Essay Argumentative In Mass Media Effects on American Values
For English 101
In 1942 Judge Learned Hand stated "The hand that rules the Press, the radio, the screen, and the far-spread magazine rules the country." What he was meant be this is that all main sources of mass media affect a country's values, and whoever rules the media
then also rules the country. Since judge Hand made this remark, new types of media have come forth, but the power of the media remains stronger then ever. For example, imagine a person at home watching their favorite show on Friday night when the commercials come on. First, they show beautiful models in a "Guess" Commercial wearing flashy new clothes. Next, there is a Nike commercial with their favorite athletes in great shape with their perfect bodies. Then they watch a Mercedes commercial introducing their newest automobile. All of a sudden, they feel insecure about themselves and who they are. They want to go out and buy that new wardrobe, get a membership at the local gym and go to the bank in order to get a loan for that new Mercedes. This is the effect the mass media have on American people. They advertise their products with super stars, and it makes people want to go to the store and buy the products. There is abundant evidence that the mass media help shape American values. The first main source of mass media in America was the newspaper. Newspapers have been used many times to influence Americans views. In 1704, the Boston NewsLetter became the first regularly published newspaper in America. This day and age, there are over 10,000 newspapers published in the United States, and approximately forty-five percent of America's adult population reads a newspaper daily. In 1771, the First Amendment of the constitution guaranteed the right of freedom of press; this signified the importance of newspapers (McClenaghan 225). One time newspapers were used to help influence American's ideas was on January 25, 1898. The U.S.S. Maine entered the Cuban Havana Harbor when it suddenly and inexplicably exploded, killing two hundred fifty-four seamen. A New York Newspaper published by William Randolph Hearst blamed the Spanish for attacking the ship, and this sparked the Spanish-American
war. The Spanish did not actually attack the Maine; this was only propaganda printed in the papers in order to give Americans a justifiable reason to go to war and move the Spanish out of Cuba (Spanish-American War). Newspapers and propaganda also played a crucial part in American history during WWII. The papers wrote how Americans needed to be afraid of German- and Japanese- Americans; this eventually led to the American government creating Japanese Internment camps. Americans had absolutely nothing to fear from Japanese-Americans born in America, but because of lies written in the paper, Japanese-Americans were treated unfairly and rejected (Villanueva). In recent news, papers have printed articles stating that the U.S. and George Bush went into Iraq and started the "War on Terrorism" because Iraq played a part in the tragedy of 9/11 and had weapons of mass destruction. However, Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with the attacks that happened on 9/11; these were actually carried out by the Saudi Arabians, and after almost five years of being in Iraq, American soldiers have yet to find a single weapon of mass destruction (Americans' War on Terrorism). Newspapers are a main source for Americans finding information daily; however, they also affect people's opinions and help build on their beliefs. As a result, the newspaper has helped America find its way into many different situations, but without it the nation would not be informed about important news of the day. In the United States, there is approximately one television set per home in ninety-eight percent of the nation's 120 million households. Television is the most used source for gaining information for an estimated eighty percent of the population, and it took the newspapers place the main source in the 1960's. Since the beginning of televisions history there have been three major broadcasting networks that have ruled the
airwaves: CBS, ABC and NBC. There are over 1,400 other stations in this country alone that include more then 1,000 commercial outlets (McClenaghan 224). In 1955, U.S. News and World Report stated that "the very mind and character of Americans was being altered" ("Studies of the Mass Mediums"). In the 1980's, studies accused television of destroying the childhood development stage. A Gallup survey taken in 1990 showed that almost seventy percent of Americans believed that if television were to disappear they would be better off without it, or at least not adversely affected as much as they were with it ("Studies") For over fifty years, millions of Americans have turned on their television sets every night and are exposed to a vast amount of information, some of it true and some of it false. People are presented with ideas that they either choose to believe or not to believe. Research has shown that watching frequently television will shape peoples beliefs on different subjects. Television has been used to inform and also misinform people about elections, wars, and many other different things. Individuals choose to believe what they want, but their beliefs are directly affected not always by personal experience but also by what they might hear or see on television. For example, in presidential elections, each candidate states what he is supposedly going to do. One listens to each candidate's arguments, and from what one hears, he then chooses who he is going to vote for. This is a positive way the media is used to shape values. On the other hand, there are also negative ways the media is used to shape values. The majority of information broadcast over the local news is usually about crimes committed in the area; this pumps fear into the viewer's mind and leads him to believe certain things that are not necessarily true about different people and racial/religious groups. Even though television has its flaws, modern society would be lost without it. In conclusion,
Television is the largest form of mass media that has directly affected Americans values, and it has been for over half a century. There are people who believe the media does not have an affect on ones values. This is true in the sense that if you have strong morals such as that of a religious person you would not let something such as a media change those morals. However there has been plenty of proven evidence that the media can and will in fact affect someone's values on a subject they may be unfamiliar with. There are many different theories that explain how the mass media affects American people's values. The mass media are growing very rapidly especially with the introduction of the television in the 1940's and the breakthrough of the Internet in the 1990's. One of the theories of how mass media mass effects American values is the Hypodermic needle or "Silver Bullet Model." This is the idea that the mass mediums are so strong that they can implant their ideas into the audience's mind, or, like of a magic bullet, they can be targeted at an audience, who then fall down when hit by the bullet/medias messages. In brief, it is the idea that the makers of media messages can get us to do whatever they want us to do. This idea is usually never taken seriously by social scientist and is more of a myth then an actual model. If, in any case, this belief was true, it would be in a totalitarian government where the media is completely controlled by the state (Underwood). The most believed theory on how mass media has an effect on American Values would have to be the Empiricist tradition. This theory's approach to the study of mass Media's effects is closely related to methods of the natural sciences, like as physics. "It is characterized by counting and categorizing audience members and by the attempted measurement of direct effects of communication on those audiences"
(Underwood). What this is saying is that the audience is taped and categorized into different groups, and then how each group is affected by the different forms of mass media that is being directed at them is analyzed. This then gives an idea of how different types of people are affected by mass media. The last and simplest theory is called media Malaise. This states that people directly take what they see and or hear from the media and completely take that and make it their own opinion without any personal experience in the subject. For example, if one is watching television and come across a toothpaste advertisement that states it is the best toothpaste on the market, then the viewer without factually knowing if it is or is not the best believes the advertisement and goes out and buys the toothpaste. Thus, mass media does affect American values in many different shapes and forms, and there have studies that have proven this point. There is plenty of evidence that shows the mass media helps shape American beliefs. Over the 200 plus years America has been a country there have always been forms of mass media that directly affected the people's beliefs, Ranging from print (such as newspapers and magazines) to electronics such as (radio, television and movies). There are also many different ways that mass media can affect a person and one's beliefs. With all this is mind, one should think to themselves the next time they are watching television and how much it is directly affecting their values.
Works Cited Studies of the Mass Mediums. 1 Nov. 2005 http://www.trinity.edu/~mkearl/commun.html
Underwood, Mick. Home page. 21 jun. 2003 http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/media/efterms.html McClenaghan, William. American Government. Mass Media and Public Opinion. Pgs 206-232. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004 Milband, Dana. Americans War on Terrorism. June 8, 2005 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpVillanueva, Rico. Japanese Relocation Centers. Oct, 12 2000 http://www.infoplease.com/spot/internment1.html. The Spanish American War. 1996 http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/remember.html