The Effect of Mass Media on Society

In today’s society, the mass media plays a major role in how people: think, feel and behave in their daily lives. Mass media is communication—whether written, broadcast, or spoken—that reaches a large audience. This includes television, radio, advertising, movies, the Internet, newspapers, magazines, and so forth. The mass media impacts so many globally because of the messages that are sent out through things like billboards, TV, and magazines. Mass media is very beneficial in our world, but has its down falls as well. What might these downfalls be? Who is getting the shorter end of the stick? Since the 19th century women have been being sexually stereotyped in ways which: cause a lot of harm and detriment to their well-being. As well as being told who they should be, through many different forms of media. This is so true because of the frequent sex gender roles stereotyping that goes on within the media which: effects woman more so often, but men as well are affected by these representations. Americans learn the basic lessons about social life from the mass media. The mass media today shows the depiction of sex roles in the mass media and the effect of that portrayal on American girls and women.

During the period from 1880-1920, Americans were coming into contact with an array of new media forms, and both the numbers and kinds of artistic visual representations of women dramatically increased in the states. (Adams, Keene, and Koella). New images of women were moving in dramatic ways into public spaces—in the newspaper, magazine, theatre, circus and burlesque house, among other sites. (Adams, Keene, and Koella). The first public depictions of women started off in the first films which women appeared in scanty costumes to create ...

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...bite is quick, and its message seeps into the very fibers that are woven together to create a culture of misperceptions about women and when this happens we as a society are causes the harm to our female beings.

The media is a business that rely on people, and like any business, their purpose is to create opportunities for generating profit. The issue remain within the way people, most especially women, are treated by the media. They are treated as products rather than human beings worthy of dignity, personhood, and respect. The media uses discrimination, objectification, and dehumanization to police: women’s bodies. The result of this is a rise in low self-esteem, dangerous body modification procedures, violence, and sometimes death among women. As long as women’s bodies continue to be shunned instead of celebrated by the media, these negative effects will persist.