Media and Cultural Diversity - Essay Example

"Cultural diversity refers to the manifold ways in which the cultures of groups and societies find expression. These expressions are passed on withinand among groups and societies. Cultural diversity is made manifest not only through the varied ways in which the cultural heritage of humanity is expressed, augmented and transmitted through the variety of cultural expressions, but also through diverse modes of artistic creation, production, dissemination, distribution and enjoyment, whatever the means and technologies used"1. Some examples have given below in which media treats cultural diversity. Movie (films treat the culture): Many of the top-grossing feature films spanning from 1915-1927 utilized rape as a device for defining manhood and thereby establishing power relationships. The images of rape in these silent films idealized the power of respectable white men over the men and women of other classes and races and subordinated the women from their own social station. These movies constructed white men as heroes and guardians of morality and civilization, white women as frail but morally superior figures, and African-American and immigrant men and women as uncontrollable sexual deviants who threatened civilization. These films reflected the fears of the white middle class that massive immigration, waves of black migration to the North, and the increasingly public role of women were irrevocably changing American society and threatening the power of the traditional dominant group in the United States: white middle- and upper-class men. In the 1910s and 1920s the film industry was fascinated with rape in silent feature films. Out of a sample of fifteen of the most popular feature films from 1915 through 1927, eleven contained single or multiple scenes of attempted rape.(1) The attempted rape served as a transitional point for the films and indicated some momentous change in the story line was about to occur. But more importantly rape also acted as a metaphor for larger cultural concerns. Indeed, the action initiated by the sexual violence operated as a symbolic episode that legitimized the power and dominance of white men of the middle and upper classes, who were united through a common culture of respectability that emphasized etiquette and genteel values (Bushman, 1993). Attempted rape scenes in these popular films developed a triangular relationship between the white, manly hero saving his white, female love interest from the sexual violence of the African-American or immigrant rapist. Such plots were based upon a long tradition of melodramatic story-telling with clearly defined notions of good and evil, and many films followed the time-worn traditions of the past. But because films defined white men as good and powerful, white women as objects of sexual violence or adoration, and African-American and immigrant men as violent, all helped to reinforce the cultural perception that white middle-class men were powerful, and that civilization depended on that power. These films defined images of all three types of people by juxtaposing them against the others: logical and powerful white manhood contrasted with weak and passive womanhood and with the destructive sexual energy of the more "primitive" manhood of African-American and southern- and eastern-European men. In short, silent feature films often used rape to preserve and support dominant white manhood, to subordinate women, and to perpetuate negative stereotypes of non-Caucasian males. Further, the metaphorical form these movies used to convey that power--rape--also created a highly charged atmosphere of sexuality. Dersu Uzala [1975]: This film, directed not by a Russian but a Japanese (the famous director, Kurosawa) using mostly Russian or Soviet actors and staff, is nonetheless a classic of Russian cinema in the same way that the St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow is a symbol of Russia despite having been designed by an Italian. An Imperial Russian Army survey party in pre pre-WW1 times goes to chart previously uncharted lands in Eastern Siberia. There the officer and his small troop meet a native hunter, Dersu. The osmotic effect of this marvelous little man cannot be easily described: he inculcates just by his presence a reverence for Nature and the wellsprings of Life. He hunts animals but respects them, in the way of many primitive people who have retained what we of the modern way and world have lost. In typically Russian style, the ending of the film is tragic rather than funny or self-satisfied: Dersu, his sight failing, is brought to a Russian town, Khaborovsk, to live with the Russian officer, his wife and little son. Dersu cannot live in a town and begs to return to his taiga (eternal Siberian forest). The officer helps him to buy a new, expensive rifle so that Dersu can hunt despite his failing eyesight. Later, it transpires that was Dersu murdered for his new and expensive hunting rifle A film like this, made in 1975, shows that (in the way of so many empires, at their most benevolent just before collapse) the Soviet Union was developing into a kind of spiritual social democracy (albeit absurdly militarized and secret police-ridden) as it neared its demise. News Media (treats the diversity of sexualities- Mothers and Caregivers Issues): Since before June Cleaver, the media have promoted a non-threatening, idealized model of the "good" mother. The media have never really addressed issues important to mothers and caregivers through informed reporting. Instead, they stage "cat fights" that pit stay-at-home moms against mothers who work outside the home. Responding to this inaccurate, incomplete reporting is one platform activists can use to raise awareness about the real barriers and challenges caregivers face, as well as the work that needs to be done to improve the lives of all families. Media stories on women, work and family often are incomplete, as they report only on the experiences and attitudes of small or elite groups of mothers. Reporters often use these small groups to convey their stories as common to all mothers. As Evelyn Murphy, author of "Getting Even," explains, "The media plays a huge role. Stories that feature only highly educated, high-earning women give the public the impression that these women represent all working women. Typically, reporters fill out trend stories on women, work and family with anecdotal evidence, "expert" opinions, and findings from insignificant, inconclusive or speculative studies, all of which are presented as fact. "As statistics tell us that women are getting more college degrees, more MBAs, more MDs," writes media critic Caryl Rivers, "the more intense becomes the message that this is all a terrible mistake, that only by returning to traditional lives can women find true happiness. It's the media's main message to women, and it gets played over and over again." ("Selling Anxiety: How the News Media Scare Women", 2007). According to investigative journalist E.J. Graff, "The media peddle stereotypes about everyone, including women. These sorts of unexamined stereotypes are like computer viruses: once they're clicked on, they start to dismantle women's careers, which then require a painful amount of time and effort to rebuild." (Interview by Jennifer L. Pozner, "The Tax on Being Female: 23 Cents per Hour and Counting", Women's