Wurtenberg 1 Bobby Wurtenberg Dr.

Gayle English 701 13 Oct 2013 The Media Shaping American Society The advancement of technology has grown a very large amount with the media. As far as society goes today we are constantly seeing things all the time with the media. The media impacts the American way of life in a way like no other. Researchers have been studying this topic for many years and it appears their conclusions are what many people have already assumed. In the more recent years, there have been messages shown by the media with things such as television, radio, newspaper, images and persuasion. Commercials are a very good way of portraying what companies want you to buy. The media can impact the American way of life by shaping what is messaged on television. Television is one of the main components the media uses to get news and entertainment across. Television portrays anything you want to hear. Tonic states, Television is quick, easy and accessible in terms of getting information or entertainment, which is most likely why people choose to turn on the television over picking up a book. What is considered "newsworthy" is very altered, especially in American culture. For example, news supposedly constitutes important, recent, life-affecting information that the public should be made aware of. Surely news does contain such issues, yet we still see more coverage on Anna Nicole's death than the ongoing war in Iraq where more

Wurtenberg 2 Americans are dying each day. In addition, our society has also consumed reality television, allowing it to become a popular staple of our culture and making us more interested in the lives of others, than our own. Television is huge with American society and for the most part is just used for watching television shows and movies, as opposed to watching the news and finding out information that everyone should be aware of that they are not. The Internet is another way that the media impacts the American way of life. Google is the main source of this. Google is a search engine that almost everyone uses to find out information and look things up. Google makes it better for everyone to find out their news because it gives you a different approach at finding things out. According to W e Search, It is no secret that Google is far and way the most successful search engine in the world. In fact it dominates its industry like few other companies can (We Search 2009). One usually always has access to the Internet, whether it is accessed through a phone, laptop, or tablet. Newspapers are not always available when you need to look something up thats happening in the news. Google is the primary source for all these things. The first thing you would do is search for something in Google to find it out. The best thing about Google and how it affects society is that you can search for something and as soon as you press enter you get tons of different links about what you want to find out. The media always portrays knowledge of what is going on in the world. Crime is a huge component that goes with this. Dowler states, The results indicate that gender, education, income, age, perceived neighborhood problems

Wurtenberg 3 and police effectiveness are statistically related to fear of crime. In addition, fear of crime, income, marital status, race, and education are statistically related to punitive attitudes. Finally, age, fear of crime, race, and perceived neighborhood problems are statistically related to perceived police effectiveness (Dowler 2003). Peoples wealth is always brought up in the media and everyone is always aware. Peoples education also really ties in with this. People who do not have as much education as we do, are always more likely to commit crimes as well and the media will always inform us of this. Social capital really influences the understanding of the media in many ways. In the Steubenville High School rape case there was two star football players that had apparently raped and sexually abused a very intoxicated young lady at a party. The two boys that had allegedly raped her and put forms of evidence all over social media. This is how they got in trouble. Everything was documented on phones and all over social networks on the Internet. These two high school football players have been convicted in a juvenile court for rape. The media explains how sorry they feel for these two boys and yet seem to have no symphony for this young girl who had been assaulted. This is the message that people get from understanding the media. In this case it was not a very good message. The media tried convincing people just that it was somewhat of a tragedy that happened to these two high school football players. The whole time it just sounds like they have absolutely no symphony for the victim or her relatives.

Wurtenberg 4 Social capital impacts other Americans in many ways. The book Honky really plays a big part in how we interact with other Americans. Dalton Conley was a boy who was raised in the projects and grew up in a way that was much different than others, then eventually moved to another neighborhood and learned that everyone is different where he or she comes from. According to Monnier, Obviously, a major agent of socialization is the family. This is the first social institution and group that shapes individuals selves and personality. Because there is a great diversity of family structure and size, the impact of family on self-formation is not universal. Moreover, cultural standards of nurturing, display of affection and standards of discipline vary considerably worldwide. In western societies, research has shown that the number and order of children impact the self: first-borns tend to receive more discipline, to be higher achievers and to be more conformist. Children born last tend to be raised with more relaxed standards of discipline. As a result, they tend to be more sociable and more accepting of unconventional ideas and lifestyles (Monnier 2010). The media helps us understand how American society is being shaped. In closing, technology has improved a very noticeable amount in regards to the media. As far as the media goes today, we cannot do anything without being smacked in the face with advertisements or videos while being on the Internet. The media is far too strong and we can never do one thing without them fully showing us what the good and bad things are in society. The media is a terrific thing, but could use some work. Ultimately, the media is the primary

Wurtenberg 5 source of a guide to give us knowledge and a better understanding of what is going on in society today.

Wurtenberg 6 Works Cited Tonic, Lucy. "How the Media Effects American Society." Yahoo Contributor Network. N.p., 5 July 2007. Web.

D, Kathy. "The Effects of Media on American Society." Helium. Helium, 03 Sept. 2007. Web.

"The Media Influence on American Society In Politics." Gather. N.p., 29 Oct. 2006. Web.

Shapiro, Rebecca. "Poppy Harlow, CNN ReporterOutraged' Over Steubenville Rape Coverage Criticism: Report." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 20 Mar. 2013. Web.