Since the public reliance on the media presumes some media impact, the Question asked by Communication researchers has not been “do media have An effect,” but rather “how large is the effect?” since we are living with Media and commercials from cradle to grave, it effects our lifestyle and Imposes a way of thinking on us. The images media shows help us relate to It in a way that we hypothetically become the image shown to us. For Instance the success of Barbie was based on exploiting ones physical Insecurity. The very famous Barbie commercial also says “when I grow up, I Will become like Barbie”. Many parents argue that Barbie’s ultra slim figure Represents a ridiculous standard for a body and girls who grow up with Barbie are generally anorexic, trying to match up with the Barbie’s standard. The images of women projected by media are unattainable, unrealistic and Unhealthy.
The article by jean kilbourne reflects how much we are in need of media guidance. This article suggests how manipulating media can be to the target audience. The different ways it affects women and how women are projected in media. Advertisement is a big booming industry which sells goods for multimillion dollar companies and firms. A company invests nearly 1/3 of their net income in advertisements.
Women had always been conscious about what they wear and how they look. No matter what women do, they are not happy with their looks. The dissatisfaction seems to be never ending and the credit goes to media.
The image media has created of modern women is “thin, beautiful, flawless and successful”. The size zero seems to lure all women to stop eating and start burning calories. Ads make us trivial, timid and leave us discontented with our looks and own self. To attain the body like that of a model in the ad we forget what we are and start to live a life of what we are not! To be precise, we behave like a person who we want to be. A survey says that 80% of the women are depressed after reading fashion magazines and left dissatisfied with themselves. And that’s not the end they go for the products which gives them false promises of turning them into what they want to become.
Fashion and media had been going hand in hand ever since. Only way to tell people to buy new products is to tell them they do not have enough. Most women in the ads are generally seen wearing bikinis and clothing good enough to cover their vital parts whereas, in real, women are far better dressed than so called super models. To call a girl “tomboy” is a compliment whereas to call a man “girly” is an insult. The media has formed the frame of our minds so rigid that we are not able to look at a women as anything else than a thing to lust for. The instance of cinema would make much sense as well. Generally the story revolves around the “hero” or put this way the central character is always a male. This makes me wonder if the media is male dominated? Media frames the society and is society male dominated as well?
Media has shaped women’s image as either a object to lust for or a homemaker. Cooking, cleaning and washing which does not fit in our practical lives. Such images of women in media could defame the image of women. Since ads also represent a culture and society it can lead to the misinterpretation of the culture itself.Media can make or break ones identity and image in a society. The power that it carries is huge and truly unmatchable. Ethics is which media must follow.
The images of African Americans, Chinese, Irish and Indians framed by the dominating class were “inferior class”. As explained in the article “white negroes” by Jan Nederveen Peiterse “different and subordinate groups are not merely described, they are debased, degraded. Perceptions are manipulated in order to enhance and magnify the social distance”
In the nineteenth century when the Chinese entered the United States as a cheap labor force they were compared to the blacks as they were the only races working for low wages. They were also looked upon as the enemies of free labor and republicanism and this is how the negroization of Chinese men began.
The images of Chinese male in us mainstream media is villainous and cruel. They are generally depicted as a threat to white women. The main reason was the sense of competition. Chinese were subjected to domestic work which makes their masculinity questionable. Similarly, the Images of Chinese women were also not projected well. It was believed that Chinese women were brought to United States for prostitution since the Chinese men was not allowed to socialize with white women. But it was in fact, a group of young illiterate women who were asked to sign on papers to work in the U.S.
The Chinese woman in mainstream is either shown as gentle soft women or a fierce and powerful woman. These are the stereotypes created by the media.
Based on a research by “Skyler T. Hawk, Ine Vanwesenbeeck, Hanneke de Graaf, Floor Bakker” in November 2006 “Most work on adolescents' contact with sexuality in mainstream media has been framed in terms of media effects upon the sexual self-concepts, attitudes, and behaviors of youth, even when such causality cannot be inferred. Rarely examined are the sexual characteristics of adolescents that may predict contact with sexual media.”
Nothing seems surprising to us on TV. Pornography has become a common term. There would be no one who does not know what it means and media is solely responsible for it. When mainstream media lets us down we do not raise against it but we welcome it or ignore it. Though television has been the predominant.
Focus of much past research, other media sources of information gain importance as individuals age (Steele, 1999).
Viewing media with sexual content has shown, through correlation research, to be positively linked with participants' permissive attitudes toward premarital sex (Calfin, Carroll, & Shmit, 1993; Greeson & Williams, 1986). Studies using correlation methods have supported these findings (Strouse & Buerkel-Rothfuss, 1987; Ward & Rivadeneyra, 1999) and have additionally linked frequency of contact with media with endorsements of more traditional gender norms (Ward & Rivadeneyra, 1999).
With so much to contribute and in so many different ways, media definitely has taken over our lives and the ways we think. It reshapes a person’s identity in relation to his cultural background or it gives him a culture shock forcing him to become someone he is influenced by. With so much to effect on a consumer or audience, the question is, will we escape from effect?
If we were to accept central identities constructed for us within the dominant culture (as reflected by, and reproduced in, the mass media), who would we be? What do we mean by saying “mass- media”? The press, radio, television, the cinema and the record industry has been collectively called as mass media. A dominant culture is one that is able, through economic or political power, to impose its values, language, and ways of behaving on a subordinate culture or cultures. This may be achieved through legal or political suppression of other sets of values and patterns of behavior, or by monopolizing the media of communication. This can also be said as dominants are the ones who set the ground rules for the play. For instance Ireland was known for its education and many kings from England also went there and got educated. Slowly the name Ireland carried diminished and England showed much interest in colonizing it. Hence the Irish were subjected to humiliation.
The peasant who grew paddy was respected and was known as peasant paddy. After the colonization began the Englishmen called the Irish barbaric and savage like and compared them to apes. And a peasant paddy became ape paddy.
A dominant culture imposes its ideas on a sub culture to maintain the social status Or hierarchy. If we accept the central identities which are constructed within a dominant culture for example in United States blacks, Chinese are the known subcultures and are called minorities. All said and done, called a colored person nigger is offensive. The oppression suffered by the minority is heavy and not just. The acceptance of oppression made them suffer which has been marked in the pages of history.
The very act of suppression still persists only because of “zero resistance”.If we were to accept identities constructed for us within the dominant culture we would be a suppressed class of educated individuals who are giving up our rights against fear of something that is created by us humans.
