Mass Media and Entertainment Essay

Ill go ahead and say it Neal G com handssuraters Life the impression makes valid points. Because of Americas dependence on technology-based media delight it is undoable non to interact with the distracting and alluring world of expressive communication. The world we expire in today is sadly not the wiz that Henry David Thoreau was able to circumnavigate for two years in 1845. Today, to avoid media, is to be only shut away from the world. G single argon the days of subtle newspaper and objective journalism. They moderate been trampled by 24-hour news cycles and narcissism-based neighborly networking sights call for peep and Facebook. While I lowlifet help that run with Gabler on the medias degenerative effects, there is a brighter side to a globalized system of frolic. merriment exactlytocks for certain ruin smart set if presumption the chance. Take for guinea pig, MTVs Jersey Shore. A show with suddenly no moral integrity, but simple humor and evoke suppli cant can make coin, so realistically executives will invest in more of the identical material. At the same era, hate/fear-mongering media moguls analogous Glenn Beck and hurry Limbaugh have a devoted, if not cult- standardized following of 60- whateverthings that they control in the name of enjoyment. Clearly, entertainment has the capacity to ruin the structure of bon ton, for better or worse. Whereas sites wish cheep and Facebook can be pernicious to hostelry, they can in any case cause imperious progress.Very recently, young Iranian revolutionaries used Twitter as a substance of communication, education, and unity. Videos of citizens beaten to death in the streets were tended to(p) by calls to action, as a youthful and courageous Iranian population revolted against its oppressive g e veryplacenment on the computer and TV screens of the globalized world. Furthermore, recent crisis worry the tsunamis in In acquireesia, hurricane in New Orleans, and earthquakes in H aiti were brought into the homes of the prosperous and caring crosswise the world.Although tragic, these events demonstrated the capacity that a connected human populous has for charity. Billions of dollars in relief money has been donated in the past decade, thanks to the stirring images captured not only by corporate cameramen, but as well by civilian camcorder. Thus, to define entertainment as solely destructive or well(p) is unfair. slew ar not always wise enough to procedure off what they know is subjective information, but they be no means praying to neon gods.In his book Life the Movie, Neal Gabler discusses how entertainment has taken over the reality. This is true in every way spate watch video or pics, listen to music, and Facebook stalk their friends upright to get out of their take heads for a while. It is an escape from their realities. Gabler argues that the outlet the media has come to provide can potentially ruin society. This is true in many another(pre nominal) cases. Certain forms of entertainment can indeed overturn all morality and poison the springs of domestic happiness. Music, specifically, is one type of entertainment that has the capacity to cause hoi polloi to compromise their morals. It has a sneaky way of planting new thoughts in our minds. Music artists theorise of lyrical euphemisms to subtly engrain an idea into their listeners minds.For example, in their song Fast Blood, the clever Scottish band Frightened Rabbit sings about a midnight organ fight a clever euphemism for sex. Even if their listener wasnt sure what that line meant, the rest of the lyrics would help him piece it together fairly quickly. Its a beautiful song, and soon enough, the listener finds himself singing along, and the idea that sex allows a person to feel reborn has now become a belief of this listener. And, whabam, there we have a compromised moral resulting from the idea of one song. The characters and stories found in movies, books, and t elevision are aspects of entertainment that most certainly have the ability to ruin society.They can jeopardize a familys happiness by creating an image of the ideal spouse or important other or family. Stefanie Meyers Twilight Saga, for example, bring ins the character of Edward Cullen the perfect lover. comedian Whitney Cummings made a good point in her offer up routine Money Shot when she said, Women are obsessed with squashwe get brainwashed from romantic movies. She said she went to go see the movie Twilight thinking it was just about high schoolers and came out thinking, Ohh, I have to marry a vampire, oh my God, and proceeded to address the males in her audience, Guys, dont let your girlfriends see this movie she will leave your ass, okay? Movies like Twilight create this image of the perfect man.If women see that and begin to equality their husbands to Edward Cullen, divorce papers will soon be a-rustling. Characters like these create impossible standards for men to live up to And pornography does the same to women men look at these beautiful women with perfect bodies and begin to idealize females. And thusly no adult female is good enough for them because it is impossible for a woman to look like that without plastic surgery, a crapload of make up, and a full-page hell of a lot of photoshop. Media like this has the potential to destroy relationships because it establishes an unreachable standard.So, yes, Gabler makes a good point. Although entertainment can be fun, effortless, sensational, mindless, formulaic, predictable and revolutionary and that is why people love it so much, it can be detrimental to society as a whole. In his 1998 book, Life the Movie How Entertainment Conquered Reality, Neal Gabler makes the assertion that entertainment has the capacity to ruin society. Although plenty of entertainment features positive messages and portrays good role models, I completely agree with idea the entertainment can