Media Influence: How does Media Impact our Lives?

Media Influence: How does Media Impact our Lives?

Cristina Rowe, Guest Contributor

In a special for The Roaring Gazette, Cristina Rowe has submitted her senior project about the media’s influence on societal issues.  It is printed here.

Media has an impact on the public; it encourages certain actions that often turn into habits. By using sex, tobacco, alcohol, and violence, the media glorifies a positive and appealing view of these activities to the public. People are often influenced by these images and experiment with that behavior, leading to increased rates of abuse. There are many methods that the media uses to reach out to the public and it reaches across many forms of technology and print. Media has a large influence on adolescents and young adults. Surveys indicate that advertisements, use of celebrities, and social media are important factors in increasing these acts. Individuals get information from the media, which is how they increase their knowledge of societal issues. This knowledge is far from complete. However, when they see that sex, violence, drinking, and use of tobacco are common or more acceptable, many will emulate this behavior.

The reach of global media has expanded to target customers in different regions of the globe and to different cultures, and this increases the potential market for goods and services. Companies use social media across the world because of customers’ responses, brand awareness, and interaction. According to Ramandeep Kaur (Impact of Social Media), by December 2012, the amount of social media users in urban India reached to sixty-two million. The sudden access to mobile Internet and smartphones helped spur the growth in the use of social media. Today, there are fifty-one million Indian users who use Facebook.

In surveys found in Young People, Alcohol and the Media, some adolescents have said that adverse effects of alcohol, such as hangovers, are not often seen in television.

Also, audiences often see celebrities drinking and this influences the appeal towards drinking. Adolescents, in a 2011 survey in Young People, Alcohol and the Media, state that they do not see as many young people drinking, but when they do, it is excessive and they are often binge drinking. It affects their emotions and ways of thinking, leading to use and abuse of these actions and products.

Another product that is increasing its coverage in the media is electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes. They are making smoking look glamorous and the use of celebrities makes them look appealing. In one advertisement for Blu brand e-cigarettes (mentioned in an article in the Washington Post), a tough looking man is shirtless and wearing a slim pair of jeans as he puffs his e-cigarette with an urban skyline in the background. He attends a concert and strolls through the Incan ruins in Peru. The man is actor Stephen Dorff. According to the new Congressional report in 2011, Gateway to Addiction?, “E-cigarette makers are using a broad range of marketing techniques previously employed by traditional cigarette companies to entice young people to use their products.” Another ad that Blu used had Jenny McCarthy, an actress and former Playboy centerfold. She had on a low-cut dress and used the e-cigarette as she flirted with a man at a bar. Not only did this advertisement use a celebrity to influence viewers to use the product, but it also used sex appeal. These celebrities are used to making products like smoking and drinking cool and attractive to young adults.

Two ways that the media influences alcohol is the portrayal of alcohol use as a cultural norm and deterring young people from drinking alcohol by reporting the negative effects of alcohol. But adolescents in Young People, Alcohol and the Media reported in 2011 that they see less content with anti-drinking messages than the other way around.

They say the ‘sensible drinking’ messages shown in social networking sites (SNS) and alcohol-related advice published in teen magazines are scarce when compared to pro-normative drinking messages and advertisements. A study taken of the United States as a whole states that over 80 percent of adolescents say they and their peers learn much about sex, violence, and drugs from movies, television shows, and other forms of entertainment media. The more that people are exposed to media influences many to accept the values, behaviors, and beliefs that the media portrays. Alcohol brands that sponsor food is an example of cultural association, and due to this cultural association, people associate beer with food, and this specifically targets football fans. Violent media is often seen through video games, films, and television. There are behavioral responses for short-term and long-term exposure. Many people witness smoking, alcohol, sex, and violence through movies today (The Influence of Media Violence on Youth). According to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) as reported in December 2009 in the Journal of Health Communication, in PG-13 movies, alcohol is shown just as much as in R-rated movies and about half of PG-13 movies have just as much smoking shown as in R-rated movies. Even G and PG rated movies display smoking and drinking content. In 88 percent of R-rated movies, there is a high frequency of violence. The Lancet in July 2003 reported the exposure of fifty movies to around three thousand adolescents from ten to fourteen years old. Seventy-three percent of the adolescents responded to the survey and on average (after seeing sixteen of the fifty movies), stated that there were about 98.5 smoking occurrences. Of the participants, approximately ten percent had started to smoke in the follow-up period. The lead author Dr. Madeline Dalton stated, “Even after taking into account child characteristics, social influences and parenting characteristics, we

estimate that 52.2 percent of smoking initiation in this group of adolescents can be attributed to the exposure to smoking in movies.”

Adolescents can be very vulnerable. Habits often start after hearing about smoking, alcohol, sex, and violence through media. They are influenced by the positive and appealing messages portrayed by the media, as well as a significant amount of peer pressure. They do not always see the bad and harmful effects of the products or their actions.