How does the media influence us

How does media influence our lives?

The media is killing us softly.
Ever wonder how much influence the mass media has on your life? Does it convince you to make diffrenent decisions, or tell you how to live your life? The mass media is captivating the lives of their audience and keeping you from being YOU. Television advertisements, media coverage, billboard advertisements, television hit shows are just some of the media we encounter in our societies. What defines you as a man or woman, and how must you live your life to acheive the perception of media’s role of gender? There are major differences between reality of gender and the interpretation of gender that the media displays. Media tries to teach you, but you shouldn’t listen…

Women are constantly being told they must be skinny, flawless, unwrinkled, seductive and beautiful by standards of the media. This representation of gender excludes women from society because if she does not fit a certain category of beauty she is told she needs surgery, dietary supplements, and other procedures done. What is this teaching young women?

1. “47% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures.”

Girls will suffer more now than ever because of the ideas and standards that media has placed on our society. Young women will diet, suffer from anorexia and other diseases, and face serious depression for not being able to fit a standard of women by media’s terms. How will women be happy with who they are or how they look with these small and impossible standard’s of beauty that media shows?

Men suffer a misleading gender stereotype in the media too. A man must be independent, strong, powerful, ladies man, and or use violence in order to be man enough to fit media’s stereotypes. How is this influencing our young boys?

3. According to the America Psychological Association 2007, Dale Kunkel states, “Most violence on television is presented in a manner that increases its risk of harmful effects on child-viewers” (Kunkel, 2007).

Children cannot determine fantasy from reality as adults can, which gives them the idea to copy and imitate these violent scenes with no remorse or understanding of the consequences. Boys are taught throughout their lives to be men, and not sissy’s. You can’t cry, show emotion, or be a gentleman without being seen as weak, vulnerable, or a sissy.

This negative influence of gender roles in media, will exclude members of non male or female gender identity and teach the youth that they must comply with societies standards in order to be male or female. The negative impact the media has on us will destroy the way we except gender. Young boys will be taught to use violence, commit abuse, or be powerful in order to be a man. Little girls will judge themselves and others, be depressed, and begin to experience diseases such as bulimia or anorexia due to not fitting a certain size or clothing brand shown in the media.

In Killing Us Softly 4, lecturer Jean Kilbourne explains the dangers of media influence on genders, and gives examples of how men and women are depicted in the media today through advertisements and commercials. Jean Kilbourne says, “Sometimes people say to me, You’ve been talking about this for 40 years, have things gotten any better?” She comes to a great point, and that is things have actually gotten worse. Will you let the media tell you lies and control your life, or will you ignore the way media is killing us softly?

How The Media
Influence Our Decisions

Easy access

Have you ever considered exactly how the media influence our decisions? Television, radio, the Internet, cinema and advertising is easily accessible to many of the people on the planet.

In fact, we accept it and even expect it to be present. This means that the people controlling these things have access to billions of people. They can quickly and easily get their messages out to the masses.

Rather than give lots and lots of examples of how the media influence our decisions, I will look at the structure of some of the techniques that are used when the media influence decisions.

Repetition

Repeated exposure over time to similar messages makes it easy for people to accept them as true, and more importantly, act as though they’re true, even when they ‘know’ the messages are false. Just consider how often television ads are repeated. The companies behind the ads are only too willing to pay for such repetition. Because it works!

Think also political messages, religious tenets, business decision making trends and economic ideas and it becomes obvious how, through simple repetition, the media influence our decisions.

Use (and misuse!)
of experts

Whenever scientists, researchers or other experts are quoted, people rarely check the validity of any claims made. It is assumed that if these people are doing such work then it must be valid information.

There are two types of this kind of tactic. The first is to quote, for example, research done by doctors on the latest medical development. It is difficult for people to disagree because they don’t have the background knowledge and the current information available to these experts.

The second type is more subtle. Many companies now use famous people to advertise their products. Organizations will publicise the fact that a celebrity agrees with their standpoint. Because they understand how the general public holds celebrities in high regard. And more importantly, how this high regard gets spread across contexts. So, for example, if a favorite athlete or pop star is endorsing some food product it must be good simply because that person is endorsing it.

Another way of using this technique is to suggest that large groups of people are in agreement about an idea. Advertisers and marketers understand that many people only know what action to take based on the actions of those around them. So enough information is given so these people do exactly what it is the advertisers want. For example, the information given out is that eight out of 10 people prefer x washing powder. It’s easy for people to fill in the information they need so they can choose x.

