Irresponsible Portrayal of Women in the Media

Girls and women of all ages have struggled at some points in their lives with their appearance. Whether they've wanted to be taller or thinner, most women have thought at some time or another, how they could improve their looks. For the most part these thoughts of trying to achieve perfection have come from the influences from the media. The media has portrayed images of beauty that most women do not and cannot look like. The force of the media is so powerful that it has put an impact on how women should look and act in order to obtain happiness. How often in movies, television or even magazines have you seen an oversized woman who was exuberant and cheerful?

In the American Heritage Dictionary beauty is defined as a pleasing quality associated with harmony of form or color, excellence of craftsmanship, truthfulness, originality, or another, often unspecifiable property. It is thought that everyone has there own interpretation of what beauty is and what it is not. However, in today's society the media has shown and defined beauty in more of a physical appearance.Women are reduced to the status of objects due to the insistence of male dominance and desire in our patriarchal world. They are denied full expression of humanity if, as Lord Krishna preached, feeling desire is a very human “thing.” Society employs many mechanisms that perpetuate patriarchy and maintain the sexual imbalance in our world. One such mechanism is the media. The media bombards humans with images that portray women as passive objects. It is unfair that the media cites the First Amendment as the reason for not censoring such depictions of women that are degrading and robs women of their desires. The media – through advertisements, films, and music videos – portray women as desirable objects for those whom the media and therefore society, assumes to be the genuine sexual beings, men.

By posing the “thin-ideal,” advertisements convince women to believe that their bodies are objects in need of constant improvement. Striving for the “thin-deal,” however, causes many girls and women to become self-conscious and dissatisfied with their bodies. One research group has found that after being exposed to women’s magazines – such as, Vogue, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan – “girls…showed more dieting, anxiety, and bulimic symptoms” (www.media-scope.com). Interestingly enough, a newspaper that has no photos, The Wall Street Journal, does the best job at advertising diet doctors, pill mills, and weight loss scams. Among the many reasons, advertisements are one reason why only a body is what a woman is see as and becomes. For the sake of selling products, advertises purposely normalize unrealistically thin bodies in order to create an unattainable objective for women.

Another form of media humans enjoy, namely films, reflects the language of patriarchy. In most American films, a woman is seen as the “other.” The lead actress exists only as an icon or object that is incapable of making things happen. The visual presence of a female in films tends to bring a pause in the story line, which is inevitably driven by a subjective and desiring male. He pursues her. He makes their world happen.

Take the early film “Metropolis”  for example. Wanting to replace human workers, Rotwang, the lead actor, creates a female-robot, a lifeless object, and he gains control over the workers by having the robot perform “certain tasks.” The most disturbing message from films like this one involves how patriarchal society fears any suggestion of female sexuality. Films employ an indirect, hidden method that emphasizes to women the importance of suppressing desire in becoming desirable objects. This is what patriarchy wants! This is what patriarchy tirelessly “teaches” women!

In Conjunction with advertisements and films, most music videos today portray women as sex objects to satisfy male voyeurism. For instance, the powerful music video, “Dreamworlds II,” creates a fantasy or “dreamworld” for men in which women are mindless nymphomaniacs, continually interested in sex with any available man. Music videos such as these provide women with yet another disturbing message: female sexuality does not exist because a woman’s function depends entirely on satisfying male sexuality. By separating women into body parts (that is, legs, arms, hips, and breasts), music videos distract viewers from seeing women subjectively as humans with thoughts and feelings of their own.

It is much easier on the conscience if one hits a punching bag, rather than an identifiable person. In most music videos however, that degrade women, men associate women with being their punching bags. As a result, immature male viewers may become emotionally desentsitized and begin to associate women with being their punching bags as well. Emotional desensitization and therefore violence against women increases with the number of music videos that are made, released, and viewed each day. After having faced violence, women begin to believe that feeling desire is a “crime” that is punished with violence.

The power of media is so great that humans literally depend on it to tell them what “reality” is. Our society needs to understand that the underlying messages provided to men and women involve two different realities: a subjective one for men and an objective one for women. Media does not register in consciousness the same way for men and women. The social-learning approach argues that individuals are rewarded for imitating role models of their own gender. Thus, “reality” for most women becomes imitating objects of male desire and for most men, imitating powerful figures who know how to act and desire. Despite our progress into the twenty-first century, one can only feel a certain irritation after realizing that the truth about how our society creates positions of desire diminishes the feminine gender.

