How American Television Has Changed the Way It Represents Women - Essay Example

? CBS Transformation CBS transformation The of the article “William Paley’s obituary” in the New York Times 1990 bearingthe name Jeremy Gerald talked about CBS Corporation transformation. In this case, the writer meant that the CBS broadcasting company changed tremendously towards progress since William Paley took over as the leader (Gerard, 1990). This was the case because, as the CEO of CBS, Paley managed to change the broadcasting company from a small Radio network towards the most outstanding Radio and television network in the United States because Paley extended the reach of the company afar from broadcasting in vast ways. For instance, Paley advanced the company’s business plan by improving its associate relationships where unlike its rival NBC who paid affiliates for every sponsored show they carried out, CBS gave out its sustaining programs free of charge as long as the station could run each sponsored show; hence increasing the number of affiliates and as well as the company’s profits. Prior to increasing the number of its affiliates and making profits, CBS also transformed its presentations by inventing a system for color television, an aspect that made the company progress by acquiring many viewers (Hart, 2004). In addition, Paley changed the general perspective of the recording industry, filmmaking, publishing, and other sections in the media industry. Ideally, Radio was the backbone of CBS in the early 1950s and as television network gradually took over, the radio stars and programs migrated to the new medium. This was the point through which Paley changed the way he run the company because the workload and responsibilities of watching over both the radio and television business and at the same time beat the rival NBC turned out to be a challenging task. Therefore, with an aim of curbing the huge tasks ahead, Paley appointed Frank Stanton to help out, while Paley concentrated on improving the new acquired television network (Rogers, 2000). The efforts evidently yielded positive fruits because Paley managed to improve the newly acquired the newly acquired television network. At this point the CEO invented the color television system and went further to improve the general television network business by erecting two towers of power where one stood for entertainment while the other tower dealt with the news. In general, CBS move from radio to television changed Paley’s personality and career because the event set a platform for him to prove his expertise in the industry; hence, ranking him among the great inventors of the modern technology. How American television has changed the way it represents women for the better in current times Unlike in the past, the current American television has changed the way women are represented because women in the past were supposed to be submissive, get married, keep a home, give birth, and look after the children while the man went out to work and dominate the society (Donaldson, 2012). However, the current woman as depicted by the television is quite different looking at the obvious example of women like Oprah Winfrey, Diane Sawyer, and Tyra Banks. The current women as represented by the American television are independent, single, and hold a strong and positive position in the society. For instance, the movies produced between 1990 to date depict women competing in the political arena and their involvement in the corporate world where they work as CEOs, the movies also show women in the battlefield as armies among other progressive posts. This means that contrary to the past where media degraded women, it is currently promoting women personal rights and their careers (Donaldson, 2012). Prior to the current movies, the soap opera in the current American television greatly promotes women by presenting their personal issues like relationships and the domestic setting where the woman shares equal responsibilities in the society just like men. In these soap operas, the television presents educated women who choose the kind of life to live and whether or not to have families. The adverts also apply to this context of promoting the modern women because early adverts concentrated on homemakers and family context unlike the current adverts that balances the gender framework. For instance, a soft drink advert in the past could show a woman enjoying a refreshing drink at home after tirelessly tending to her chores and children unlike a current advert of the same brand that will show a woman in the office enjoying a refreshing drink after at the end of a successful board or corporate meeting. This means that the American television presentation of women has tremendously changed from the earlier inferior perception towards the current strong woman due to the gradual change of women's role in the society, where the woman no longer sit back and watch over as the male dominate the world alone. In this perspective, it is evident that women have forced television to adopt a new perspective towards them because of vast reasons. For instance, reflecting back to the invention of the television, the media in the early days concentrated on entertaining people and in most of its shows, women are portrayed as weak homemakers, sex symbols and sometimes gold diggers, which was an extremely negative perception (Kumari, 2006). However, the media has adopted a new perspective of portraying women because the current women have gradually transformed their general way of life in the past twenty years from the traditional submissive homemaker towards an empowered and exposed woman who contribute to the running of the nation. This explains the reason why the television being a social media had to adjust the way it presents them not only by showing their transformation but also by promoting them (Donaldson, 2012). This is the case because women embraced transformation in terms of equality in the society through education and empowerment. In this regard, the American television had no choice but to align with this transformation by creating programs that would attract women by presenting and promoting their progress in the corporate world, political arena, military, and other positions that earlier belonged to men. Therefore, the American television was forced to adopt this progressive perspective of the modern women. How big media become a force powerful enough to compete with the government in influencing people in American culture and society The mass media plays an important role in the current democratic society because it serves as the major platform of communication. Many people in the society depend on the news from the media as the main source of recurring information. More so, the media serve as the platform through which people form their opinion as well as the voting decisions concerning different aspects in the society. This depicts that any message broadcasted in the mass media will have a reflective effect on the entire society because it serves as the major source of information to the world’s happenings. The media covers vast fields in the social and cultural context not forgetting the political system where the media highlights on democracy and accountability of the government (Bettig and Hall, 2012). This means that the media, society, and the government possesses a dependent relationship because each one of them influences and depends on the other. However, the question that raises eyebrows is how the big media manages to compete with the government in influencing the society. Ideally, media have a stronger influence to the people because the information on the radio, television or even written in the newspapers has greatly changed the perception of the people. The big media has used this basis that have boosted it to become extremely powerful to the extent that it competes with the government because it possesses the capability of easily influencing people. Another aspect that boosts the big media power is that it has the constitutional rights to inform people about every operation happening and decisions made within the government context. This means that the media makes the political system more transparent by highlighting corruptions, decisions made by the congress, implemented laws, and other government decisions. In simpler terms, the media functions as the society’s watchdog by protecting the public from the government greed and abuse of power (Bettig and Hall, 2012). This is a fact because no one knew the candid reason behind the recent United States government shutdown crisis until the media intensively indulged into the matter and brought out the real and hidden facts about the case. Such transparency issues brought out to light by their media has laid the platform for the society to have a strong perception towards the media; hence outdoing the government in terms of influence and trust towards the society. The other reason that could trigger big media and government competition towards society influence is that the two bodies have a candid relationship of dependency. The fact that governments all over the world make policies that are expected to reach the society through no other means but the media. This means that the government always looks upon the media to relay its messages to the public, wherein eventuality the messages reach the targeted audience. Such a situation adds up the trust of the society towards the media, an aspect that contributes to the media outdoing the government in terms of public influence. Therefore, the fact that the media acts as a medium of transferring negative and positive information concerning the government to the public earns the big media the credit in terms of influence. References Bettig, R. V., and Hall, J. L. (2012). Big media, big money: Cultural texts and political economics. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Donaldson, G. (2012). The making of modern America: The nation from 1945 to present. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Gerard, J (1990).William S. Paley, Builder of CBS, Dies at 89. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/27/obituaries/william-s-paley-builder-of-cbs-dies-at-89.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm Hart, J. A. (2004). Technology, television, and competition: The politics of digital TV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kumari, P. (2006). Television and development of women. New Delhi, India: Mittal Publications. Rogers, L. H. (2000). History of U.S. television: A personal reminiscence. 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