ruin society because a large percentage of entertainment and media can acclimate viewers minds toward violence and it can corrupt citizens views of society and of themselves. In our modern media there are thousands upon thousands of movies, tv shows, songs, and video games that encourage violence and other negative behavior.Many people believe this to be harmless fun, but in instances when consumers blur the line surrounded by trick and reality it can become very dangerous. One tragic instance of this occurred June 7, 2003, when 3 men, 2 constabulary officers and a 9-11 dispatcher, were killed in an Alabama police station by 18 year-old Devin Moore, who had played Grand Theft railroad car day and night for months before the shooting. During his arrest, Moore is reported to have told police, Life is like a video game. Everybodys got to die sometime. Entertainment can also ruin society by destroying citizens views of society and of themselves.From magazines to movies to television, the media has created a s tandard of darling perfection that many people struggle to live up to because they want to be accepted. For example, professional athletes like Lebron James, Payton Manning, and many others have caused many plan athletes to look defeat upon themselves because they are not able to perform to the same level as the pros. Although many celebrities have contributed great acts of charity to society, that does not change the fact that much of entertainment, which these celebrities are apart of, encourages negative behavior. If not brought under control, these negative behaviors can bring about the downfall of society as we know it.Entertainment can be in many different forms television, magazines, books, the computer, music, etc. And according to Neal Gabor in his book, Life the Movie, all of these things are fun, effortless, sensational, mindless, formulaic, predictable, and subversive. The fact that because of these reasons, people like entertainment is true. However, just because peo ple like something, or enjoy it, doesnt mean its not harmless. People who go tan in tanning beds everyday enjoy doing it, but in reality it triples their risk of skin cancer. The social impacts of entertainment are already showing in todays society.People are communicating less and less by person, and more and more by computers. When people lose their ability to communicate with the people around them outdoor(a) of their entertainment bubble, the sense of community is lost, and is causing increased health risks. totally this said, it is not true that ALL entertainment will completely break up the ties of our social order. If entertainment is used in moderation and people learn to make the distinction between entertainment and reality, then it can be an enjoyable experience. But because all people dont do these things, entertainment does have the capacity to ruin societysociety falls apart. In addition, some of the things that entertainment exposes society to can fudge the though ts and decisions of Americans and cause problems for society.For example, TV networks are creating shows like Americas coterminous Top Model, and giving people the idea that in order to be beautiful you have to be dangerously thin and look like a model. This causes poor self-images, and causes people to be un apt. To make matters worse, celebrities everywhere are getting cosmetic surgery. This gives audiences the idea that they shouldnt be happy with who they very are, and that in order to be happy, they have to waste tons of money on unnecessary procedures. Also, the percentage of people getting divorced in America has been increasing lately.This is most likely because of the fact that celebrities are getting divorced left and right, and its starting to become the norm. People are making money off of those divorces by selling the stories (in gossip magazines) as entertainment. Entertainment portrays false realities that have potential to crumble social aspects of society. not on ly does entertainment have the capacity to ruin society socially, but it can also cause health related consequences. The percentage of Americans that are either overweight or obese is somewhere around 63% and that is constantly increasing.Though it is true that part of the cause for this is the amount of elegant foods we eat, but another large part of it is the amount of time we pretermit sitting, a concept that goes along with entertainment. Today people dont have the need to go out much to be happy. Children can sit andwatch TV or play video games for entertainment, and no longer need to go outside to play with their friends. Also, because of computers people dont need to leave their house to communicate with friends, they can just do it on Facebook. People dont even have to leave their house to grocery shop anymore they can just use their computer.The fact is that entertainment has made America into a very sedentary country, which Just like a friends make for on ones behavior, entertainment has the capacity to destroy or strengthen ones character. Someone can choose between entertainment with fleeting pleasure or lasting value. i. by chance entertainment can ruin society because it is so distracting. For example, if kids and teenagers fill all of their time with entertainment instead of education, then how might this ruin society?ii. Maybe entertainment can ruin society by overturning morality. What are some ways that entertainment might change a societys moral principles for the worst? For example, do violent video games cause people to believe that killing is not morally wrong? If so, how would this ruin a society?iii. Maybe, as your quote above claims, entertainment does dissolve the ties of social order. Does entertainment contribute to increased crime or civil zymolysis? Can you think of ways that entertainment directly or indirectly causes a societys rule of law to break down?