Media Influence on Society (Smoking)

Media Influence The mass media, some may argue that it is for the common good, others say it is all brainwash hyped up by publicity, who is the one at fault, or can they both be correct? Throughout the decades the media has grown exponentially with the advance of technology. It all started out with the telegraph, moved to the radio, newspapers, magazines, television and now the World Wide Web. Today people live in a social community, between texting, Facebook, Twitter, TV, Magazines, or newspapers, people are always being informed of what is going on. Oh a day to day basis, people base their decisions off of knowledge, experience, values, and attitudes. When people work, they base what they do off of what they have learned from their experience and studies. However in their daily lives, they rely on the mass media to fill them in with current news and what they want to be aware of. People put their trust into today’s media, but the media does have a positive and negative affect on the way people are channeling the information being dealt. A way that the mass media is positive has to be looked at from a technologic way of view. Technology helps reduce the distance for its users; the world would just seem to be smaller due to the increased communication and access information. Staying connected also helps people stay in tuned with that is going on in the world. Getting news feed sent directly to smartphones, laptops, and iPads is just an everyday occurrence. “Cinema, radio, television, magazines are a school of inattention: people look without seeing, listen in without hearing (Robert Bresson)”. Even Bresson would have to agree that people do not even realize that they are being flooded by the mass media. The mass media makes billions on the commercials, ads, and publicity that people are exposed to. People buy what they might think is a good item based on what they see or hear TV, the radio, magazine, or newspaper ads. How can people be so sure that what they are buying is the best available item, or is it the best available item that the media dons upon them? These are the effect that the media has on teens, they buy what they see the hottest celebrities wearing, or what their favorite actor or singer is selling. Apparently there are some positive and negative influences on teens. In a negative type of way, teens may see the commercials for cigarettes, cigars, and alcohol as being “cool” and acceptable. This might give them an excuse to give drugs a try and might even leave a permanent habit that they can carry onto their children. Besides the obvious fact of tobacco and alcoholic products being a negative influence on teens, fast food chains are also polluting the minds of the young, developing teens. McDonalds showing their annual commercial for the McRib, or Taco Bell advertising their value menu will call out to kids seeing that these foods are cheap and delicious but not knowing that they are filled with saturated fats, trans fats, and high sodium content may lead to obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes if eaten excessively. Joe Kelly from PBS says, “They 're talking to pre-pubescent girls about managing their calorie intake!! With Campbell 's soup, of all things -- an All-American family company. This is crazy! I saw the ad on the Rosie O 'Donnell Show. Several of our members saw it and sent me e-mails saying, 'Have you seen this ad, it 's crazy” (Kelly). Along with obesity, society puts this image in teens heads on how they should look, having bulging biceps and a cut 6-pack maybe the ideal body for guys but it may not work out for all males, and achieving that type of body takes a lot or training and dedication. Being stick thin as a girl may also be as unhealthy or maybe even unhealthier than obesity. Anorexia is also a chance when young girls are starving themselves trying to fit into a 00, and looking like a Victoria’s Secret model. On the other hand the media does have a positive effect on teens. Some might think that the media has negative influences on society, there are certain shows and ads that persuade teens to be a better them. “Today we are beginning to notice that the new media are not just mechanical gimmicks for creating worlds of illusion, but new languages with new and unique powers of expression (Marshall McLuhan)”. When McLuhan says this, he is acknowledging that the media has an influence in society by changing society for the greater good and potentially evolving humans to be smarter. When it comes to shows like The Biggest Loser or Extreme Home Makeover, they provide a great influence on kids to get out there and make a change, whether it is losing some excess weight to get down to a healthy more comfortable size that they are not so self-conscious about, or doing some volunteer work in their community to change someone else’s life in a positive way. Also teens are at a stage in their life where they do not quite know who they are and area looking for a sign of acceptance. They want to be accepted by their parents, role models, peers, and they just want to be loved and successful. The media creates this ideal image that teens want to match, kids see fancy cars, nice houses, and extravagant parties and the only thing on their mind is, “I want to be just like them”, or “I wish I had that kind of money”. In a way, the media pushes kids to achieve success, by getting a better education and really trying in school to be that lawyer, or that film director, or that brain surgeon. In my opinion, even though the media has positive influences on our society it is masked by the mass majority of negativity. Some young minds are intellectual enough to see around the publicity and propaganda, but to others that are brainwashed, it may be hard to see what is real and what the media wants to be seen as real. When William Bernbach said, “All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgerize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level (William Bernbach)”. He is stating that people can either take the media for being good or bad, and how people interpret that and use it in their everyday life is all on them. When it comes down to reality shows like Laguna Beach, Gossip Girls, or The Hills; the mass media puts off teenage life as being this rich and spoiled but when in reality, these kids are just one in a million that have overly wealthy parents. These shows teach kids the value of quality over quantity, but not in any kind of realistic way. When kids watch these shows, they want what all the kids have on TV; they want the $140 pair of RayBan sunglasses, rather than the $6.99 pair they can pick at Target across the street. Another value that kids are learning from the media is violence. The effects of violence in the media can be traumatic for growing children that are in the process of shaping their personality traits, values, and beliefs. In the past years, there have been incidents of school shootings and playground violence and those events have been linked to excessive use of violent video games and graphic war images. Through video games like “Call of Duty,” kids are thinking that war is a form of entertainment, but in reality war is a serious issue that should not be taken lightly. Over all, whether some may think that the mass media may either be a good thing or bad influence, the public can come to a mutual agreement that the world would not be the same without the mass media. People use the media on a daily basis, keeping in tune to what is going on is important, whether it is something less important like what Lada Gaga wore to the Grammys, to the latest earthquake that struck California. Malcolm X once said, “The media 's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that 's power. Because they control the minds of the masses (Malcolm X)”. Even though the mass media is linked to spreading hyped up fake news like a wildfire, but on the safe side, it helps a lot to inform people about the realities as well. Media has a constructive role to play for the society. The media focuses on social issues in almost every era. Issues in society are always raised in order to provide justice to the people. Being born and raised in LA and having an older sister that I was pretty much attached to the hip at, I felt like I was always into self-image and always wanting the best of the best things. I was spoiled as a kid and into my preteen age by my sister, she always seemed to buy me brand named clothing when honestly, I just wanted something comfortable. I think the psychology term of Nature vs. Nurture really came into play here. The whole idea of Nature vs. Nurture is that we are all born with a set personality, this is who we are and this will never really change, that is our nature side. Our nurture side is how we were raised, the different things that our parents tell us to do or not to do mold our nature side and ultimately makes us who we are today. I think my nature was really about sports and I was nurtured into fashion and other material goods. I feel like the media has had an exponential influence on my sister, who was my role model growing up, and that really made me who I am today. Like I said before, I am no better than anyone else, I look up to the media for guidance because I feel like I would be lost without it, but I think it is good that I can admit up to that and can see clearly how the mass media influences me.
The wrong is the fact that society today believes that whatever is in the media is socially acceptable to the common populous. When these beliefs revolve around bad influential things then children grow up believing that these are all acceptable and just the way the world really is. It is harmful for the future of our societies and also spread ignorance around the world. We have to realize that although sex, pain and suffering makes for a good story, it should be taken as it is, very bad, and not be glorified in any way. There should be limitations to freedom of speech as some things people can get away with are utterly disgusting. Look at Camel cigarettes, the image here is their Mardi Gras Limited Edition flavored packs.
Camel uses colorful packs and fun flavors like they were intentionally trying to lure kids in to try their products, and in the long run, get addicted. Things like these really make me wonder what companies are really thinking sometimes.
Some may think that it will take a long time before people will understand that TV is not for education purposes but for lowering ones IQ. For the audience, the media is for entertainment, for writers but for the journalist, media can seem to be a source of respect and remuneration. According to Mihael Kunchik and Astrid Cipfel in their book, "Introduction in Science of Publishment and Communications," they say, “People are sheep, and TV is the shepherd.” In the end the media shapes people’s attitudes on pretty much everything starting with the latest Hollywood sleaze when the alarm is going off at 6a.m. to watching CCN Live with Larry King right before bed. People have to see the power of persuasion the mass media as on them, and they need to be vigilant and see if there are opposing options and evaluate the facts rather than blindly accepting the mass media’s version of the “truth.”

