How influential is the media?

[The Storm]

I don't just mean the tabloids and newspapers but media as a whole. Do you think it contributes towards stereotypes and installs fear?

For example, when you swim in the sea whats the one thing you think about? All I can hear is the Jaws theme song! I've watched several documentaries on Sharks and experts have said that film had a negative effect to the species.

Another example is 'beauty', or what is seen as 'beauty'. You open up a magazine and all you see is celebrities or women will slim figures or worst case scenario recently is skinny bodies. How does it effect the average woman reading? Try this new celebrity diet, but you don't get the help of a nutrionist (sp?) or a personal trainer.

I know that films are hugely influential, I find myself expecting things to be a certain way sometimes because thats what happens in the movies. There have been several cases of people imitating what they've seen on film. Plus young people have to deal with music videos, which lets face it you either go to be filthly rich, some kind of pimp or shoot somebody up. I know not all videos are like this, but these are the only ones I see getting regular play.

 

[Whirlysplat]

Folk Devils and Moral Panics by Stanley Cohen.

Check it out.

- Whirly

 

[Mee]

Well thanks to Stephen Colbert I bought a gun to prepare for the eventual bear invasion.

 

[DarthRekal]

yes....










what we talkin about?

 

[amazingfantasy15]

The media is very influential and tries to panic people all the time. Take the bird flu, for the past 6-8 months they keep bringing up the bird flu, how it's become this great plague that will wipe out a huge percentage of the population, but nothing has happened yet. Same thing with Mad Cow, SARS and West Nile Virus, they have huge stories over how bad it is and it like 100 people die from them and those people were really old anyway.

Also, there's a big crisis every summer, like summer of the shark attack or kidnappings, but it's the same number of cases as years past the media just decides to make it the hot topic that year.

I know I'm only talking about media scare tactics and the thread is supposed to be about more than that, but the scare tactics are what first popped into my head.

 

[Addendum]

It only affects those that lack the ability to make their own minds.

Examples...
"What should I watch? I don't know, the tv critic/movie critic/dvd critic hasn't told me yet."

"What band should I like? The music magazines will tell me in their next issue"

 

[Mee]

yes....










what we talkin about?

Bears.

 

[Addendum]

I guess people have forgotten that they don't have to pay attention to everything.

2 days ago, I bought a couple books: House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski, and a collection of all the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

These were the only books I was looking for, and the only ones I paid attention to. I can't tell you the name of the books that were on the same shelf as these, let alone the next book over.

 

[DarthRekal]

Bears.

bears???

mmmm chocolate bears

 

[Mee]

bears???

mmmm chocolate bears

See? One of their mind games to keep your guard down. Like Winnie the Pooh, Snuggles, and Huggie Bear.

 

[DarthRekal]

See? One of their mind games to keep your guard down. Like Winnie the Pooh, Snuggles, and Huggie Bear.

snuggles??? HEE HEE

 

[The Storm]

It only affects those that lack the ability to make their own minds.

Examples...
"What should I watch? I don't know, the tv critic/movie critic/dvd critic hasn't told me yet."

"What band should I like? The music magazines will tell me in their next issue"

I suppose thats true but if they weren't bombarded with this stuff everyday they might actually make their own decisions.

 

[The Storm]

The media is very influential and tries to panic people all the time. Take the bird flu, for the past 6-8 months they keep bringing up the bird flu, how it's become this great plague that will wipe out a huge percentage of the population, but nothing has happened yet. Same thing with Mad Cow, SARS and West Nile Virus, they have huge stories over how bad it is and it like 100 people die from them and those people were really old anyway.

Also, there's a big crisis every summer, like summer of the shark attack or kidnappings, but it's the same number of cases as years past the media just decides to make it the hot topic that year.

I know I'm only talking about media scare tactics and the thread is supposed to be about more than that, but the scare tactics are what first popped into my head.

I find its the same with the Middle East. First Iraq was made out to be the bad guy nows it Iran. The media has helped increase the general public's fear of Arabs or anyone from the Middle East.

 

[E. Bison]

How influential IS the media? Well, there's a guy who posted a thread in this same forum who's girlfriend is bulemic possibly because she doesn't look as good as the models on all the billboards she's exposed to.

 

[jaguarr]

The media is WAY too influential. All the partisanship in journalism is out of hand. The way human beings are supposed to look according to advertisers (as E. Bison so astutely pointed out) is ridiculous. The spin machine is at full tilt and Americans have been trained to turn of their critical thinking skills so a large amount of the crap that's put forth as the truth by the media is believed, sadly.

jag

 

[bored]

The more you hear something, the more it will seem true. That's how fads start, people make judgements of people they'll never meet, and fear over diseases five people a year get happens.

If any of you have ever read Macluhan, you may also know a little about how the media impacts not only what we think about, but how we think, and what we can pay attention to. Why do we live in a fast-paced world? Because the media has subliminally taught us that 'fast-paced' is the way to be, and slow is somehow obsolete.

 

[PyroProductions]

Most definatly, man. I think the media is partially responsible for the way some people act or the views they take. When something is hyped up enough, anyone will do it out of curiosity.

 

[Spider-Bite]

I belive that for the most part the media mainly tells you what you already belive. MSNBC talked about this for a while and their research shows them that viewers want the media to reinforce what they already believe. If the news is presenting facts that make you doubt your own thought, then you change the channel to a news station that tells you what you want to hear.

The result? Society is unable to change their minds. The news doesn't decide what we think in the first place but once an opinion becomes majority the news helps it stay that way.

example: most people are unaware that there is an audio recording of the father of the first child to accuse MJ of child molestation. The audio recording strgonlgy suggests that it was extortion. The father says "all I have to do is make one phone call and I'm rich and MJ's career is over"

"What did MJ do?"

He came between me and my son. he likes him more than his own father and that's not right. tonight MJ is coming over to spend the night, and I got recorders stashed all over the room. I"m hoping to find something that looks bad"

How many people here have heard this tape? I bet not many.

 

[patrickbateman]

that just

 

[Addendum]

"all I have to do is make one phone call and I'm rich and MJ's career is over"

"What did MJ do?"

He came between me and my son. he likes him more than his own father and that's not right. tonight MJ is coming over to spend the night, and I got recorders stashed all over the room. I"m hoping to find something that looks bad"

My son like MJ more than me, WAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

 

[TEDDY]

Well thanks to Stephen Colbert I bought a gun to prepare for the eventual bear invasion.

THAT'S A CONSPIRACY THEORY AND YOU KNOW IT!!!

 

[Odin's Lapdog]

INFLUENTIAL?????

hahahaha

the media controls pretty much every single opinion each of us has ever had when it comes to world views and politics


from books to tv to newspapers to the internet, you may think you have a unique standing point on things but the media has created hundreds of thousands of people just like you.

and just like me to as worrying as that may be.

 

[Kritish]

It's not the media's fault much of the general population is so weak minded.

 

[bored]

Again, read Marshall Macluhan sometime. The very way people think is partially set by the media.

 

[Mee]

THAT'S A CONSPIRACY THEORY AND YOU KNOW IT!!!

When the time comes, I'll come for you first.