It’s more difficult to have to think and ask questions such as ‘Which 10 people?’ ‘Who chose them?’ ‘How were they chosen?’

And this is one of the ideas behind much of the media broadcasting today. The advertisers, marketers and propagandists don’t want you to think for yourself.

The media influence our decisions because they would like you to think that they are making your life easy and organizing things so that lots of these decisions become unnecessary for you.

What they are doing is limiting your self awareness, eroding your instinct and intuition and deciding what you should conform to in terms of living your life.

Commitment

Another useful tactic whereby the media influence our decisions is that of commitment. When people commit to something, they tend to continue in this vein because they want to appear consistent, not just to others, but also to themselves. If someone can get you to commit to something, especially if its public and you consider that you committed to it yourself, you tend to build reasons and justification as to why you should stay committed.

You will also be more willing to agree to requests that are in line with this commitment. Because it’s easier to continue with a decision already made than to make a new decision.

This will be used in various sales pitches, getting buy in for groups, changing conditions in a deal, adding in unpleasant features and the give-it-and-take-it-away scenarios.

The first indicator that this is occurring is often a ‘gut feeling’ or ‘knowing in your heart’. To be able to deal with it, it’s useful to have a working knowledge of these signals for yourself.

Scarcity

makes an item more attractive and generates a strong emotion around it. This invariably affects your decision making.

Use the emotional charge as a warning to you. Chances are it’s one of those times when the media influence our decisions.

To deal with this kind of thing, ask yourself whether you want to own something for the sake of owning it, or to actually use it. If it’s to own it, and its rare, you need to decide how much it is worth to you.

If you simply want the item because of its function, remember that the function will not be affected by the scarcity or availability.

These are just a few of the ways in which the media influence our decisions. Sometimes just this knowledge itself is not enough to make a difference. Having an awareness of yourself and how your own system functions is what gives you the satisfaction of knowing that you’re making your own decisions.

Resources & Information

Recent Posts

How does the media influence us?

The influence that media messaging and advertising have on self-esteem and body image is widely acknowledged as a contributing factor to the development of disordered eating. Media literacy means knowing that the images of thin young models in magazines, music videos, on TV or the Internet promote an unattainable physical ideal that’s false in the first place, due to airbrushed and photo-shopped body proportions. As consumers, let’s think critically about media images, and create healthy standards of beauty and identity that we can live with.

Do you sometimes look in the mirror and not like what you see? You aren’t alone in this. And sometimes your body hasn’t actually changed, just your perception of it has. We all have days when we feel awkward or uncomfortable in our bodies. We feel the pressure to measure up to the way fashion models look in the pages of magazines, or the way actors and actresses look in the movies, on television, or on the Internet. Artists in music videos give us images of beauty and a lifestyle that most of us can only dream about. Or we admire the way a famous athlete looks and wish our own bodies could look that way. Celebrities always seem so happy and popular and rich in the images we see, but being media literate means we understand that these images don’t tell the whole story.

Media images and the fashion and diet industries create and perpetuate social and cultural definitions of beauty and attractiveness. They provide the context in which we learn to place so much value on appearance and on the size and shape of our bodies. Mostly, larger people are portrayed negatively. Their weight is the focus of the role, and they are either being laughed at or rejected. Thin people get to be portrayed in a wide range of roles and images, with no negative focus on weight.

Media messaging and advertising have strongly influenced how we define what is attractive and beautiful and its powerful effect on self-esteem and body image is acknowledged as a contributing factor in the development of disordered eating. We are constantly bombarded with air-brushed, photo-shopped images of models and celebrities. These images promote a ‘thin ideal’ that isn’t real in the first place, and is impossible to achieve and maintain with good health. The cosmetic and diet industries make billions of dollars from the body image insecurities they have helped to create!

It is no accident that the definition of beauty these companies promote centre on thin, half-dressed youthfulness. The message we get loud and clear is that that in order to be beautiful, you can never be too thin, and that wrinkles and aging are a fate to be avoided. And it’s not just girls and women who are influenced by these images. As men’s magazines become more popular, there is an increase in boys and men wanting to look like the images of well-built guys with impressive biceps and chiseled, washboard abs that they see in advertising and entertainment. Media literacy means understanding that these images are unattainable – that they are false in the first place. They are airbrushed and the body proportions are often redrawn. The models who posed for the pictures don’t actually look like the finished product. For a great example of this, check out the ‘Dove Evolution of Beauty’ video that shows a model from beginning makeup to finished ‘product’.