Reviewof Books Vol. 23, No. 3, May/June 2006). Instead of reporting real news about the problems working families face today, the media have created a series of cultural narratives emphasizing individual women's life situations to overshadow the reality that women's life options are shaped by social and economic forces beyond our individual control. Media-generated narratives have a profound influence on how the challenges for mothers and caregivers are viewed by the public. For example, many people accept that the gender wage gap results from different voluntary choices men and women make about work and family, and media coverage reinforces this myth-making it more likely that employers, voters and lawmakers will dismiss evidence that sex discrimination and family-unfriendly policies and working conditions are major contributing factors. Novel (treats the diversity of culture- human behavior): Novels, just like television, movies, and plays can cause violence. Throughout history novels have been the cause of violent behavior. Those who say people can't be influenced by books, should really look into the influence that a book called Uncle Tom's Cabin had ten years prior to the Civil War. In 1851 Uncle Tom's Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe was published. The novel told of the hardships and cruelties faced by African-American slaves in the south. The novel popularlized the abolitionist movement and is believed to have been a major cause for the Civil War, which even though a noble cause, resulted in over 500,000 deaths (The Student Handbook 2: 592). In 1980 Mark Chapman, a former mental patient, shot and killed John Lennon. When asked why he did it, he indicated that he got the idea to kill Lennon from J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye (590). He felt that he and the main character in the story, Holden Caufield, were very similar because they were both angry social outcasts, who were recovering from a mental breakdown (590). Violence is prominent in children's novels too. R.L. Stine's novel The Babysitter III, tells of decapitating a baby and in Christopher Pike's novel, Monster, there is a graphic description of the effects of a shotgun being fired at a person's head at close range. Roderick McGillis, a professor of English at the University of Calgary and author of a book on children's literature, has written that, "What disturbs me is that we're developing in our culture, in our cities, a kind of siege mentality. A lot of thes books reinforce this, make it sort of normal to think that the world is a place in which violence can erupt at any moment". With all of this evidence it is hard to ignore the fact that violence in entertainment can cause violence in society. This paper has now shown that there are copycat kilers who get the idea for their crimes from entertainment. It has also been shown that the more violent movies and television children watch the more likely thay are to become aggressive and violent. Violence in entertainment and society is not isolated to the present, it was also very prominent in the writings of Shakespeare. With the evidence showing that violence in entertainment causes real life violence, it is very hard to say that violence in entertainment is justifiable. When little children and adults alike, fall victim to entertainment's violent influence it is not justifiable and it is especially not justifiable when violent entertainment creates real life victims. Internet (treats the diversity of culture): Culture specifics of the Internet usage are analyzed. The analysis done is a preliminary work for the application of the socio-historical theory of human mental development. The practice of the Internet usage is ambiguous as it gives rise to both the unification and the diversity. The parameters analyzed include the techniques of the hypertexts browsing, and the status/position/rank of the communicators - its influence on holding the floor and turn taking rules, the ways the emotions are expressed while Internet communication, and the way the English language serves the functions of world-wide medium. The most global - and vital for the prosperity of the mankind - ideas and concepts of today are multi-faceted and dependent on widely differing opinions and beliefs. One might mention such multi-faceted ideas as most of the moral and legal concepts and practices, political views, religious beliefs, some notions in science and humanities, estimations of art pieces, etc. Differing and opposing views do not necessarily mean confrontation or inadequacy. In the nuclear physics field, Niles Bohr proposed, the two opposite views might be both true, when put in a broad enough paradigm. These views constitute what he called "deep truths". The Internet and the Web users have to gain experience in the hypertext browsing. Outside the WWW navigation, no research was intended or done on browsing techniques though browsing is evidently different from reading (and the reading techniques research and teaching is traditional in the education field). An essential difference lies in the fact that for the hypertext navigation individualized and not forced routes are welcomed. Thus, the Web surfing gives a chance for diversity as opposed to unification. To perform thorough browsing one needs to be keenly interested in learning most various referential and connotative meanings associated with the hypertext notions, or the most various views on certain topics. After having learned various points of view, one is encouraged to make the best possible choice and to elaborate (or else to adopt) the seemingly most correct and personalized view. To work out the individualized position, one needs to acquire background dispositions and high enough educational level for making the personalized choice, and fairly high inner cognitive complexity to deal with plenty of meanings and opinions, with the multi-faceted and multi-optional information. Nowadays, they prevail on the Internet, and the resulting Internet is a sort of projection of their democratic attitudes and values. Usually, the democratic tradition relies on the elaborated enough psychological mechanisms of dealing with cognitive complexities, on estimating, comparing, and handling alternatives, on sophisticated decision making. But the access to the Internet is globalizing very rapidly, and most of the newcomers to the Web (those speaking Chinese, Russian and other Slavic languages, Arabian, Spanish, or Portugal) have a definitely authoritarian background. Thus the Internet might turn out to be ambigious: whenever the majority of its users consists of the adepts of authotarianism, the linked browsing techniques will be restricted to the most simple selection methods. Not so - too often - with the majority of those who experienced totalitarianism, possibly in preceding generations. The Internet and the WWW seen from the democratic/authoritarian point of view might give rise to both uniformity and diversity. References: UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005). "The Tax on Being Female: 23 Cents per Hour and Counting", Women's Reviewof Books Vol. 23, No. 3, May/June 2006). Weisband, S. R., Schneider, S. K. and Connolly, T.: 1995, Computer-mediated communication and social information: Status salience and status differences, Academy of Management, Journal, 38(4), 1124-1151. Read More