Work Cited
Bernbach, William. "Media Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. 2010. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://thinkexist.com/quotations/media/>.
Bresson, Even. "Media Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. 2010. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://thinkexist.com/quotations/media/>.
Hiebert, Ray Eldon. Impact of Mass Media: Current Issues. New York: Longman, 1999.
Jeffres, Leo W., Richard M. Perloff, and Leo W. Jeffres. Mass Media Effects. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, 1997. Print.
Kelly, Joe. "Perfect Illusions . The Media 's Influence | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. 12 June 2003. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. http://www.pbs.org/perfectillusions/eatingdisorders/preventing_media.html
McLuhan, Marshall. "Media Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. 2010. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://thinkexist.com/quotations/media/>.
McMillian, Brooke. What Does the New Tobacco Law Mean to You and Your Family? Digital image. LiveStrong. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. <http://livestrongblog.org/2009/06/25/what-does-the-new-tobacco-law-mean-to-you-and-your-family/>.
X, Malcolm. "Media Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. 2010. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. <http://thinkexist.com/quotations/media/>.

Cited: Bernbach, William. "Media Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. 2010. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. &lt;http://thinkexist.com/quotations/media/&gt;. Bresson, Even. "Media Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. 2010. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. &lt;http://thinkexist.com/quotations/media/&gt;. Hiebert, Ray Eldon. Impact of Mass Media: Current Issues. New York: Longman, 1999. Jeffres, Leo W., Richard M. Perloff, and Leo W. Jeffres. Mass Media Effects. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, 1997. Print. Kelly, Joe. "Perfect Illusions . The Media 's Influence | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. 12 June 2003. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. http://www.pbs.org/perfectillusions/eatingdisorders/preventing_media.html McLuhan, Marshall. "Media Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. 2010. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. &lt;http://thinkexist.com/quotations/media/&gt;. McMillian, Brooke. What Does the New Tobacco Law Mean to You and Your Family? Digital image. LiveStrong. Web. 28 Mar. 2011. &lt;http://livestrongblog.org/2009/06/25/what-does-the-new-tobacco-law-mean-to-you-and-your-family/&gt;. X, Malcolm. "Media Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. 2010. Web. 02 Mar. 2011. &lt;http://thinkexist.com/quotations/media/&gt;.