The media may be making a lot of money but that gives the media no reason for not understanding the power of its imagery or becoming more socially responsible. People who work in the media need to portray not one but both genders as capable of defining themselves and asserting their own desires. This, in turn, will allow the media to present a more complete image of women and rectify the gross injustice that has been done to what Simone de Beauvoir once called “the second sex.” Women can transform their suppression into expression of their own choices once justice has been done to them by the media, as well as the society. Women can then, hopefully, feel desire independently of the dangers and dilemmas that are normally associated with it today.

Media and its Effect to our Society

Media plays a significant role in our society today. It is all around us, from the shows we watch on television, the music we listen to on the radio, to the books and magazines we read each day. Television more so that any of the other medias achieves a myriad of different goals. These goals range from entertaining to educating. Various confines of education and entertainment are depicted in television.

For the most part the television is found to be very entertaining. People watch television shows they enjoy and find entertaining. Television is often looked at as a babysitter for children. The viewing of television can entertain the young and old alike for great amounts of time. Along with entertaining, the media is used to inform society. Days are often started by the listening of the news on the morning television, judging the latest updates on the local traffic jams. Days are often concluded with the watching of the late night news on television, keeping us informed of the world and the events occurring around us. Steven Stark, author of Glued to the Set has been quoted as saying, "the local newscast has replaced the network news and the newspaper alike as the average American's main source of news.” 

In addition to informing the television is used to spread a message or to campaign. Political candidates on all levels use this medium to inform the public of their views and hopefully to convince the public to elect them.

James B. Twitchwill author of Adcult USA: The Triumph of Advertising in American Culture states,"The culture we live in is carried on the back of advertising.”(405) Television is used to inform, entertain and campaign and most significantly, it is used for advertising. In fact, television is so centered on advertising and these advertisers play such large sums money to advertise that advertising has taken over.

Media refers to mass media such as broadcast media, print media and the web media. Television and radio are considered broadcast media while newspapers, magazines and journals are known as print media and internet news, the web media. The media is an important source of information through its news segments, entertainment and allows for exchange of ideas, suggestions and comments.

Consumers nowadays have a variety of media outlets compared to a few decades ago. The advent of the Internet and services provided through it, has enabled many of us to gain access to instant and a variety of news and entertainment. In fact, the presence of Internet also has led to creativity among the young consumers with the latter setting up personal websites, blogs and others. It has inadvertently led many students to take advantage of the prevalence of information by copying and plagiarizing writings from the internet news. While the internet has been hailed as the most important advances humankind has made in the 20th century, it is nevertheless open to abuse and exploitation that presents danger to humans.

However, although most of us get our news through the media as many of us have little time to read books or journals, the news presented to us can be biased and one sided. During the invasion of Iraq in 2003 by the United States and its allies, casualty figures of their military personnel were highlighted and hardly any news on the figures for Iraqi civilians and its military personnel. News reported on websites appears more reliable and transparent though one has to be careful about the accuracy of the facts reported. the media news too can misrepresent information to serve the objectives of certain people or authorities in power.

In many Asian nations, there are limits to press freedom. Although the media is allowed to present news and its views as well as perspectives, it is barred from providing news that can potentially create unrest and violence. The government has instituted the Official Secrets Act and Internal security act that allows it to detain anybody including those working in the media for inciting racial or religious violence. However, there is still a degree of freedom in these countries' press compared to other more conservative countries. we have access to news from all around the world and readers are invited to send their views and contributions to be published in the media.

The media is not only an important source of news and opinions but also entertainment. Most young people usually turn on the television for movies, MTV and other entertainment programs. the adults however, prefer news and more educational programs.

Thus, the media plays an important role in our lives as we cannot envisage a life without the daily reporting of national, regional and international news. It would be like returning to the Stone Ages. However, consumers must ensure the news reported in the media is accurate and not one-sided by looking at its contents critically and voicing their views on certain issues.

Media has continuously pervaded and defined society and has advanced with technology. The traditional forms of media propagation including television, newspapers, posters and mail remain as efficient as before the introduction of newer methods. Email, websites, e-zines and social online media have replaced expensive media production such as magazines and photographic paper.

Media imparts and shapes society’s opinion on the subjects of politics, business, culture and sports. It reflects on the freedom of speech and freedom of expression within a country. The positive aspects of free media far outweigh the negative effects that may occur. In the case of internet based media, control is difficult. Control of the Internet has however been imposed in China.

Media has the ability to bring relief to disaster prone areas while at the same time it may be responsible for nurturing prejudice against certain regions. For example, the perception that Africa is an extremely underdeveloped region although it is actually bustling with megacities. In the world of social media, gossip columns have the potential to ruin lives of individuals or boost their popularity. Advertising through modern media has led to the rise of fortune 500 companies.