As consumers we can reject these made-up media images and messages that are sold to us. If we think critically and really evaluate the advertising and images we see, we can understand clearly how they help to create body dissatisfaction and self-doubt. If we then refuse to accept the ‘suggested sell’ in a way that affects industry profits, we will be helping to create new, more realistic standards of beauty and identity that will contribute to us living healthier lives.

What Can I Do?

1) Become a critical consumer of advertising and media messages.
2) Voice your opinion and protest the negative images and messages you see by writing letters to advertisers, television stations and movie studios.
3) Encourage media and advertising to present more diverse images of people,
images that promote positive and realistic messages of beauty, health and self-esteem.
4) Remember that the primary goal of the fashion, cosmetic, diet, fitness, and
plastic surgery industries is to make money,not to help you to ‘reach your fullest potential’ and ‘be the best person that you can possibly be’. If they actually did that, you would no longer need to buy their products!
5) Remind yourself that the print ads you see in magazines are all photographed with special lighting and then digitally retouched and enhanced. When we spend money trying to make ourselves look like their unrealistic images, they keep on making money!
6) Question the motives of these companies and their advertisers, and make sure the hard-earned money you spend reflects the person you are, not the person
that the media and advertisers want you to be.
7) Be a role-model to yourself and others. Develop your own style and celebrate who you are. Break free from the restrictive ways media and advertising say we should look.

How Do I Know…If Advertising and the Media Influence How I See Myself?

– Ads can influence you feeling dissatisfied or depressed about your body and weight.
– Your beauty role-models are fashion models or celebrities.
– You read and believe magazine articles that tell you that ‘perfect’ body is just a diet away.

No Neutral Ground: How Media Influences Us

The author lives in Utah, USA.

Our responsibility is not to avoid media altogether or to merely reject negative media but to choose wholesome and uplifting media.

In our modern, technology-filled world, we are bombarded with options: watch this, read that, listen to this. Our society is saturated with media and entertainment, and the influence they have on our beliefs, thoughts, and actions is subtle but powerful. The things we allow to fill our minds end up shaping our being—we become what we think about. My graduate studies took me on an exploration of the influence of media, and the overwhelming conclusion I found is that the media we choose to consume will inevitably affect us, whether positively or negatively.

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has explained: “Technology in and of itself is neither inherently good nor bad. Rather, the purposes accomplished with and through technology are the ultimate indicators of goodness or badness.” 1 Our task is not to reject technology but rather to use it in ways that will enrich our lives.

We can use the power of media to our advantage, to better our thoughts and behaviors by:

(1) Acknowledging our susceptibility to media influence and recognizing how it influences us.

(2) Identifying and choosing positive media options.

How Does Media Affect Us?

No one is immune to media’s influence. We cannot expect to indulge in media designed to affect us mentally and emotionally without its influence being sustained in our subconscious long after the movie is over, the book is closed, or the song ends. Those who believe media does not affect them are often the people who are most affected because they deny the influence and are therefore not guarded against it. Just as water will continue to seep through a leak in a boat, whether or not we acknowledge the leak, so will media continue to influence our thoughts whether or not we address its impact.

Entertainment media can influence our thoughts as we turn to it for relief from the stresses of our everyday lives. We often seek entertainment as a temporary solace from our everyday troubles, whether through movies, books, television, magazines, or music. Although we turn to entertainment media to relax, we must not relax our standards. It is at that very time we must be cautious of what we allow into our minds.

To fully enjoy the entertainment experience, some people instinctively accept whatever messages the medium offers and therefore allow the suggested perspectives to influence their perceptions. Film critics described the use of this concept in film:

“Truth depends on early and thoroughly convincing establishment of a strange or fantastic environment, sense of another time, or unusual characters, so that we are caught up in the film’s overall spirit, mood, and atmosphere. If the filmmaker is skillful at creating this semblance of truth, we willingly agree to suspend our disbelief, and we leave our skepticism and our rational faculties behind as we enter the film’s imaginary world.” 2

If we suspend our disbelief, we tend to be more open to the values, expectations, and beliefs the media portrays. Thus, media may subtly influence our thoughts. But in this influence is the danger of accepting viewpoints that may not be in harmony with gospel principles.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles brought attention to the function of entertainment media when he said, “Did you know that the original Latin meaning of the word amusement is ‘a diversion of the mind intended to deceive’?” 3 At times, we seek diversion. We turn to media to distract us from our own real-world problems, and we depend on it to make us believe whatever it has to offer. The more believable the medium, however true or false, the more we enjoy it.

