It would be hard for one to dispute the fact that MTV has influenced every pop culture trend since its birth in 1981. One could even say that MTV is pop culture. No other media network holds in the palm of its hand the power to control popular cultural evolution the way MTV does. What other media network has influenced and helped shape public opinion, filmmaking, newsgathering techniques, presidential politics, and world politics like MTV has? In addition to that, MTV can take credit for reconstructing the music industry (Rushkoff 126). One would be hard pressed to find a person who does not enjoy some type of music. Thus, "Music" television was built on a foundation that was virtually united by the whole world, and its popularity was inevitable. MTV chose popular music as its beating heart, instead of classical music or jazz. Young people around the country could now see their favorite music icons 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As a result, the young people of America were given a national/international platform to share their common voice, a voice that to this day wants to be heard. Since MTV has such a large hand in shaping the young minds of today, it is important that both parents and children are aware of the impact MTV has in their daily lives.
In assessing the impact and effect of popular cultural forms like MTV, it is important to acknowledge the extent to which, rather than having them imposed upon us, we may instead appropriate or assimilate parts, whilst choosing to reject or ignore the rest. This, of course, has the consumer or viewer acting (or perhaps more accurately interacting) as opposed to simply passively receiving (Philo par 16).Even though critics of MTV stand strongly against the passive consumer, th...
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...sized advertisements that mysteriously came to life. In a Godzilla-esque fashion, a fifty-foot "Big Boy" figure, along with many others, went on a destructive rampage. Needless to say this phenomena became a media event in Springfield. When little intelligent Lisa Simpson went to try and find out how to stop this senseless destruction, she found out that the only way to kill the fifty-foot advertisements was to not pay attention to them. By having such power we prove that we are in control of our moral evolution, for better or worse. Although we don't want to be puppets to the media, it is impossible to escape from its existence. Even though MTV and other television programming is in the business of making money off of us, the consumers, it is possible to enjoy the entertainment aspects of television for virtually nothing; and still be smart in the process.
MTV, formally known as Music Television, is one of the most viewed networks on television today. Roughly thirty-three years old, it has changed the American culture drastically in more than just one way. Specifically targeting teens and young adults, the MTV network provides all of the most up to date gossip on celebrities, highlights the latest fashion trends, promotes versified lifestyles, and defines the music industry of our generation. However, this so-called “idolized network” has not always been this way. The American culture has been affected by MTV through the creation of the network, the transformation from simply just music television to inappropriate reality shows, and the promotion of inappropriate content.
As the 80’s rocked on, MTV matured and grew to be the total essence of pop culture. When you think of pop culture, you think of MTV. MTV is a multifaceted network. The network covers all forms of music from pop and hip-hop to hard rock. MTV has the power to expose all facets of society to
Popular culture is often referred to as being produced by the mass media ‘for’ the public, who are seen as consumers. An example of this would be the television programme ‘The X Factor’. The X Factor is produced by a large television company which is owned by a multi millionaire music mogul. The programme is shown extensively throughout the winter months, when people favour staying indoors to going outside. The concept of the show is that it entices people in during the first couple of week. This is done by showing the contestants’ auditions. The reason for t...
It is increasingly clear that media and culture today are of central importance to the maintenance and reproduction of contemporary societies. Cultures expose society to different personalities, provide models, which display various forms of societal life and cultivate various ways to introduce people into dominant forms of thought and action. These are the types of activities integrate people into society and create our public sphere. Media and technology surround our society; engrained into the fabric of our existence so much so, that it has become hard to find an aspect of life not influenced by its effects. For this reason, media controllers, wield extreme power and influence over the lives of everyday people. Although, they increasingly continue to feed the audience trash, despite their authority as the creator of our social/cultural interactions, and justify their actions by calling themselves industries. Reducing themselves to just businesses whose sole purpose is to create a profit. This admittance of what they feel to be their true purpose however does not hinder their control and power but instead adds to it. Creating a need for there to be some way to analyze and discuss whether they are using their position and power wisely. Filling this void, scholars have theorized ways for individuals to be critical of the media that they intake. One of these critical theories is the “Culture Industry” theory. Using Cultural Theory, as well as other complementary neo Marxist theories, it is possible to determine how Stacy Peralta, once urban youth culture advocate, became incorporated into the superstructure through media use, thus making him a tool for the continued commoditization of society, and a youth marketer for industries l...
Everywhere we look we see advertisements, commercials, news reports, who seem to influence our daily lives. Media we would not normally think of can also affect us. For example, the mere mention of Red Lobster in Beyoncé’s song “Formation” boosted their overall sales while the song was on the charts. Chapter one of the Dines and Humez text covered perception of the audience, study of culture and media, and how the media is “multiperspectival” (Dines and Humez).
