well. It only make since that as the amount of sex allowed to be viewed has increase, the amount of people having sex has increased as well. A direct example of this is an episode of BETs My Wife and Kids when the character Junior was caught having sex in his parents bed with his girlfriend, by his parents. Although there was no nudity, it was clear that sexual intercourse had taken place, from

under cover gestures made by the characters. They were also barely clothed, with only underwear on. The reason for bringing up this episode is to make clear the gap in sexual activity being exposed to the public, from the 1950s to present day. Some other things have also changed. In the last 70 decades, the amount of people waiting for marriage to have sex has majorly decreased. Between 1990, and 2005 the amount of sexual scenes on T.V. have doubled. The amount of teen girls getting pregnant has tripled and the amount of bastard children being born has increased. Seventy-two percent of teens have had sex before they reach age 19. Who are the viewers of these sexual explicit T.V. shows you ask? The main viewers of primetime and evening television are young viewers ages 12-24. It is hard to deny the fact that the major increase in promiscuous activity being shown, has effected and directly influenced the decision Americans have made. The next subject of this topic is violence. Now it is safe to say that violence has been a reoccurring issue in todays society. From gun violence on a political stand point to cyber bullying on a high school front. What is one of the causes? Where are all of the violent people coming from and when did it start? It has always been around. Violence is constantly supported through different types of mass media. One type of mass media is video games. Video games surfaced in the 1940s, they gained there popularity in the 1980s. They became violent in the early 2000s. One of the most controversial video game of them all is Call of Duty. Recent research was done using the Warfare game Call of Duty. Data showed that people of all ages after playing Call of

Duty for days chose more violent scenarios when asked to solve a problem. People who played video games with no violence chose more positive solutions when problem solving. Focusing directly on young children, research showed that children began to identify with the violent characters on the games. They thought that violence was normal and the way things showed be handle if need be. Quite frankly, running over someone with a car, shooting someone with a AKA 47 or beating a hooker with a baseball bat is not ever the way to handle a situation. But on an everyday basis, this is what mass media such as video games, influence people of all ages to do. Another major influence on the violence of Americans is Hip Hop music. The world of Hip Hop is all about violence. In Hip Hop, artist constantly refer to violence as the way out. The lyrics to the song promote and encourage the use of violence in everyday life. An example of this is Hip Hop artist Meek Mills. Meek Mills album Dreams and Nightmares sold 40 million copies and his song from the album, Dreams and Nightmares received 1.2 million downloads. In this particular album Meek Mill raps a verse that says Cause these Philly niggas I brought with me don't f*** around, no joke, All I know is murder, when it comes to me he then says If you ain't bout that murder game then p**** nigga shut up. If this is not the promotion of violence, then what is? Artist Meek Mills makes his listeners, males especially feel inadequate if they are not about the murder game. He claims that all of his counter parts are ready to murder. He refers to the young man who is not willing to murder someone as a p**** nigga which in the Hip Hop world means you are not a man, but a b****

which means a female dog. So not only are they not a male, but they are not even worthy of being a human. So listening to this type of song on shuffle on the average phone playing maybe 7 times a day, or a local Hip Hop station being played at least 48 times a day would have any young male thinking if they are not about the violence, they are not worth anything, they are not a man, but a female dog. Again this song had 1.2 million downloads. Who are the listeners? This brings my next point; Meek Mills audience demographic is mostly young African American males ages 12-25. In the city of New Orleans where Dreams and Nightmares is played constantly, by both individuals and radio stations, most of the killing is being done by African American males ages 12-25. There are other influences to blame, but without a doubt, Hip Hop music, Dreams and Nightmares, is too. Social media takes part of the blame as well. It is the easiest influence. Social media is any form of online media, from instagram, to facebook and twitter. On these sites, you are able to see what is going on every second. People cannot help but be influenced by what others are doing. A quick example of this is a girl who is fine with being single, she is happy and secure with being on her own, until she logs onto twitter and sees many of her peers in relationships. She now feels left out and seeks a counterpart. This is why things like cyber bullying are so common in recent days. One person starts the bullying, and on social media, it is easy to join in. Social media helps everyone feel apart, because of this, no one notices the enormous amount of influence that these sites have on everyday life. Everyone online is taking vacations, so why cant you take one? Someone else tweets about nothing doing their research paper, so now you dont feel bad about not completing yours. Social media is a small influence, but it influences so many little things to where it makes an extreme impact.

People are killing themselves from things said online. If that is not a powerful influence, than what is. People tune in to social media more than they watch the news. On average, teens spend 52% of their day on social media sites, and adults spend 32% of their time on them. Social media is the newest form of mass media, but it is vastly taking over. A topic of mass media influencing Americans that is unexpected would be propaganda in the media. All forms of mass media or used when it comes to propaganda, from the news paper, to twitter. Propaganda in the media has been used since World War 1. The purpose of propaganda is to influence the people to feel or see something in a certain way. In World Wart 1, American leaders used propaganda to influence the American people to be ok with America joining the war. It started when the Lusitania was sunk. This was a ship used for vacation purposes only, but the U.S. was using this ship to secretly transport weapons to Great Britain. Germany became aware and fired submarines at the ship. Many Americans were killed, as well as people from other nations. To the American people, this was said to be innocent American people being killed for no real reason. Not much information was published about the weapons being on the ship, also they did not mention the fact that Germany asked that the USA would keep ships from out of the war territory. After this, America convinced its people to join the military, because they were going to war. They accomplished this by using mass media to reach the people. They printed posters, made commercials, printed news papers and advertised on the radio for people to join the military. Some of the things that were said were Do your country justice and join or Take up your

bid and join. Some many Americans who once didnt even believe America should get involved in this war, was joining the military to help fight the war. The strategy was clever and it worked. Americans who felt one way was now being influenced by the media to feel another way. This was almost 100 years ago when propaganda was pushed through the mass media to influence Americans and just 11 years ago, it took place again. After the horrific incident, 911, the medias influence was easy. Americans were in vulnerable positions and supported some things that otherwise wouldnt have be supported. Some of these things were the U.S. declaring war on Iraq. There was really no direct link between Iraq and 911. But after the media constantly released things like, War on Terror, 911, Iraq it was easy to connect all of the phrases together. The supposed alliance between Saddam Husseins and al-Qaeda was a manipulated idea directly from the media. Americans wanted revenge and the current leader of our nation thought Iraq was to blame for a group of peoples decisions, and it is very ironic that all media printed at the time was directed in that direction. Mass Media has so much power over Americans, because mass media is America. The people behind the cameras, music, newspapers and screens are fellow Americans. We talk about mass media as if it is a big machine with its own mind, but Americans are controlling it. Americans control what is being put out for the public to see. They control the violence, the sex, social media and propaganda. The creator of Facebook was a college

student. The number supporter of propaganda in both situations was the Presidents of the U.S. The FCC, who are all Americans control what can be seen on TV. The point is, Americans influence other Americans. This is the reason media thrives, people want to know what other people are thinking, before they form there on thoughts. From an evolutionary stand point, it is natural for the modern human to follow the next human. Mass media will always shape Americans minds, because people will always relate to other people. All it takes is for one person to come up with something and others to admire it. Americans have to stop personifying mass media and realize the reality of the situation. They must see the news for the news reporter and the scene for the director. These are the people in control of Mass media. Mass media is nothing but a broadcasted opinion.

Citation Page

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