The mass media plays a very important role in everyone's lives, especially in today's world. Be it the television, radio, newspapers, or even magazines, these media channels all share the same main functions. According to Charles Wright, there are 4 functions of the media : Surveillance (information), Correlation (analysis and evaluation), Cultural Transmission (education and socialisation of receivers), and Entertainment (enjoyment and gratification).
Just a week ago, I saw an article on Today which caught me attention immediately. Entitled, "Teen Sex and the 'P' Factor", this article (http://www.todayonline.com/articles/279770.asp) begins by blaming the media, Internet, lack of parental support and discipline in schools for the hike in sexually-transmitted infections among youths in Singapore. Yes, the media. Citing tv drama shows such as Gossip Girl and the OC, the writer is trying to convey the message that constant media bombardment of such tv shows have influenced teens in one way or another.
Such tv shows often revolve around teens and sex, whereby high school kids shown having sex, getting pregnant, and swapping partners. In the article, the writer touched on how young people, when repeatedly shown the same messages, etch these messages in their memory, and soon pick them up. Quoting from the writer, "Television, movies, videos, music and the Internet all bring a new set of people into teenagers' lives. They see these characters as friends who begin to influence their lives". This clearly illustrates one of the media communications theory, the Powerful effects theory. According to this theory, the mass media is influential and audiences are passive. The media has a very powerful effect on the audiences. This can be supported by the rise in STDs among youths. However, I feel that the media should not be solely blamed for this phenomenon. Parents should actually take on the role of an educator, and educate their children on such issues. Teens consuming such tv shows should also be able to differentiate entertainment from real life, and not simply mimick what they see on television.
(Picture Source: http://gossipgirlchat.com/new-gossip-girl-promos-every-parents-nightmare-more/13/)
Yet another commercial which sparked concerns by a few parents would be a perfume advertisement by Dolce and Gabbana. On local prime time television, the commercial featuring a male model only clad in a pair of white briefs and a female model in a see-through white blouse hugging and kissing each other was aired. Parents who saw the commercial with their children around them felt that the commercial was suggestive and unsuitable for broadcast during prime time, especially since children will be around watching it.
(Picture Source: http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20081024-96137.html)
Personally, I feel that the consumption of media should be supervised to a certain extent, whereby parents, teachers, and even peers, take on the role of educators to transmit and impart the right values and thinking. Audiences have the right to decide what television shows they want to consume, and they too, should take responsibility on what they watch. TV shows such as Gossip Girl, the OC, Sex and the City, should be taken as a form of entertainment whereby audiences seek enjoyment from them. They may also act as a form of cultural transmission whereby parents can make use of these shows to educate their children on the dangers of having underage sex and dealing with drugs.
(Picture Source: http://www.cartoonstock.com/blowup_stock.asp?imageref=cgo0204&artist=Goddard,+Clive&topic=television+Media)
Many times, it is up to us, the consumers, to decide on whether we want to be exposed to the mass media or not. We have the choice to subscribe to certain television channels, purchase certain magazines, and tune in to preferred radio stations. Moreover, the mass media is a very useful tool when is comes to transmitting emergency messages and information. An example would be the recent tainted milk powder incident, where people from all over the world were informed almost immediately about the tainted products that could not longer be consumed. Therefore, I feel that the media plays an important role in educating us, informing us, as well as exposing us to other cultures and values that we may not be able to experience in our society. Ultimately, it is up to our own interpretation and decision on whether we want to let the media influence us.
What do you think? Do tv shows like Gossip Girl impart the wrong sort of values to teenagers? Comment!
14 comments:
Seriously, I don’t agree with this, what I really think is that these parents don’t really make much sense by assuming and blame the media or internet etc. for lecturing their children. This is in fact giving excuses, like what now a day’s most parents in Singapore like to do. Singaporeans are too pampered, most of them just expect the government to do everything. Pushing most of the responsibilities to society, that is like “Hello, that’s your kid, what you going to expect when you yourself is not doing anything!”. Actually, the media in Singapore already had a high restriction on what to be or not to be broadcast to the public where a lot different commercial is not being shown in Singapore.