The ‘media effects’ model has been classified as a rudimentary argument that isn’t taken seriously amongst modern day Media Scholars. The origins of the model can be found in Frederic Wertham’s ‘Seduction of the Innocent’ (1955) articulating that media texts produce cognitive dissonance, causing audiences to have a shift in their actions and thoughts. However, contemporary critics believe that the model is limited as the experience of media is much more complex and informed by a number of diverse factors. The Audience studies approach is far more applicable towards the complexity of media texts, as it portrays a consideration and analysis of reactions and behavioural activity of individuals.
Rock and Roll, as a music genre, has evolved greatly with each decade; some of this is attributed to technology. One of the biggest leaps forward made for technology and the music genre is the widespread commercial popularity of the television. Since its introduction, television has caused the growing genre to rapidly reach mainstream audiences. Though it is this day hard to pinpoint the full impact of this invention to Rock n’ Roll, it is hard to argue that it didn’t help shape it into the powerful industry that it is today. From the Rockabilly era, to the British Invasion, all the way to the formation of MTV; television has attributed to these eras and changes seen in this genre. The importance of television is very high as it allowed stars to be made and stars to be pushed aside. Television has also allowed even the most remote people to know what the latest stars were doing. It can be said that Rock n’ Roll would not have gained its social acceptance without television to bring it into the lime light and causing it to rapidly reach the youths of the era.
In the past, most of the researches may concentrate on the text and discourse which is transferred by the medium to understand the audience reactions. However, with the application of ethnography, exploring the rules of daily life with mass communication and the relationship between medium consumption and societal culture may be seen as the main topic towards audience research. It is important to understand the different contexts of the audience instead of the media discourse. As Clifford and Marcus (1986) indicates that cultures always help people construct a temporal focus on selection, simplification and rejection, while it is able for people to build relationships with themselves and others. Thus, ‘ethnographic turn’ within audience research can be considered as a new theory and method to understand mass communication and culture, which may pay more attention to the societal meaning of medium
It all began on August 1st, 1981, when MTV, which stands for music television, made its debut. “Video Killed The Radio Star” by the Buggles was the first music video to ever play. MTV became very popular because the channel played music videos 24/7. “Now watched by more than 340 million viewers in 139 countries, MTV has been credited with creating icons, influencing fashion, spawning movies and television shows and, saving the
figures shown on the network. MTV is a culture in itself. With it's own news,
Music started to arise such as “We are the world”, “Do they know it's Christmas”, Farm aid country songs ,and music videos. The Farm aid basically sets the stage for a new type of country music talking about the farm aid. In similar ways the food crisis in Africa led Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Kenny Rogers, Tina Turner and more all got together and made a history shaking song about the food crisis in Africa and has there a whole new world outside of America that nobody's paying attention to. Last but certainly not least MTV was changing music as we know it at first when people heard a new record they would have to imagine it in their minds and could not see it unless they went to a concert. Then MTV let us explore a whole new side and way of listening to music that nobody had ever done before, MTV played all day everyday music videos so now people did not have to imagine what may or may not have
This highlights that the audience makes a choice when accepting or rejecting media influence, placing the onus of the shaping of one 's actions on the individual (Hall 1973). Lilleker (2006) extends this, arguing that the postmodern audience is not as homogenous as the previous generations and therefore are more likely to rebuff media influence, questioning the perceived audience passiveness presented by the hypodermic syringe approach. Although the approach is, to a degree, too simplistic in order to account for audience interpretation and does view audiences as passive, which has been argued to not be the case (Lilleker, 2006), it does hold some merit. Particularly when looking at the ‘Bobo Doll Experiment’ the short term effects of the media, whether it is by language or by actions disseminated to the masses, the findings are too strong to be ignored.
...ely available and accessible from everywhere. New media has introduced innovative platforms and ways to consume media products, they have been embedded into our social context that we are unaware of the different ways we are constantly relying on technology. This leads us to call for more contemporary studies towards new media audiences for a more in-depth analysis and how they have merged the different contexts of media consumption.
Pop culture is a reflection of social change, not a cause of social change” (John Podhoretz). It encompasses the advertisements we see on T.V, the clothes we wear, the music we listen too, and it’s the reason Leonardo DiCaprio has not won an Oscar yet. It defines and dictates the desires and fears of the mainstream members of society; and it is so ingrained into our lives that it has become as natural as breathing. Moreover, adults never even bat an eyelash at all the pop culture and advertising that surrounds them since it has become just another part of everyday life. Pop culture is still somewhat seen as entertainment enjoyed by the lower class members of society; but pop culture standards change over time. A notable example of this is the sixteenth century author, William Shakespeare, since his works were considered pop culture, entertainment that could be enjoyed by everyone, but now they are considered literary classics. While pop culture encompasses most aspects of our lives, its influence is most obvious through each generations reaction to media,