Media Plays an Important Role in the Molding of Social Values - Essay Example

The Media and Adolescents: Creating Images, Defining Reflections There can be no denying that media plays an important role in the molding of social values and in the legitimization of personal perceptions. It has been said that media is even more potent than formal education, in that its effects seep into the subconscious and accost individuals wherever they may be, whatever time of the day. In the United States, 98% have at least one television, 70% have more than one television, 70% have cable, and 51% of households with children have a computer.1 However, a particularly vulnerable sector or demographic are adolescents, not only because of the access they have to virtually all forms of media - such as the internet, television, radio, newspapers and magazines - but also because they are at an age where they are particularly vulnerable. They have yet to develop sufficient maturity and discernment necessary to filter out potentially destructive messages and unhealthy ideas streaming in from various media sources. This paper will discuss the unhealthy effects of media on adolescents, particularly with regard to the issue of stereotyping. The website Media Awareness Network states that "stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people-usually relating to their class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, social role or occupation." However, stereotyping is dangerous in that it transforms assumptions into realities and it places individuals in simplistic categories without recognition of each person's uniqueness and gifts.2 This paper will consist of three parts: (1) racial stereotyping; (2) gender stereotyping and (3) body identity. A. Racial Stereotyping For middle class, white adolescents, it is all too easy to forget that there are looming issues that need to be resolved and ugly truths that have to be confronted. And while much has changed since the 1800's, and new developments have been introduced that have sought to alleviate the racial divide not only in this country but in the world as well, it is incorrect to believe that the problem has been completely solved. We must be grateful that the world we have now is a better, more tolerant and more accepting world, but we must still try to think of steps to further reduce the racial divide. Media has also done its part in perpetuating the racial divide. This seems to extend to choice in fashion, music, and the like. In movies, a particularly potent media form, African-Americans tend to dress alike, for instance, and have the same tastes in music. This of course, is certainly true. For example, Tennessee boasts of a long tradition of gospel music, commonly associated with African Americans. Jazz music is also another Tennessee tradition. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's - the period wherein blacks made their mark in the artistic scene - saw black musicals and jazz music emerging in the mainstream scene. Indeed, the differences in the musical tastes run deep and add a colorful flavor to the Tennessee cultural collage. Of course, there are many songs of recent vintage that cut across race, particularly among the younger generation. While this kinds of depictions are benign and in fact celebrate cultural differences, it is entirely possible that adolescents are inflicted a barrage of unhealthy ideas which they are ill-equipped to filter. Indeed, factual and fictional media portrayals have a propensity to activate culturally shared racial and gender stereotypes and affect judgment involving those who belong to stereotyped groups3. Even news reports, for all its declarations of impartiality and objectivity, may be guilty of racial stereotyping. In his landmark study, Ungerleider4, states that a news report has the implicit agenda of "casting" characters as heroes, victims or villains. Members of minority groups end up either ignored or cast in the role of villains. Since these stories are repeated over and over with this same angle, they become the "accepted understandings among those to whom alternative interpretations are not evident." A huge problem with regard to media stereotyping where racial issues are concerned is the tension between the right to free speech and the right of marginalized groups to live free from prejudice and bigotry. the problem is not solved merely by prohibiting overtly discriminatory practices such as making race a basis for employment. Such practices are outdated and have no place in the twenty first century. The problem is the more insidious forms of discrimination. These are the forms that are difficult to legislate. How indeed, can one determine where the right of marginalized racial communities begin and where the right to free speech ends The boundaries are ever-shifting; and internally, the judge will be trying not only to apply the law, but to subject the text or speech in question to her own subjective inquiry in order to determine the intent of the message-bearer and what the material was trying to say. Social and political values inevitably come to the fore. To quote legal writer Thomas Streeter5, "It is in the character of language, in other words, that a judge will never be able to look at the text of the Bill of Rights and legal precedents to decide whether or not flag burning is protected by the First Amendment; he will always in one way or another be forced to make a choice about whether or not he thinks it should be protected, and will always be faced with the possibility that a reasonable person could plausibly disagree.". What distinguishes the area on free speech from other "legally-indeterminate" areas is that it is inextricably intertwined with and largely dependent on language which, as many eminent linguists have said, is arbitrary in the sense that meanings cannot be derived from anything logically-inherent in the words. These meanings are merely "assigned meanings" born of the collective experiences of people in a community and this system of interpretation is never static. A. Gender stereotyping Werner-Wilson, Fitzharris and Morrisey6 wrote a paper entitled "Adolescent and parent perceptions of media influence on adolescent sexuality". According to them: The media passively reinforce gender and ethnic stereotypes (Gerbher, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1986). Passive reinforcement of gender and ethnic stereotypes was demonstrated in a content analysis of Rolling Stone magazine, a popular adolescent periodical, which examined gender and ethnic themes in issues published in the years 1968 and 1988 (Wilson, 1990). Results from the content analysis suggested that women and people from traditionally underrepresented groups were rarely the source of stories; when they were featured, they were depicted unflatteringly. The stereotypes of women in media are easily evident. In television shows for instance, who has not seen the dumb blonde, the soccer mom, the girl next door, or the corporate go getter Though the stereotypes have undergone revamping since the 1950's, with less of the Brady Bunch images and more diversity with regard to the depiction of women, some stereotypes continue to persist and this is severely affecting the adolescents - particularly adolescent or prepubescent females who are only beginning to define their identity and chart their path in the world. Even is