Does Television Shows Reflect American Culture?
There are many movies and television shows that reflect American culture. A show or movie must address some current societal problem or trend in order to truly reflect American life; murder, rape, racism, and, on a less serious note, parties, shopping, and sports are topics that deserve serious consideration by the public and the media. The show Beverly Hills 90210 attempts to be an accurate portrayal of the life of a typical well-off American teenager growing up in the 80's and 90's. The producers of the show attempt to integrate many real life situations in to the show. By doing this they are suggesting to the audience, which happens to be geared toward teenagers and young adults, that what the characters do in the show is the ideal way to deal with these types of situations. Many aspects of American culture are represented on the television show Beverly Hills 90210, or just 90210 as it is commonly referred to. During the first year or so of Beverly Hills 90210 it dealt with the subject of murder/homicide. One of David's best friends was playing with a gun that he had acquired during a summer vacation to the mid-West. The friend shot himself by accident; what followed was a time of mourning for David and a recollection of many fond memories of the times they shared together. This episode's tragedy brought the characters in the show closer together. Many innocent children, and sometimes adults, are killed accidentally playing with guns, or by drive-by shootings. This is a major problem in the United States and the show is trying to get the message out that it is not a safe thing to do. It also raises the question as to why access of guns is so readily available to anyone. Every night on the news, someone can see many incidents in which there are suffering resulting from guns. Furthermore, the availability of guns makes the public scared. Children have images of adults using guns for hunting or game. In the adolescents' mind it appears that guns are not a bad item to own, when in reality guns are extremely dangerous weapons. Beverly Hills 90210 makes a strong attempt to impress upon its viewers that these accidents can be precautions. The show sends a message to the younger generation, which are becoming more and more violent, to stay away from things that result in violence like...
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...s right in with the materialistic values promoted by our society in print, in television, in commercials, in movies - in other words, in all aspects of the media. All economic echelons of society in the United States are encouraged to purchase name brand clothing and other apparel. The"American Dream" of shopping and credit cards is a reality in the show. The setting of the show is Beverly Hills, California, the home of all the popular trends and famous stars. This location, along with rich parents, provides for the perfect situation to make them look like rich brats. Although Beverly Hills 90210 is not a perfect reflection of American culture, it does lend itself to the stereotype of having a huge wardrobe and living the "American Dream". In the ten years during which 90210 has been on the air, the show has dealt with many topics. From the Persian Gulf War and high school, to AIDS and the Internet, the show has reflected many aspects of American culture. Beverly Hills 90210 sends a message to the viewers to make the best of one's life. Hopefully many of the viewers will be able to attain the "American Dream" that is the essence of American culture.
The media has been a part of the daily life of the American people for the longest time, because of this fact, the media influences the decisions and views of how people should live. One big part of the media that tends to start to develop a sense of how the day-to-day American should live is Disney. Since kids are the main source of Disney’s billion dollar industry children have become an important dimension of the social theory (Giroux 1999: 65). “Within this context, television emerges as a consumer-oriented medium that reflects advertisers’ desire to reach a young, upscale, and primarily White audience” (Goodale1999; Henderson and Baldasty 2003: 100). As a result other races and ethnic groups other than white Americans are often put aside when it comes to the social media view of how Americans should live.
It is interestingly sad how debates on gun violence and gun control is being handled in our society by our top leaders and lobbyist. Gun control has become a serious issue and a national epidemic, however, the debate is far from over. In the article “under the gun” by writers Rottenberg, Rice and Franich, for entertainment weekly, the writers discussed the failing of gun control laws and the increase in gun violence. By setting sides of their argument, the writers discussed violence in movies, TVs and videogames and how this violence impact our society, thus allowing their audience to decide for themselves.
To buy a television it was like to buy a brand new car. In the 1907 the word television was used by scientific American magazine to describe the transmission of moving picture. John L. Baird, a Scottish inventor first telecasted and object in motion in England, 1926 using mechanical television. In 1923 Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, a Russian born American and father of modern television and Philo Taylor invented modern television by using electronic scanning of imaginary on television. On September 7, 1927, Farnsworth successfully demonstrated the transmission of television signal. Television innovations from 1930-1960 created a new way for the entire country to be involved with the current events.
Family environment and the press are two major influences resulting in the recent tragic school shootings. As much as society continues to focus the killing rampages on factors such as television and music, what children are exposed to in reality contributes to the violence. The most recent school shooting in Michigan involved a six-year-old first grader who killed a classmate with a .22 caliber pistol. The news coverage had vanished after two or three days, and I was left wondering what had happened. Considering the fact that the media wore the Columbine incident out, I wanted to know why they did not pay more attention to this school shooting. As evidence did arrive, it was discovered that the child lived in a household where cocaine, heroin, and many other illegal drugs were commonplace. Also in this “home” guns were easily accessible to the child. Children growing up in this type of environment certainly are likely to be held accountable for future violence. Even though I am against the news media presenting too much school violence, Americans should have been deeply disturbed by this shooting because of the child’s young age. The Michigan shooting should have enlightened Americans to the dilemma we face in this country. Two weeks after the Columbine High School shooting, information on the mass murder was still being broadcast on television. The press was feeding young viewers ideas on how to kill their classmates. News was reported how the teenage murderers acquired information regarding building bombs, obtaining guns, smuggling guns into the school, and proceeding to kill their classmates. A mentally unstable teenager could simply watch these news reports and write a book entitled, “How to Slay Your Classmates”. This onslaught was ridiculous and the news coverage should not have been permitted to continue for countless weeks. Society has determined three reasons on which to blame the shootings. First, the nation blamed it on television’s violent programs. Following that, Americans gave the music recording companies the evil eye as well as attacking the gun manufacturers. All of these reasons involve material objects that are unable to think for themselves. Televisions and CD players do not control themselves, people control them. Finally, boundaries controlling the television programs children view should be set by the parents. The same explanation applies to firearms. How can it be a gun’s fault that a person killed another human being?
