Module 4 Readings & Videos
Rather than read various articles for this week’s module, we were given a video series/lecture by Terry Dugan regarding the Impact of Media of Culture (2010-2011). Dugan introduced culture as a learned behavior that is acquired by the individuals that surround us. Each of us has a unique culture and, more often, many cultures that make up who we are. Culture, as Dugan continues to describe, is a combination of shared experiences that make up our lives and, therefore, who we are.
I was very intrigued by the depth Dugan’s research had reached involving exactly what ideas or concepts create our culture. As explained earlier, Dugan described how several cultures make up who we are; and the two main types of culture exposure that make up who we become are, as Dugan explains, personal culture and common culture. Personal culture beings early within our lives as we are exposed to the lifestyles and traditions of those closely around us. From the way we celebrate holidays to the foods we eat, I feel that our personal culture can go as far back as in the womb and the types of foods or conversations our mothers associated us with while we awaited our birthdays! Common culture is the second main culture we obtain and it also involves shared experiences. However mass communication and, therefore, the media has a larger impact on these experiences rather than traditions and lifestyles that create our personal cultures. Some examples that many people argue involving common culture are the ideas that parents worry their children will receive as a result of viewing popular images within the media.
I, too, had the same worry like many parents about what the “common culture” is doing to the children within our society; but as I read our class text by Karen Sternheimer which involves Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture (2013), I quickly learned that my fears and quick blame towards the media was actually incorrect. I have always assumed that the lack of clothing on today’s young girls as well as young men’s fascination with sex was a direct result of today’s popular culture, but as Sternheimer points out, “typically, television viewing declines in adolescence, and adults tend to watch more television than young people do” (p. 141). This point really made me take a step back to think simply because Sternheimer is correct: teenagers typically want to do out and do more exciting things than watch TV all day; us adults, on the other hand, are the ones who come home at the end of a long day and cannot wait to sit down and watch our favorite show with our favorite beverage until it’s time to go to bed for the next day. Since “we live in a time when virtually nothing is off-limits in pop culture”, it is no wonder why adults fear what their children and youth are being exposed to (Sternheimer, 139). Issues such as sex and eating disorders are flooding the tabloids as celebrities’ private lives are constantly being exposed, and parents have every right to feel concerned. But do these images throughout popular culture actually create health hazards amongst our youth?
Recent studies have actually shown that, as with violence, there has been a decline in teen sexual activity in recent years. If anything, our culture, not our media, uses sex as the dividing line between childhood and adulthood. As Sternheimer continued to point out, “We define sex as a ticket to adulthood, so we should not be surprised when teens do, too” (p. 166). As “protectionist” as my views used to be, I cannot help but agree with Sternheimer in that it is not the media that is creating the problem; it is the idea of adulthood that every teen wants so hard to achieve and reach. Growing up, all I wanted to do was to become and adult so I could become independant on my own and away from my family; and now that I look back, I cannot help but think how the only things that my generation considered to be “adult-like” was drinking, drugs, and sex. It wasn’t the media that gave us this impression, it was our parents who constantly told us how we cannot do “this” or “that” because we “aren’t old enough”. What happened as a result? We tried to drink, we tried drugs, and we tried hooking up from time to time. My parents always told me how I was not even aloud to think about boys until I was at least sixteen; so what did I do as soon as I was sixteen? Do a lot more than just think about boys… oops! But don’t blame the television, blame the idea of adulthood and freedom I was trying to achieve!
Even the concept of eating disorders was argued in that the media is not at fault and should not be at fault when it comes to children’s over- or under-weight issues. Poverty and the lack of access to quality health care should be the focus of our attention, however they seem so much “less important when the more exciting explanations of television, advertising, video games, and fashion command our attention and interest” (Sternheimer, 198). It is the lack of quality health care that causes families to think that sitting in front of a TV or computer all day is OK. It has also been noted by Sternheimer that lower-income children, often children of minorities, are more likely to attend schools without playgrounds or physical education courses (p. 214). The way I see it now, television and other media companies are not about to remind their viewers of all the more beneficial and wonderful things they could be doing with their time because that puts their jobs at risk. To connect this to Dugan’s video series, he comments on the fact that media is sometimes the storyteller of a culture. This causes bad actions to go unpunished since the media rarely shows the consequences of bad behaviors or choices… and these “storytellers” are not about to remind us of the many options and possibilities that reside away from the screen!
Dugan agrees that mass media helps in creating our culture(s), whether it is for the better or worse of our communities. Culture, as Dugan explains, can limit and liberate a community; it can define, divide or unite depending on how we allow it to shape the ways in which we think, feel and act. I was happy to have Sternheimer conclude Chapter 8 in her constructivist way, stating how, “the 2006 Children’s Defense Fund report recommends a community-based approach to dealing with obesity, recognizing the need to address infrastructural issues like transportation and group programs rather than individual-based suggestions like just turning off the television set” (p. 214). I agree with Sternheimer in that we, as a community, need to help one-another in finding the resources we need to live the happiest and healthiest lives we can. The fact that we rely on our mass media which is filled with celebrity gossip is now becoming hilarious to me, and I understand the importance of media literacy in people of all ages now!