sports, studies show that there is the notion of gender-appropriate sports behavior.7 According to the Media Awareness Network: The statistics are startling. The average North American girl will watch 5,000 hours of television, including 80,000 ads, before she starts kindergarten. In the United States, Saturday morning cartoons alone come with 33 commercials per hour. Commercials aimed at kids spend 55 per cent of their time showing boys building, fixing toys, or fighting. They show girls, on the other hand, spending 77 per cent of their time laughing, talking, or observing others. And while boys in commercials are shown out of the house 85 per cent of the time, more than half of the commercials featuring girls place them in the home. But then Media must be congratulated for actually being a vehicle to promote empowerment by depicting women characters who have triumphed against all odds. As we are focusing here on the adolescent female, noteworthy indeed is the movie "Osama". The movie is about a 12-year-old girl disguised by her mother as a boy so that she can work to support her family. She worked in the grocery store of a friend, and for a while managed to circumvent the Taliban rule that all women should work indoors. She is made to join a local school, but her secret is discovered when she gets her first menstrual period. She is then forced to marry a man about four times her age. Her frightened eyes peeking from under the traditional burka, articulate more clearly than any words could, the suffering of this girl-child, thrust into a new life she cannot yet understand but has to accept. Osama represents a whole generation of women who, during the Taliban rule, suddenly found themselves reduced to non-human beings with neither rights nor identities nor voice. Two scenes in the movie are particularly striking. The image of Osama up a tree surrounded by boys her age alternately taunting and threatening her demonstrates the helplessness of women in Afghan society -- bereft as they are of basic human rights, let alone any channels of redress. The wedding night scene with her husband represents the obscenity with which the Taliban has managed to violate the Afghan women in mind, heart and body. During the first part of the movie, when the girl had to dress up as a boy in order to support her mother and grandmother, one is shocked at what the young Osama is put through to fulfill a noble intention. Feminist discourse has long lamented how women often have to "man"-ify themselves in order to assimilate themselves into a world where the standards and yardsticks are still male-oriented. But never has this been more literal and more scary than in the case of Osama, hair shorn short and dressed like a young boy in a desperate bid to go around a patently repressive policy. It is truly appalling to think of the women of Afghanistan - talented, intelligent, beautiful, all - locked up in their dark houses, but it is more appalling to think of the premise of this policy. Women are considered impure, causing men to commit evil, and therefore must be "reined in" so as to protect social order. The oppression is more than socially-acceptable, it is state sponsored, the product of government legislation. During the second part of the movie, Osama is married off against her will in a public ceremony to an old man. She is resigned to a life of servitude and subordination with a man she does not love, a destiny that is not of her own choosing. This is not a special case, this mirrors the tragedy that scores of Afghan women barely out of puberty had to deal with. The Taliban treated women as chattel that can be controlled by men. Husbands own their wives, and thus are permitted to beat them for "discipline", demand sex of them, reduce them to slaves. But ultimately, Osama triumphed and her character in the movie is an unforgettable heroine who should be looked up to by the adolescent female in search of her identity and pondering the meaning of her heroism. B. Sex and Body Identity The adolescent years may be considered the period when one is most insecure about her body - always seeking reassurance, craving approval. Unfortunately, media has not done its part to help young women counter their negative perceptions about themselves and in fact have provided a barrage of images that only succeed in creating unreasonable yardsticks. According to the Media Awareness website: "In 2002, researchers at Flinders University in South Australia studied 400 teenagers regarding how they relate to advertising. They found that girls who watched TV commercials featuring underweight models lost self-confidence and became more dissatisfied with their own bodies. Girls who spent the most time and effort on their appearance suffered the greatest loss in confidence." Another troubling phenomenon is the eroticisation of young girls. For example, the fashion industry, a multi-billion dollar enterprise, has been portraying young girls not yet on the brink of womanhood in sexual ways. Smoky eyes on a child no more than fifteen distort notions of childhood and corrupt innocence - as do suggestive camera angles and the slightly gaping mouth. According to Conrad and Milburn8: Popular culture communicates a set of myths about sexuality that are so ubiquitous we hardly even notice them. These myths become so ingrained in people's thinking - in the form of unexamined assumptions about the function of sex, how we should behave sexually, what is "normal" or "abnormal" - that we often respond automatically within the framework of these assumptions. Perhaps that is the reason why illnesses associated with body image, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, are particularly common among teen-age girls. They are forced to conform to an unreasonably high standard of ideal, without having the necessary emotional infrastructure with which to filter these images, if not outrightly reject them. At the end of the day, we have a generation of troubled young women with more questions and answers, still finding their way and not knowing whom to trust. It is our collective burden as a community to make the world as safe for our children as possible. This includes ensuring not only that they are adequately protected from physical harm, but also that they do not have to suffer from the onslaught of negative images from media outfits with nary a sense of responsibility. BIBLIOGRAPHY Conrad, S. & Milburn, M. Sexual Intelligence. New York: Crown Publishers. 2001. Koivula, Natalie. "Gender Stereotyping in Televised Media Sport Coverage." Sex Roles: A Journal of Research. Volume 41, No. 7-8. Springer, Netherlands. October 1999. Murphy, S. "The Impact of Factual versus Fictional Media Portrayals on Cultural Stereotypes." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 560, The Future of Fact (Nov., 1998), pp. 165-178 Paik, H., & Comstock, G. (1994). The effects of television violence on antisocial behavior: a meta-analysis. Communication Research, 21, 516-546. Streeter, T. (1995) Some Thoughts on Free Speech, Language and the Rule of Law. In Jensen, R. and Allen, D. (Eds.) Freeing the First Amendment: Critical Perspectives on Freedom of Expression.31-53. New York University Press. Ungerleider, C. "Media, minorities and misconceptions: The portrayal by and representation of minorities in Canadian New Media," Canadian Ethnic Studies, vol. 23, no. 3 (October 1991), 158. Read More