The media has been purposely used for decades to influence people. To tell people what is the right, wrong, good, bad, accepted, rejected, normal, and abnormal ways of behaving based on your gender. For example, the media has created the perfect mother/wife, specifically being the white, middle class, Christian, housewife. Everything abo

Whether people want to believe it or not, we are affected by the media. There are many people out there who claim that the media has no affect on them, which is just a plain fallacy. Every time, these people buy a can of Pepsi, instead of the no name cola, they are being subconsciously influenced by the media. Why would they choose Pepsi over the no-name cola? Simple, for years and years they have been surrounded by the different advertisements and commercials that Pepsi has displayed. But if they claim that they have not been influenced by the media, then why wouldn’t they choose the no-name cola? Well, does anyone remember seeing Cindy Crawford drinking a no-name cola in order to quench her thirst?

In an article entitled: Are American Values Shaped by the Mass Media, we presented with both sides of this argument. One by Neil Postman, who argues that American Values are shaped by the mass media, and the other by Horace Newcomb and Paul M. Hirsch, who both claim that the media has no influence on American Values. Postman argues that television has now become a form of communication for the public. In other words, instead of communicating with each other and reading a book in order to learn about something new, we turn to the television. So for example if someone wants to learn about a new culture, their understanding of that culture will be whatever that they have seen on television. And we all know that television is rarely accurate, when it comes to portraying something for what it really is.

Newcomb and Hirsch, go on to say that they believe that the American public truly does not believe that the media is directly affecting them, to buy certain products, act a certain way or believe certain things. They think that people as individuals are fully capable of distinguishing the differences between the media and reality. One can completely argue that yes, they are able to distinguish this difference and that the reason they buy certain products or believe certain things is because they know that that certain product is the one that is going to satisfy their specific need to the best of its ability. And that they believe a certain stereotype, because they have witnessed it themselves. But perhaps what they have witnessed was not really what it seems? So again, they just reassure what they had seen, through what they have perceived through the media. There are always two sides to each story. And how do they know that that certain laundry detergent is the right one to get out that grass stain? They must have seen some sort of advertisement claiming that this detergent will get out that grass stain, otherwise how else would they know?

The media has had the power to shape society’s view on that and many other things. When it comes down to it, the subliminal message that the media has embedded in our heads, is that: if it is portrayed positively, normal and accepted, then it is ok in reality too. Otherwise, you and the rest of society can and will consider you an outcast.

For last five decades, every single character on television had been molded to exactly how society would want it to be: perfect, normal and acceptable in every way.

In reference to Dorothy E. Smith’s article, she quotes literacy critic Raymond Williams, who views “popular culture” as “mass culture”, seeing as how it is the mass public that is turning their own culture into “popular culture”. Then Smith adds to Williams’ argument that she believes that pop culture has taken control over the lives of people, and in particular, women.

Some topics in this essay:
Raymond Williams, , Prince Bel-Air, Japanese Indian, York Times, Newcomb Hirsch, African- American, Values Postman, American Public, Lastly Postman, mass media, gender roles, “good girl”, american values, romance novels, pop culture, no-name cola, believes pop culture, subconsciously influenced, family portrayed, characters “good, shaped mass media, values shaped mass, american values shaped, detergent grass stain,