BBG Communications: MEDIA INFLUENCE ON ME

In the past century, we have seen the mass introduction of television and the internet. This greatly augmented the media base of print and radio advertisements. With a rapid decrease in the expenses associated with media production, media has saturated our society. As a result, my decisions, and those of many in our society, are being influenced by the media. Though a variety of methods are used, the three most effective involve targeting our self-image, creating social stereotypes, and exploiting our sexual fantasies.

We can see the first of these three when we look at the media surrounding personal organization devices, such as a PDA. If we look at the website for the products produced by the PalmOne company, we will notice that this is a predominant method used in their media to market the products. That is, many products are represented as improving our efficiency and our capacity to complete work. In this way, the PalmOne media has affected my decisions by convincing me that a PDA will improve my work habits and increase my success at university.

Moving on to the second one, social stereotypes, we can see this working most effectively in the context of gender biases. Even to this day, despite the advancement we claim to have made as a species, there is a social perception that women are inferior to men. The work of Dr. Valian of the City University of New York illustrates this. It demonstrates how women still earn less than men in many professions, despite having equal qualifications. Further, it demonstrates how women are not perceived to be leaders in a group situation. After reviewing the section on common explanations, I believe that this is a problem generated by television media, as television sitcoms will often give the idea that all women are traditionally mothers and have different priorities. In this way, the media creates a stereotype regarding women.

Third, the media influences decisions by exploiting our sexual fantasies. Although common in many situations, we can see this most frequently in clothing line media. If we visit the homepage of the American company Abercrombie & Fitch, we will see that this company uses images with strong sexual content to promote their product. The company even has a “Lifestyle” section on their website where they house photos and videos of physically attractive men and women wearing their product. This sends us the message that we will be equally as attractive if we simply purchase and wear the product. In summary, it is clear that media penetrates every aspect of our lives. From when we rise in the morning and read the paper to when we watch a late night sitcom before going to bed, media is present in our society, and the messages it gives, either intentionally or unintentionally, influence our decisions.

THE AMERICAN MUSE

The United States of America consists of various eminent and influential individuals. Yet, when broadly examined, its people are of a single breed, a collective mentality; are of an ardor that burns with a luminosity nonpareil in the world. In relativity, Americans outshine the sun. It is inherent in our spirit for most American citizens are ancestors of the revolutionary breed; it is in our faces; our department stores; our ambitions; our labors. The proponents that led to the establishment of this country and also these thinkers’ muses would claim that this mode of being is universally innate in each person. Therefore, this high spirit does work its influence into the American media. Chiefly, it is the overbearing will of perfection; the most competitive esprit de corps in the history of all the great civilizations in the world; and now it is intertwined in the illimitability of the information age.

As this spirit endows itself in all that is American, it is inserted deeply through the inner workings and intricacies of the media. I am not fain to say that it has a direct influence that is not only ubiquitous in American society, but, controlling, manipulating, and of a caliber of power that is nearly impossible to silence in our acts, beliefs, attitudes, opinions, and most wholly, in our persons. I reject all attempts to make a falsified claim that the media does not have a role in the decisions I make; it does, and probably to an unending extent. Such is the pervasive nature that the media has acquired today, and more and more at this very second, that to completely evade its influence would be possible only if one resigned all responsibility, care for American ideology, and endeavor to converse, learn, and be susceptible to influence from most Americans.

The long arm of the law would be much more proper if applied to the media. The information age and the enhanced ability of people to communicate has not only effaced the old conduct of business, but has maximized the way the media can assert its dominance over the American psyche, even over myself. In short, American citizens are at the whim, nay, the maxim of the Law of Accelerating Returns; a mathematical statement that tells of the exponential growth of technology, supported by Moore’s law (i.e., the exponential shrinking of transistor sizes on an integrated circuit). Propelling this law is the fact that as it increases exponentially the population the media now influences will grow, not only as human numbers rise, but with the sole factor of time. I state this under the recognition that with the increase in technology and information accessibility will come more advertisements, more businesses and reasons for them, more media power. The effect of one is direct unto another. The media is a medium and is the alembic through which our conception of reality and understanding is transcended.