In America, violence has always been an integral part of national culture. Crime and bloodshed are glorified both on and off screen. The more disturbing the act of violence, the more enthralled the public seems. The most prolific of crimes, those committed by infamous serial killers, inspire the most attention. As said by Jeff Lindsay, creator of the book series that inspired the wildly popular television program, Dexter, “We’re sickened and disgusted, but we need to know.
Media has had many changes in the past years. Growing up I remember my mom saying that we were lucky to have color televisions now. She would say that when she was younger she would have to hear her stories and games over the radio because back then there was no televisions. Another way of getting entertained was reading stories. The newspaper and the radio was the only way of getting news back then. I thought it was funny when my mom told me that since they were one of the few families that had a television in the neighborhood, she would charge the kids 10 cents to watch television in her house. This was actually a pretty smart thing to do.
Some teenagers go to violent movies and listen to heavy metal and rap music. Some teens argue that they have not killed anyone. These teens are missing the point. Television teaches teens to handle their problems in the wrong way. Some ways include arguing, hitting, abusing, and initiating other violent behavior-sometimes, even killing like what happened in Littleton. Little boys all the way up to teenagers have always loved guns. They started out with BB guns and end up with real guns. Even with gun control there was no way to stop the kids at Littleton. I am also concerned about the disconnection from the parents and the lack of respect for authority. Parents need to take charge and know where their children are and what they are doing. If the kids have no respect and their heads are filled with evil, violence, and sex, why is anyone surprised about this horrible behavior? When children and teens watch all the violence on television, they might forget that it is pretend and think of it as reality.
Popular Culture has changed drastically over the decades with the biggest question being whether or not popular culture is a positive or negative expression of our ideas and reflections. American Pop Culture has an extremely important role that influences the United States and around the world. There are countless topics that make up pop culture and it is nearly impossible to name all of them. Some of the topics are Television, Music, Religion, Politics, Arts, Economy, Education, Family roles and structures. Three of the cultures that I believe has changed the most and seems to cause the most controversy are television, music and religion.
addition the average American child will witness over 200,000 acts of violence on television including 16,000 murders before the age of 18 (DuRant, 445). Polls show that three-quarters of the public find television entertainment too violent. When asked to select measures that would reduce violent crime “a lot”, Americans chose restrictions on television violence more often than gun control. Media shows too much violence that is corrupting the minds children, future leaders of our society. In a study of population data for various countries sh...
Imagine a world in which presidential debates were not televised, and a person would have to read the newspaper to get all their political news. Just how different would our country be today? Television has a huge effect on American politics. It is often the main source from which people derive their reasoning and opinions from. There is a plethora of news television channels to choose from and gather information from. These channels often run all times of the day. Keeping American citizens up to date on all developing news. Television properly helps U.S citizens vet and get to know the candidate, as well as the candidate's plan.
One of the first steps to changing our gun culture is to take gun violence out of the media. Kids are exposed to violence in television, video games and movies everyday. Dr Norman B Anderson of the American Psychological Association says there was a link between Adam Lanza’s (the gunman of the Sandy Hook shooting) violent video game obsession and his killing spree that cost far too many innocent lives. A study done at Brock University showed children and teens who played violent video games over a long period of time showed increased development of aggressive behaviors. This goes without saying that there must be a decrease of violence in the media. The kids watching violence on television are the future of society. They cannot all be aggressive, violent people who believe that shooting civilians is okay or stealing cars is something to take lightly. We must change this by
Reality TV has affected American society by encouraging violent behavior. Reality TV shows such as, “The Bad Girls Club”, or “Big Brother” promote violence, and are popular to many teens. These shows purposely choose individuals whom
Society has been bombarded with violence from the beginning of time. These concerns about violence in the media have been around way before television was even introduced. Nevertheless, there have been numerous studies, research, and conferences done over the years on television, but the issue still remains. Researchers do acknowledge that violence portrayed on television is a potential danger. One issue is clear though, our focus on television violence should not take attention away from other significant causes of violence in our country such as: drugs, inadequate parenting, availability of weapons, unemployment, etc. It is hard to report on how violent television effects society, since television affects different people in different ways. There is a significant problem with violence on television that we as a society are going to have to acknowledge and face.
Reading and writing. Painting and drawing. Dancing and singing. Just a few of the many forms of entertainment that shape American culture. Many people seek various outlets in their leisure time, both active and passive; and whether it be sports, TV, music, etc. most can agree that entertainment is a fundamental aspect of today’s society. Although its influence is undeniable, some people (like those that Neal Gabler writes about in his book Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality) may argue that this is bad for our society, only leading to corruption. While history can support Gabler’s idea that entertainment has the potential to negatively affect our morals and social order, it has also been beneficial to our society and can be used in constructive ways. Whether entertainment is good or bad is dependent on the person and how they chose to utilize what is around them.
of violence or tunes into their parents favorite soap opera might find an increasingly amount of exposure to violent acts and sexual content. Children are very vulnerable to such influences and often do not know the difference between right and wrong and the difference between reality and fantasy (Dritz, Russel 1996). As the years go on and television seems to be too censored to most, studies have continued to prove the increasing numbers of children associated with violence and sexual behavior. Although a seemingly older statistic, the Neilson Index averaged American children to watch 18,000 television murders before he or she graduated from high school (Tucker, Larry A. 1988). Could this be a reason for an increasing amount of murders and violent acts among children today?