Cultural Belief Systems - Essay Example

?Cultural Belief Systems among Societies Formed and Transformed through the New Mass Medium The mass media especially news-based websites, is becoming pervasive and the accusation about its role in promoting elicit behavior is increasingly overwhelming. Vioporn has become relatively a staple topic in most of the website news presentation and entertainment. Research has shown that viewing of vioporn has led to increasing practice of the same and the society is getting ruined. Once individuals get exposed to these vioporn behavior through websites they are abound to engage in such fantasies leading to addiction. This exposure of vioporn to the media has also been attributed to the increasing cases of criminal sexual behavior such as rape. Feminist organizations, hence, have expressed their concern on the negative effects of vioporn on men’s behavior towards women. As a result issues such as sexism have occurred as a function of violent pornography (vioporn). Violent pornography in the media websites has been widely associated with anti-woman thoughts and acts. Hence the attitude of men towards women is major cultural factor affected by vioporn. Therefore, the effects of people getting exposed to vioporn have remained elusive. According to liberalist views, violent pornography has led to negligible negative effect as well as beneficial effects to the society’s culture. Therefore there is the need to define the extent to which pornography can be violent and beneficial or violent and harmful. According to the conservatives, the negative effect of vioporn on individual cultural values as well as social institutions and evidence implying changes is considered significant. Despite the finding of the three groups that is the radical feminist, conservatives and the liberalist, there is lack of reliable findings applicable to the issue. News-based websites have popularized violent behavior in the society whereby vioporn is one of such behavior. The manner in which this topic is treated both in news and entertainment by such websites has often been highly sensitive, irresponsible and totally inaccurate. Some of these websites include Yahoo News, Google News, and MSNCB News among others. These various websites tend to portray vioporn and suggest targeting selected viewers, mostly adults. The websites as well have been flooded with images of females who are usually victims, prey or even targets of the effect of such vioporn. Today the society has been saturated by such news as vioporn to the extent that they are viewed as normal behavior despite the consequences. As a result of such presentations the society has increasingly become used to such views and watching them has become part of leisure time activity. With the increasing technological developments, individuals tend to plug to media websites in order to establish who they are. Thus it is much of what is in the media that determines the individual behavior. Owing to this, the issue of watching vioporn is no doubt what will be an obvious part of human beings’ leisure activity. The media is becoming increasingly influential through its various websites to an extent that it provides the individual’s cultural training ground. Today most of what people practice in their daily chores is acquired from what they view in the mass media. Website Analysis The Business Insider is a website that mainly focuses on news related to business, entertainment, lifestyle, science and technology, sports and local news. The site is a favorite spot for catching on international news especially for those interested in the business and entertainment worlds. In an article written by Nicholas Carlson, the website reveals with considerable seriousness the level to which Yahoo, as a news-based website, hosts hardcore porn while advertising products on the same page. The article entitled Yahoo Hosts Hardcore Porn And Sells Ads Against It – Advertisers React With "Outrage", demonstrates using a picture the kind of media content that yahoo presents besides its news (Carlson par 1). Carlson confidently notes the notoriety with which Yahoo’s photo sharing site, Flickr, condones porn - vio-porn included. Thus happens in spite of Yahoo’s insistence on maintaining high standards of service delivery and the existence of a zero tolerance policy for the posting of illegal media content. Business inside on the same page provides a link that directs the user to a page where advertisers are complaining on the appearance of their adverts next to pornographic media content. The issues raised by the Business Insider are weighty and deserve a lot of attention considering the huge audience that Yahoo enjoys. Generally, the website provides quality content in a professional manner ensuring that the media included relates well with the issue being covered. The cinematic technique used in the still picture of a woman in the nude lying on her back on a yellow car on the webpage is low tilt. BBC News provides content that is targeted to a general audience, its focus being the entire world. The website provides news on business, politics, entertainment, science and technology, sports, the weather and environment. The website presents its content with a lot of seriousness and professionalism often accompanying its articles with graphics. Focusing on the page that contains the article Roman city Leptis Magna offers Libya tourism hope, a photograph of the roman city is presented. The article in this case is of great importance especially for the tourism sector of Libya (BBC par 1). The article states that the remains of an ancient Roman city are found in Libya. The picture is taken with the camera tilted at an angle, the shot having been taken aerially. In the video clip embedded to the website, deep focus of certain sections of the city is also applied. The webpage also contains several media presenting the most watched or listened content in brief. Generally, presentation of the content of BBC news includes no content related to pornography. Just like BBC and Business Insider, the CNN provides news on business, politics, entertainment, science and technology, sports, the weather and environment. The website provides well researched information and is credited for being a reliable and reputable source of current news. The site has a lot of pictures and video clips embedded to it to accompany featured articles. Considering its huge audience, the CNN finds it necessary to maintain focus on core issues without including pornographic materials anywhere. The adverts included in the site are informative, just like the other contents of the site. Focusing on the page that contains the article 'Glee' sends wrong message on teen sex, several article synopses are included with a photo (CNN par 1). The article presents information about teenage sex as argued from different quarters. The article discusses the weighty issue in a professional manner as it presents research findings while presenting divergent views on the subject without using explicit language. The picture is scenic in that in shows a scene where Blain and Kurt are conversing. The message contained in the article is presented in a manner that may influence the audience’s perspective on the subject. ABC News provides general content just like the other News-based websites. The Website presents a lot in terms of rich content on various subjects as well as adverts. Generally, no vio-porn is featured on the site although there is a lot in terms of celebrity news and their lifestyle. The discussion of celebrity lifestyle as presented on this site is such that the can be easily influenced to believe in aping the celebrities. The website has a lot of pictures and some video clips. Some of the articles featured in this site relate to the lives and lifestyles of pornstars and ex-pornstars. One such article is Ex-Porn Star Reads to School Kids (ABCNews par 1). The main picture in this site applies the cinematographic technique scene. Conclusion The integration of vio-porn in many mass media is evident in many cases. The existence of vio-porn and related content make it seem like women are supposed to be items of use (or misuse) by men or fellow women. As a result, the society’s perception of weighty issues such as sex has come to change over time. As seen in the case of Yahoo, pornographic material is sometimes included with adverts to draw viewers’ attention to the articles, adverts or media content. The result of this is that many people have become used to viewing vio-porn and actually take it as a norm. The main news-based media including CNN, BBC and Business Insider however have managed to avoid the inclusion of pornographic material, thereby making it seem abnormal to have such content going together with news. Without doubt people’s cultures are shaped to a significant extent by whatever they watch or listen to from mass media. Websites and video clips particularly play a main role in shaping how people perceive sex. In many cases, women have been presented as the victims of vio-porn, men mainly being the perpetrators of such acts. These two media notoriously have made it almost a norm to have vio-porn beside adverts and news items which previously has not been the case. Works Cited ABCNews. Ex-Porn Star Reads to School Kids. 2011. November 11, 2011. Web. http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2011/11/porn-star-reads-to-school-kids/ BBC. Roman city Leptis Magna offers Libya tourism hope. 2011. November 11, 2011. Web. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15700513 CNN. 'Glee' sends wrong message on teen sex. 2011. November 11, 2011. Web. http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/11/opinion/henson-glee/index.html Carlson Nicholas , “Yahoo Hosts Hardcore Porn And Sells Ads Against It – Advertisers React With "Outrage"”. November 11, 2011. Web. http://www.businessinsider.com/yahoo-hosts-hardcore-porn-and-sells-ads-against-it-advertisers-react-with-outrage-2011-7#ixzz1dVxxeD3Y Read More