The effects of Mass Media on our society

Are We Getting What We Are Asking For?
The Effects of Mass Media on Our Society
Jeff Eakins
COML 509 – Social Dynamics of Communication Technology
Sept. 25, 2009

Not long ago, I turned on the television and saw a commercial for a sweetened breakfast cereal. The commercial was loud and energetic. It used vibrant colors and a mix of cartoon characters with real people. The actors were mainly children and seemed to be having the time of their life because they were eating this cereal. It had no impact on me and I simply turned the channel. The next day I saw another advertisement for the same sweetened cereal. The commercial consisted of adults enjoying a morning breakfast in the country. The sun was shining, there was a warm glow and the actors were discussing how the cereal made them live healthy, meaningful lives. They were better parents to their children for it. Later that day, my wife came home from the store with that very cereal. I had to laugh as I thought about how this company portrayed two different messages to two different target markets, but received the same results…we bought the cereal. I couldn’t help but relate this experience to how media influences the masses in all facets of life whether it be politics, religion, education, or sweetened cereal.

American intellectualist Noam Chomsky stated in the film Manufacturing Consent (Achbar, 1992) “Modern industrial civilization has developed within a certain system of convenient myths. The driving force of modern industrial civilization has been individual material gain.” Just as this company profited by using the media to coerce me into buying their cereal, so do other institutions use the media to promote their agendas to the masses. The question is, are we getting what we are asking for? Have we as individuals as well as a society allowed the mediums of print, television, internet and other forms of communication to replace the personal interaction and communication amongst ourselves? Are we too trusting in the images we see and the messages delivered through the mediums of mass media?

According to the A.C. Nielsen Co. (Violetplanet, 2009), the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day. Ninety-nine percent of households possess at least one television. The number of hours per day that the TV is on in an average U.S. home is six hours and forty-seven minutes. There have been over four thousand studies done regarding the effects of television on children. These studies have shown:
• Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 3.5
• Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680
• Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked to choose between watching TV and spending time with their fathers, preferred television: 54
• Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours
• Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500
• Number of 30-second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000
• Number of TV commercials seen by the average person by age 65: 2 million
• Rank of food products/fast-food restaurants among TV advertisements to kids: 1
• Total spending by 100 leading TV advertisers in 1993: $15 billion
• Percentage of local TV news broadcast time devoted to advertising: 30
• Percentage devoted to stories about crime, disaster and war: 53.8
• Percentage devoted to public service announcements: 0.7
• Percentage of Americans who can name The Three Stooges: 59
• Percentage who can name at least three justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: 17

These alarming statistics show the effect that media can have on our society. It is no wonder that we as a people trust those we see on TV as “experts” in their field. There is no doubt that the industry leaders understand the power that media has and there is no doubt that they are aware of these statistics. Those who use television and internet to promote their agendas certainly know that they can sway the masses with a carefully articulated message centered around their target audience. Does it matter to those profiteering from such messages what kind of an effect this is having on our society as a whole? I propose that it does not. The media will change their messages and images based on their careful analysis of trends. They will feed us what we want, they will feed us what we will buy.

As children, we watch the television for entertainment. We grow to learn the faces and products on TV. We trust what we see to be reality and this carries over into adulthood. We see individuals on TV as attractive, famous and successful. We feel that because they are successful and famous, they must be knowledgeable and trustworthy. We accept what they offer us without realizing that they have tailored their messages to us based on where we are at in our stage of life. Just as a cereal commercial is tailored to a child in order to get them to buy, that same company markets the same cereal in a different manner to an adult. This happens with political agendas as well. In the film Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism (Greenwald, 2004) one intellectual states, “What the public learns is what the media shows them, or doesn’t show them. What the media tells them or doesn’t tell them.”
As individuals, it is our responsibility to educate ourselves on such matters. We must wade through the sea of mass media and information and decide for ourselves what we want to believe, not what those who profit from media want us to believe. As it stands now, we are being told what profit wants us to hear. Corporate media institutions portray the messages, both textually and sub-textually, of those who are willing to pay them to do so. When we as a society stand up and demand unbiased information, when we show the broadcasters that we will not accept what they are offering by not purchasing the products of advertisers or cause a drop in ratings by not watching what they show, we will then have an impact on the information we are given. The media corporations will quickly turn their focus on the true source of their profiteering – the general public. “What seems to me a - in a sense - very terrifying aspect of our society, and of other societies, is the equanimity and the detachment with which sane, reasonable, sensible people can observe such events. I think that's more terrifying than the occasional Hitler or LeMay or other that crops up. These people would not be able to operate were it not for this apathy and equanimity. And therefore I think that it's in some sense the sane and reasonable and tolerant people who share a very serious burden of guilt, which they very easily throw on the shoulders of others who seem more extreme or more violent” (Achbar, 1992). The problem is that we are too accepting of their entertaining shows, the celebrity based shows. Those programs which they intertwine amongst their politically biased and profit based programs that keep us from just turning the television off. "I invite you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air... and keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a great wasteland" (Minow, 1961).













References
Achbar, M. and Wintonick, P. (1992) (Directors) Manufacturing Consent: The Political
Economy of the Mass Media Zeitgeist Video Canada

Greenwald, R. (2004) (Director) Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism Brave New
Films July 13, 2004 United States

Minow, N. (1961) (Speech) - National Association of Broadcasters, Washington., DC, 5.9.1961).

VioletPlanet (2009) Watching Ourselves Into A Stupor: The Lure of the Screen March, 28 2009
retrieved from http://www.zimbio.com/Sociology/articles/71/Statistics+Watching+Ourselves+Stupor+Lure