Social psychologist Karen E. Dill said: “When we are transported by the world of fiction, our attitudes and beliefs change to be more consistent with ideas and claims that take place within the story. We suspend our disbelief and in so doing, we open ourselves up to absorbing involuntarily the belief system dramatized in the fictional world and to acting on those beliefs and ideas. Many times what we see on the screen provokes a change or a response outside our awareness. This is how the fantasy world of media shapes our realities.” 4

By allowing media to fulfill its purpose in amusing us, we might replace our ordinarily rational thought processes with thoughts proposed by the media, which ultimately leads to changes in our beliefs and behaviors. Elder David B. Haight (1906–2004) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, “As the thought is father to the deed, exposure can lead to acting out what is nurtured in the mind.” 5

To remain in control of the media influence in our lives, it is essential that we choose uplifting media and recognize our susceptibility to the media’s influence. Media affects our thoughts and can therefore influence our actions. King Benjamin’s counsel applies to us today: “Watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds” (Mosiah 4:30).

How do the media influence our beliefs?

Introduction：Nowadays, with the highly development of information, the media acts as the sun, the air and the water into people’s daily life. And our students–the group of young people who are easy to accept the new things, using media resources and also accept the impact of the media at the same time. The media is a “double-edged sword”. Not only it can give us chances to view a brand-new social life, to study new learning modes and gain new ideas. But also it can affect our beliefs, our behavior patterns, cultural life and our mental state. This essay is aimed at discuss the ways of the media influence our young people’s beliefs. And give some advice on how to protect young people from the bad influence of media.

Due to the wild covering of many audience, fast-spread and unconscious influence, the mass media has many functions, for example, information-spreading, public opinion guiding, knowledge education, supervision communication and entertainment. In modern society, we gain information from the media everywhere at any time. The media has become an ubiquitous source of information. It gives us the cognition of things from different aspects and in various fields, and thus influence people’s thoughts and judgment.

As to beliefs, mass media changes our ways of thinking and living, it also promotes the transformation of personality and the formation of new beliefs through the supervision of education, dissemination of knowledge and other ways. It has positive influence. For example, the online courses enables us to learn more new interacting lessons from different schools or countries, which gives us many choices to know different ideas and promote ourselves. The lesson we learned from the online course is a component of our new beliefs. In short, the mass media, in the process of communication culture, performs its education function to us.

The negative function of mass media should not be ignored. Market-oriented media in order to seek commercial benefits, often caters for some negative and unhealthy trend of thoughts. It mixed healthy content and unhealthy culture together, and forms an undesirable social orientation through speculation which causes the complexity environment of public opinion.

The negative functions are in two aspects: first, the media tends to just cater for people’s entertainment. With the increasing competition of marketing pressure, the mass media continually produces a large number of soap operas,industrialize-produced animations and games, and a large number of pop musics which don’t have artistic value but brings the sensational effect to most of the youth, and the best-selling books-such entertainment and vulgarization of cultural products. Although this kind of snack culture adapts to the needs of people who live in fast rhythm of life, it directs the wrong orientation of the outlook on life.

According to the organization which had surveyed 2,658 teens ages 8-18, they found that 58% of respondents said they watch television every day, while two-thirds of respondents said the same about listening to music. By contrast, 45% said they use social media every day, and only about a third of those social-media users said they liked it a lot.Steyer said, ”Nearly two-thirds of teens today tell us they don’t think watching TV or texting while doing homework makes any difference to their ability to study and learn, even though there’s more and more research to the contrary.” This survey shows that most of teens don’t know that they are addicted to the media. It shows that the thoughts of teens are easy to be affected.

According to “Reality TV’s Impact on Bullying and Student Behavior”, the research shows that regular reality TV viewers (among aged 11-17) accept and expect a higher level of drama, aggression, and bullying in their own lives than non-viewers. A majority of adolescents believe that reality shows are real and unscripted. “Kids at a young age see what they believe is real behavior and that influences them greatly, much more so than watching a crime drama.” claimed Waldron.

First,Chinese government introduces strict media crackdown on ‘vulgar, immoral and unhealthy content’.

Third, Students should have their judgment to figure out the useful information. And properly make good use of media, don’t be slaves of the media.