It has been argued that media has resulted in a generation of couch potatoes who rarely engage in outdoor activities. It has become rarer to find someone who has good handwriting since typing is now the preferred skill. Conversely, media has brought about a positive sense of globalization and has been a good base for education. Children of today learn languages faster thanks to media. They may however be exposed to rated content which overall chews on the moral fiber of society. Checks and balances therefore have to be better enforced to protect little eyes and ears.

Conventional media speaks volumes when it comes to sustainability and reduction of the carbon footprint. People have to print less and travel less when information is promptly and conveniently availed at their doorstep, mailbox, inbox, television or blog. Though media is ubiquitous, it has created a demand for sensational coverage. Certain issues that headline today would not have been considered newsworthy a century ago. Hype is created, privacy is infringed on and reality is altered regularly in contemporary media.

An Analysis of the Media and Culture Issues of Society

The issue of the relationship between the mass media and the popular culture has always been a controversial issue in social sciences. The political economists insist on the role of the media industry in the creation of this phenomenon of the twentieth century. Though, advocates such as John Fiske, argue that popular culture is actually the creation of the populous itself, and is independent of the capitalist production process of the communication sector. Basing his argument on the immense interpretive power of the people, Fiske believes that the audience is able to break all the indented meanings within a media message. He also believes- by giving new meanings to that specific message they can oppose the power block that is trying to impose its ideology to the public. Consequently, this anarchistic activity of the audience creates the popular culture as a defence mechanism. Even when we accept Fiske’s ideas, we can not disregard the manipulative power of the media and its effects on cultural and social life.

Everyday we are exposed to millions of different visual messages, which tell us what to eat, what to wear, what to watch and what to listen. No matter how hard we try to avoid being influenced by these directives, we can only protect ourselves to a certain point. After that, no interpretive power can be helpful. Media then leads us to a path that ends up in the same department store with our neighbour, with whom we have probably never spoken to before. Ironically, we are holding the same pair of socks or CDs, and we might never want to recall the TV commercial that had opened the gates to this path.

The United States is the biggest economical power in the world today, and consequently has also the strongest and largest media industry. Therefore, it is essential to take a look at the crucial relationship between the media and the popular culture within the social context of the United States for a better understanding of the issue. For a simpler analysis of the subject we shall divide the media industry into three main branches: Entertainment, News and Commercials (which is the essential device for the survival of the industry, and shall be considered in integration with Entertainment). Researches have shown that the most popular reason behind TV viewing is relaxation and emptying the mind. Therefore, the entertainment programs, being the only choice for relaxation, are the most effective tools of influence. The notation being that during programs the viewers are least busy with conscious mental activities. The TV series (mostly soap operas) are the most popular programs within the entertainment group. The easiness of viewing them is the reason behind their popularity. Each of them is created for a certain type of audience profile: housewives, working men, teenagers, children etc. Within these categories they are also divided according to social and economical bases. In one sense Dallas would probably appeal to any average American and in the other Thirty-something would mostly be popular among the yuppies, and the Young and Restless among the housewives. However, this distribution is not intended to satisfy the viewer, but to satisfy the advertisers. Since, lets say an importer of French wines, is sure that mostly the viewers with high income and luxurious tastes would be watching Thirty-something, he can confidently advertise in the commercial breaks of this program, rather than during Married with Children. However, the most striking characteristic of the series does not come from their commercialist structure and their power of encouraging consumerism, but from the cult that they create.

In November 1980, 70 million Americans turned on their televisions to learn the murderer of J.R in the Dallas series, and after the show, 150 TV stations, 3,500 professional and 2,500 amateur radio stations announced the murderer in the news headlines and broadcasted commentaries about the issue. During the specific episode of the series, a one minute commercial was sold for $500, 000 US dollars (Senyap, 112). The fate of an imaginary character had become the most important subject of discussion in the United States. In other words, 70 million Americans were not able to interpret or change the message of the series. The same people who were protesting the re-establishment of the registration for the draft in February of the same year, were now mostly curious about Dallas and J.R. (Vietnam and America, 301).

