Caterina- Module 4
Hello my fellow bloggers!
I am so sorry for the late post. I had a very busy week and some family issues came up which prevented me from being able to post earlier. I enjoyed the reading in the text book and the videos we watched this week. I felt that it was easier to handle instead of many different readings! I hope you girls thought the same!
Just like we have learned in previous chapters of our text book by Karen Sternheimer, the media is often the thing people blame for the issues going on. Chapter 6 covered the topic of promiscuity. People from older generations often blame the media for children/ teenagers being sexually active. When in reality there is a gap in generations which is recurring and inevitable. The generations before us did not have as many sources of media. They however, participated in sexual acts just as this current generation. In fact, when industrialization happened, both parents from each family started working instead of the father working and the mother staying home. This created less supervision and more independence for the children to experiment and do what they wanted. This is when parents started really loosing control of their kids. However, media was not as such of a big deal then as it is now. The generation before ours however, fails to view it as every generation is sexually active, it doesn’t matter what we use to entertain our selves with. Youth in any generation are trying to figure out who they are in their own personal culture. Each generation says that the generation following them is far worse off due to the change in the social and cultural spheres. This supports the argument that it is not the medias effect that ruins the youth. It is merely due to a misunderstanding between a foreigner judging a different culture. As Professor Dugan mentions in his video, The Functions and Effects of Culture, people are starting to act with their personal culture (who they are when they are by themselves) and their bonded culture (who they are when they are with their friends) when they are in dominant culture (in public). Other people do not know how to act in response to this though because it is unfamiliar to them. They do not know their place or role in that persons personal or bonded culture.
The media today is filtered. There are special organizations to monitor movie content and ensure that movie and television shows are acceptable to show. The type of censorship and control gives the media power. It allows them to limit and restrict what the youth sees. This is influencing the youth negatively because it does not allow them a choice of what to think. It highly influences their opinions based on their restrictions. Professor Dugan talks about how the media is restricting receives in his video, Module 3 Part 1c, The communications Process, he talks about how television shows and movies are showing edited versions of media or even providing age rated labels. I am not saying that I think that all things should be free reign for the youth. But, I do think that the reason why they do things is because they are curious about what they are or who they are. So they experiment to gain self knowledge and build up and meet their inner identity.
The media does warp the youths image of what they should look like. We watched other videos in the module this week about how the media changes peoples appearance to benefit their sales. They feed off of peoples insecurities. I do think that this is an issue the media is creating. I think there is more to it when it comes to violence and sex, but as for poor body image- I think the media has a great impact. Chapter 8 of the text, talks about beauty image, obesity, and eating disorders. Many youth look to the media to build their self image. The fashion industry for example, use models to sell their clothes/ cosmetics/ accessories. Many of these companies use very attractive and thin models in their campaigns. The youth compare themselves to these models. Who most of the time are unrealistic or even photo shopped to appear really thin. Society says that we should all be really thin. If you are a little overweight, you are made fun of. It is sad because it is a fact that eating disorders are a big issue. The fact that everyone in society is aware of how bad the problem is and how unrealistically thin these girls are, yet is perpetuated, which shows that this thin image is what society still wants. Images of unrealistically thin young women reflect a very narrow version of beauty and the way in which women are routinely valued based on their appearance in popular culture and, in many cases, everyday life. (Karen Sternheimer, pg. 207) I have noticed that media does not promote alternative forms of beauty. Usually only thin women are considered beautiful. No other body type is glorified as much as that. I believe that the media strips away the possibility of there being other forms of beauty. Most people overlook the social and political aspects that go along with this form of beauty. It is economically, socially, and politically extremely hard to achieve. Not just extremely hard, nearly impossible. As Professor Dugan mentions, we are the receivers of this mass media. We need to provide feedback to encourage the media to improve or alter the message they are creating. I think that if the media encoded different media, media that possibly promoted all forms of beauty, there would be less of a problem with eating disorders.
Another disorder is obesity. I think that all age groups in America have problems with obesity as well. But, obesity in the youth is a big problem. Our youth learn from us. If we are eating poorly and providing them with junk food, how are we going to expect them to be healthy? We need to set a good image for them to pay attention to. Also, the media should promote health as a priority. I think instead of there being such a jump form anorexic models to sales at McDonalds, the media should find a happy medium in their advertisements. Of course, they are never going to do this though because our society doesn’t pay attention to the happy medium which is horrible. Professor Dugan talks in his videos, New Media Landscape, about symbiosis. He says that mass media needs other mass media in order to operate. There are two different aspects, partnership (where two companies work together in two different spots) and conglomerates (organization where one company owns many different networks). Then in line with symbiosis in his second New Media Landscape video, there is convergence (blending the different aspects of mass media into a seamless whole). This is where all the networks are airing all the same information. This narrows down the amount of sources. I think that this is why the medias all show the same information and there is no change. They are either all working together or owned by the same place. Or they get their information from all the same sources. I believe that we need to provide feedback to help make a change since we are receiving this information that warps our societies view of “normal body image”.
Overall, I found this module to be very interesting. I think that it touched base on a lot of issues we are facing not only with the youth in our society, but all ages. I think these are all big issues and something needs to be done. Once again, I am so sorry for posting so late!