To me, it is pretty normal to actually see couples hugging and kissing or even having ladies wearing bikinis in the commercial. Under psychological studies, what people actually call it “Conditioning” or “Condition” under the classification of “Behaviorism” or “Behavior”. Conditioning is a very crucial in advertising in response of how people feel about your product, it is all about brain washing and mind control in order to catch the eyes of the audiences using emotional association. For example you saw a girl wearing bikini in a perfume commercial, automatically when people saw it, it will create the so call sexual emotional association where the person think about the girl in the bikini, he or she think about the perfume. The same goes to the “Alls-Well” commercial advertising their drinks as well, this is what we call the “behavior modification”. So I don’t think there is anything wrong with the Gossip-girl commercials.
hey! i totally agree with you that the media should not be blamed for the conveying the wrong messages to teens. yes, parents should be the ones inculcating the right values into their own children. moreover, the fact that these commercials(D&G perfume) and tv shows are aired on local tv means that they are actually suitable content and hence, not censored by MDA.
i think that the psychological examples that you gave really give people who did not study psychology another different perspective of these media types. thanks for sharing!
i think gossip girls is just trying to advertise their show based on their content. afterall, the show is about teen life in america. their social context may be totally different from singapore. thus, audiences may not be used to their promotional methods. more importantly, we, consumers of media should be able to make the choice of whether to believe it or not. advertisers are just trying to sell their product and shows. and, everyone knows that sex sells. this explains all the provocative posters and intimate pictures. i find it normal for all these ads to have the sex appeal because it attracts people to look at them. children watching television commercials should be educated by their parents. when they ask their parents what it is about, parents should not be hesitant or shy to talk about these issues because sooner or later they will find it out themselves too. to conclude, i find that the media is a very good education tool!
I guess it is second nature for us to always push the blame to anyone else but us. Evidently, the media is a very powerful source in influencing our thoughts and perceptions. Narrowing down our context to Singapore tv, I feel that the media is harmless in the sense that everything that is aired have to go through the authorities. Take local movie, 15, for example. The gang scenes and explicit languages used made it legal only for a certain age group to watch. so, i feel that parents should not push the blame to the media and start to teach their children on the right morals and values with the help of the mass media
i feel that the media should be partially at fault for teaching the wrong values to young children. especially since the american culture is vastly different from the culture here in singapore. by airing american tv shows on local tv, young children may fail to realize that such scenarios do not apply in singapore. as such, they tend to mimick what they see on tv.
hmm.. like what samantha said, i believe that the media has got its pros and cons. the media is gd at educating us and conveying impt messages at a very short time. yet at the same time, if the messages were distorted, it would be a bad thing cuz many of us are consuming the media.
TV is always going to be a huge part in everyone's life. You can't control what the media portrays, but you can control what you receive from the media.
There is no good or bad media. Only how we perceive it. Roland Barthe said before that the author is dead. Everything is open to interpretations. How does one gets their interpretation from then? - upbringing, personal belief, etc etc
THat's the reason why watchdogs exsist. MDA is one of them. ultimately, you decide whether you want to be influenced or not.
i agree that there is no good or bad media, instead, the media is both good and bad. consumers of media should be the ones who determine whether they feel the material/content is good or bad. authorities are just there to guide consumers, and place restrictions to help protect the young consumers.
i have not watched gossip girls before but i feel that the media should not be blamed for imparting the not so right values to teenagers. in school, teenagers have courses and lessons to guide them in life. for example, we have sex education, civics and moral education and some schools even have counselling services. teenagers should be responsible for all their actions.
the television is just one of the many types of media that actually influences us and our behaviour. if we were to blame tv shows for imparting wrong values to teenagers, then what about the internet, which is not as strictly regulated as tv programmes in singapore? values should be inculcated in an individual since young, and most of the time, it is the environment that they live in and the people they live/interact with who will influence them. thus i agree with you that it is utterly irresponsible to just simply push all the blame to the media.
the media's main purpose is to entertain and attract viewers. as we all know, sex sells. thus, advertisers or directors will try to incorporate scenes that some people may find disturbing or unsuitable for the young. we should take the media as our form of entertainment and leisure instead of making use of it as a tool that teaches moral values.
the media definitely influences us in one way or another. us, consumers, select what we want to be influenced with, that is why we choose the different types of programmes that we want to watch. just like tv show gossip girls, some of us may not even know the existence of such shows or the content of the show. when we choose to consume a certain type of tv show or prog, we should be prepared to accept its content and everything. so instead of blaming the media, we should perhaps be reflecting on our choices of tv shows, esp for teenagers. maybe they should be watching discovery channels and not mtv?
i agree with what yuhan said regarding the widespread use of the internet. given that the tv is already being regulated and controlled in singapore, what more should parents ask for? advertisements and tv shows should not be taken too seriously as they are mainly for entertainment purposes unless we are talking about news channels and educational channels like discovery, national geographic, and cnn
i agree with what yuhan said regarding the widespread use of the internet. given that the tv is already being regulated and controlled in singapore, what more should parents ask for? advertisements and tv shows should not be taken too seriously as they are mainly for entertainment purposes unless we are talking about news channels and educational channels like discovery, national geographic, and cnn
Post a Comment