On the other hand, a TV channel that was fully established for the purpose of entertainment, MTV, took a mission that was totally not expectable. In 1992 the channel started two campaigns called "Chose or Lose", and "Rock the Vote", in order to increase the voting rate among the young generation. The result was highly positive; polls taken in late October showed that 75% of the 18 to 29 age group said that they would vote, compared to the 40% in 1988. In addition the votes were heavily in favour of Clinton who had accepted to present himself on MTV, unlike Bush (Edelstein, 110). Although the picture may look positive at first, with a deeper perspective it becomes dramatic. The only way of appealing to the young generation seems to be through a music channel, which is based on the creation and consumption of a popular culture. They get interested in politics only when their idols or leaders tell them to do so. Their “freethinking” ability is limited with the mediated message that appeals to them, and they act mechanically according to these messages, highly contradicting with the "free your mind" slogan of MTV.

When we talk about the successes of TV campaigns, we shall always consider the inverse process that can also easily take place. Therefore, the picture can be viewed more critically. At this point a question comes to mind. Why are we so much influenced by TV; How can it be such a powerful device? To understand this, we shall consider Festinger’s theory on social influence: "If one believes that a sheet of glass is fragile, one can test that belief by hitting it with a hammer. The subjective validity of this belief depends on physical reality testing. However, a belief that socialism is the way forward for humanity can not be tested the same way. Such a belief is correct, valid and proper to the extent that it is anchored in a group of people with similar beliefs, opinions and attitudes" (Turner, 19). This hypothesis by Festinger is supported by three additional points: 1) If other people agree and share our attitudes, then we are more likely to consider them as subjectively valid. 2) We prefer to join groups of people with whom we agree which in the end causes a stronger agreement of a specific issue. 3) And finally, the less we are able to make physical testing, the more important becomes the agreement of similar others to validate our beliefs (Turner, 20). To get to a point where television takes its place as an instrument of conviction, we shall add a final hypothesis about influence. According to Deutsch and Gerard, informational influence is influence to accept information from another as evidence about objective reality. Conformity is motivated by the desire to form an accurate view of reality and to act correctly, and is increased by the uncertainty about the correctness of one’s judgment and the ambiguity of the stimulus situation (Turner, 34). We always have a considerable amount of uncertainty about our decisions, and always look for conformation from a friend or an authority.

The role of the television at this point is its being the collection of all possible organs of conformation. It is obvious that when we take two newspapers, say the New York Times and The Daily News, we are more intended to believe the news covered in the Times. We tend to leans towards the beliefs of the Times because it targets the “high-brow” audience of society, therefor being more respected in factual coverage. However, as Giddens puts it, according to a research, if a news report on TV differs from a newspaper account, more than twice as many people will believe the televised version as the newspaper one (Giddens, 79). The listeners of the Nixon-Kennedy debate on the radio derived Nixon as the obvious winner. However, the ones who watched the debate on TV were sure that Kennedy would become the new president of the United States (Hughes, 4). The TV viewers were right, but what made them think that way if it were the ideas that mattered? According to Giddens, if the current trends in TV watching continue, by the age of 18, the average child born today will have spent more time watching TV than in any other activity except sleep (Giddens, 449). In 1947, there were 170,000 TV sets in US homes, by the year 1991 the number reached to 750 million, and considering the fact that an average 18 year old American is exposed to approximately 350,000 TV commercials, the picture becomes more dramatic (Coupland, 182).

The persuasive affect of the television therefore follows two steps. First, it is the synthesis of video and audio, which means that it involves action and sound as the most realistic forms of communication making it the most popular electronic device ever produced. We are more likely to accept what television tells us as the truth than any other medium. It is in the most respectful corner of our living rooms, where once our grandfathers use to tell fairy tales. It is a member of our family that holds some magical ties with the outer world, through which we learn the deeds of our times. “It is the head of the household in the traditional sense that tells us the right way to behave, the right goods to consume, and the right people to choose” (Good). It survives with our confidence, which lasts forever despite all our criticisms. It socialises our lives, which we’d deliberately try to hide behind the curtain of the fast city life. It does this by visually integrating our materially disintegrated society, with its promotion of stereotyped consumption fetishism. It is the most favoured mean of communication which "demands not to be spoken to while it is speaking- in the name of the TV- a law that any child will invoke against its stuttering parents" (O’Neill, 13). Television is indeed our window to the world. The second step in the visual influence process starts at this point. For all the reasons described above, television is the most trustworthy medium to give us the subjective validity of our beliefs, which can not be proved physically. It is the ultimate source from which we can get evidence about objective reality, motivated by our desire to form an accurate view of this reality and to act correctly. Our uncertainty about the future and more importantly about our own time (which is expressed by individualism and the loneliness of the individual itself) increases our dependency on the television. The role of this “magical” machine at this point is giving us the feeling of being part of a well functioning and united system. As O’Neill writes, "…the specular function of TV lies in its ability to individualise the mass while treating the individual only as a member of the masses" (O’Neill, 181). However, the most important effect of media, and especially TV, is not derived from the exposure of visual images and commercials that tend to create a popular consumer culture, but actually from what we are not exposed.

