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Mass Media and Reality The media can be a powerful force in our society that is capable of influencing our thoughts, emotions, ideals, behavior, and perceptions of reality in many ways. Media in the form of television, music, and the internet have, “done much to shape the way our society is governed… (and has)…changed the way we live” (Jensen, 1998, pg.1). In this sense, the mass media, especially television, offers various “definitions of reality… (that)…lead to perception of the ‘reality’ as normal. The result is a social legitimization of the ‘reality’ depicted in the mass media, which can influence behavior” (Gerbner, 1998, pg.1). In this paper I will discuss the influential capacity of television regarding sex(gender)and race, the depiction of health(beauty)and age, lifestyle(work) as promoted by Mtv, and the prevalence of violence (crime) in computer gaming software. Television - Gender, Race One form of media that has affected my views of reality and the portrayal of our society is that of television. The representation of gender and race in television can be misleading in that, “the faces of America still aren’t represented by the faces of television, according to a new report commissioned by the Screen Actors Guild” (Schneider, M., 1999, pg.1). To illustrate this point, Gerbner states that, “men still outnumber women 2-to-1 on prime-time television, while Asian Americans, Latino/Hispanics, Native Americans, low income people, the disabled and seniors remain grossly underrepresented”( Schneider, Michael, Electronic Media, 01/04/99, Vol. 18, Issue 1). With this in mind, television viewers might question the lacking representation of Asian American and Latin American actors relative to actual statistics (especially considering the demographics in California alone). For instance, “Asian Americans show up 1.3 percent of the time on TV, less than half of their proportion of the U.S. population (3.4 percent)… Latino/Hispanics make up a growing 10.7 percent of the country, yet only show up 2.6 percent of the time on television”(pg.1). These statistics are also evident with age as, “seniors aged 60 years or older make up 16.5 percent of the United States but just 5.6 percent of television”(pg.1). Gerbner states that, “Our studies show that casting and fate follow stable patterns, especially in prime time: Men outnumber women two to one….Older people make up only one fifth of their actual proportion in the population”(Jensen, 1998, pg. 2). Television – Health (Beauty) and Age Television also demonstrates a preference for female beauty and youth, and a partiality toward young actors as “older viewers have become television’s forgotten audience.
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