Media: The Nudity Advocate - Research Paper Example

Media: The Nudity Advocate Abstract The media today ranks as one of the most flourishing industries in the business fraternity, employing audio, print, and video tactics of exhibition to reach out to the society. This status of the media has had both positive and negative attributes to it, attracting much controversy regarding what is ethical when shown to whom, and what qualifies as unethical if shown to another party. The virility of the media is attributed to the onset of digital technology, which has made content cheap and readily available, thus the success in reaching out to vast masses of people. In the recent past, sharp criticism has erupted, bombarding the media for going overboard in regulating what tactic or image they portray to the society. The accusations are that there is no longer any ethical consideration for whatever content is granted display, and these are negatively influencing the acceptable and ethical norms that guide reasoning, conduct, and perception of things in life. This is the motion developing the text discussed herein. The texts based on a focus group interview as a both qualitative and quantitative research method in which the topic under discussion is justified from responses derived from high school and college-level students. They are between ages 16 to 25 years, and are exposed to the very same questions regarding the media’s role in influencing minds to accept nudity as a normal aspect contemporary of life. The results of the research indicate that indeed media is notoriously guilty for the vice, and that the more one is exposed to the media, the more it corrupts their perceptions of life’s sensitive details. This is evident from the research data in that the respondents from high school do not accept that nudity is normal, but their older college-level counterparts find nothing unusual in the act. Concisely, this study aims at justifying that media influence is real and powerful, with unstoppable abilities to persuade one into accepting what under normal circumstances would be utterly unacceptable. Introduction According to Melanie Lowe (1), the media, in its many forms has the intense ability to easily influence the human mind by employing rather tactical schemes to influence behavior and belief. She attributes school shootings to violence in cartoons and video games which incorporate such provoking simulations. Studies on the effect of media in society tell that the well-being of society remains endangered by the continuous depiction of sexism, violence, consumerism and other mind-blogging innuendo, much of which is transmitted by the media today. Of key concern is the role of advertising that the media has taken up that uses women’s sexuality with regard to their bodies. This text will discuss how different groups negotiate their beliefs and identities and what forces are behind such. In doing this, the discussion will base its argument on findings derived from a focus group interview that will investigate the role of the media in creating the perception of the woman as a sex object, and how young girls perceive of it. The questions used to develop the research were three, and read as follows: 1) What do you think of how the media uses the attractiveness of the female body in marketing itself? 2) Do you like it when your favorite female celebrity shoots nude or semi-nude videos? 3) Would you pose for a magazine cover like celebrities do if you were offered a hefty reward? Participants and procedures A focus group interview will be used to identify the perception of young girls concerning the now much embraced marketing strategy of using female sexism to appeal to clients. The interview, thus research, will focus on media fractions such as the music industry, magazines, and movies which are most notorious for the art. Focus group interviews are effective research methods since they acquire “large-scale” thoughts of participants, and the results are more general than individual interviews. As such, the information recorded is of a collective nature, thus represents the thoughts of a wider societal context. The participants or the focus group was drawn from two urban high schools and two colleges, since studies depict that it is from the adolescent stage that sexual appeal makes sense to an individual, and that the kind of exposure that one encounters determines their perception of sexism. To acquire a uniform group of participants from both clauses, the following criteria were used to select the volunteer participants: Level Number Age Male Female Questions asked High school 4 16-18 2 2 All College 4 22-25 2 2 All Fig. 1.0 As is evident from figure 1.0, there were two categories of participants; from high school and college levels. The age limit for those in high school had to lie between sixteen and eighteen years, and twenty-two to twenty-five years for the college-level participants. The groups had equal numbers of male and female respondents. The interview was conducted separately for both groups, the reason being to reveal whether there was any difference in the perceptions with regard to age bracket. The guiding reason was that the 16 to 18 years bracket is usually in the “introductory” phase of exposure to the media, whereas those in the 22 to 25 years bracket were most likely decided on their perception towards sexism. The interview was first conducted by first asking the participants in each group to give a brief opinion to the questions. After this, they were asked question after question of which they were to give collective (discussed) answers to them. These were to be presented in a single answer sheet. Results The results from the first (individual) interview were as follows: Level Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Answer “wrong” “normal” “no” “yes” “no” “yes” High school 3 1 2 2 4 0 College 1 3 1 3 3 1 Fig. 2.0 When giving the answers in the second (collective) context, the average responses were that the high school students felt that the media image of the female was too explicit and was “wrong” to publicize. On the second question, they said that despite most videos having explicit content; they felt uncomfortable watching them in the company of their elders. In the third, they collectively shot down the idea of posing nude. The college students on their part had the following results: one question one; they responded that there was nothing wrong with the use of the female body to allure to clients. On question two, the response was that it was nothing “unusual”, and on the third, they responded that for a hefty sum, they would consider posing for the magazine cover. Evaluation and Conclusion From the answers given, two patterns arise. The first pattern is that the students in the high school level are either undecided or feel that sexism is explicit and unethical. This conclusion is made even stronger by the fact that their majority would not pose nude even for a reward. The second pattern is that the older group feels that sexism is “just a normal aspect of life.” The evaluation of this study relates closely to (Trem, n.p.) who discusses the way of the media in influencing behavior and belief in the article The Rise and Fall of a Pop Princess: Britney Spears. Trem reveals that Britney’s success as a female celebrity was not because she did excellent songs, but because she employed power, sex and exhibitionism to lure targeted audiences into buying her music albums. The curiosity of “seeing” her sexy body is what most buyers would go for, and these have to be people who understand, and experience sexual desires. There was no variation brought about by gender differences. This justifies the findings from the interview. One, it is evident that the high school students, who we assume are still “fresh” to sexuality are undecided or still feel nudity is wrong. The reasons could be they are either too new to sexuality, or that their exposure to such is still insufficient to assure them that it is “just normal.” As for the college students, who we assume have experienced all forms of exposure, and have access to anything through the internet, their perception of nudity is that it is “alright” or “just normal.” What this implies is that the younger minds are somehow innocent just because their exposure to the media is limited as compared to that of college students. However, they are likely to embrace the nudity once their exposure (to the media) increases, enough proof that media indeed, is highly corruptive. If anyone doubts this, they should answer to this situation: two magazines are on display. One has blue cover with a smiling face; the other has a full body view of a lady at the beach as the cover. Of these two, which one would you give two glances? Works Cited Lowe, Melanie. “Colliding Feminism: Britney Spears, “Tweens,” and the Politics of Reception.” Taylor and Francis Online 26 (2003): 123-140. Web. March 3, 2014. Trem, D. “The Rise and Fall of a Pop Princess: Britney Spears.” Yahoo Voices. 21 Dec. 2007. Web. March 3, 2014. Read More