The gatekeepers of the news industry control all the information. They decide on what to publish or broadcast, based on the ideology and the structure of the institution. This is not censoring in a classical sense, but rather an “auto-control mechanism” that functions for the survival of the system and the controlling of the public. Therefore, whatever is presented in the news would rather be a part of the popular culture, (created by the entertainment industry) since the popular culture itself is created for the growth of the capitalist economy and the homogenisation of the society, which are essential elements for a stable system.

In 1961, President Eisenhower talked about an acquisition of unwarranted influence by what he called the "military- industrial complex," and stated that measures had to be taken to guard against this "potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power" (Roach, 17). Colleen Roach makes an addition to this analysis, and underlines that since 1961, a new component has been added to the military- industrial complex; communication, and gives the following example. "In 1986, the intersection between communication, industry and the military became most apparent when General Electric (GE), one of the world’s major defence contractors, bought RCA and with it NBC" (Roach, 17). Lee and Solomon give supporting evidence about the integration of the media and the military-industry. The boards of directors of the Big Three (CBS, ABC, NBC) are composed of executives, lawyers, financiers and former government officials who represent the biggest banks and corporations in the United States, including military and nuclear contractors. There are numerous interlocks between the board of directors of the New York Times and the nuclear industry, which partially explains why it has been a fanatical supporter of nuclear weapons (Roach, 18). Understanding the connection between the media and the military-industry gives us something more than its war promoting function, but shows its role in the decision making mechanism of our age.

Any capitalist regime, not considering a dictatorship, needs the private enterprise for survival. Therefore the extent that it can act against the private sector is very limited and television lives with advertisement and sponsorship, rather than audience. Therefore, what we mostly see on the screen is what the sponsors promote, which are usually mechanisms to keep the society stable. As Mosco puts it; "electronic communication and information systems (from ATMs to TV) make it possible to gather massive amount of information about the choices of different groups of people, so as to better manage and control group behaviour (Roach, 46).

Let’s now look at different examples of the use of TV; first as a means of control over society. Before January 1991, public opinion polls showed that the American public was split into two groups, 50% each, about whether the U.S. should attack Iraq or not. However, says Roach, if any anti-war voices had been heard in the mass media at this time, the outcome could have been completely different (Roach, 20). The second example turns out to be a more tragic one, when we talk about the freedom of speech. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the pictures of the irradicated Japanese were not made available to the American public until 1980’s (Roach 25). The following is an example of this "hiding" policy of the gatekeepers. In November 1983 the Americans had the chance to watch ABC’s The Day After, which was a film set in Japan, about the survival of a small number of Americans after an atomic blast. The film dramatically showed the dark side of the nuclear technology. In 1982 a Canadian director, Terri Nash, made a documentary called- If You Love This Planet, and won an Academy Award. In his work, he used the Japanese films about the effects of the atomic bomb. However, "as of 1987, the U.S. Justice Department requires registration of screenings and persons viewing the film which it classifies as political propaganda", says O’Neill, and continues: The difference between the two films is one that nuclear TV cannot stand. In one case we see the actual horror of a bomb dropped by Americans and that, in the other case, we see the fictional horror of a bomb imagined by Americans to have been dropped upon them by someone else. Thus, TV is engaged in a retrospective political history on the nuclear front which parallels the current remaking of the Vietnam War and America’s re-humanisation of military adventure (O’Neill, 190-91). In both cases, we see the stabilising function of the television through an auto-control mechanism, and the promotion of what the authorities define as suitable. It manipulates reality into a socially comfortable and acceptable rhetoric.

As the audience, we consider the tales of the television to be the most reliable ones, for now it is our new grandfather. Therefore, the control of the society through TV, by those who control it, are directing the society towards a certain destination, which is found to be the "way forward for humanity," and keeping the system together by creating a popular culture based on consumerism. This turns out to be a post-modern way of practicing authority in our post-modern lives. After all, we breathe visually. We live with images; both of ourselves and of other people. We talk with the symbols of a mechanised life "everything is under control.” We pet the remote control, not our little puppies, and we thankfully worship our TV set, for He has enabled us to be what we are today. We are the children of a new clan, and TV is the Good Shepherd of the post-modern times, preaching the virtuous American way of life, and He has long established "His Kingdom on Earth".