Sampang 1

Ray Sampang Dr. Alesha Gayle Intro to Acad Discourse SEC 057 10 October 2013 Below the Media Influence Media is everywhere. No matter where you go, some form of media is there surrounding you whether its advertisements, TVs broadcasting the news, a news app on your phone constantly updating itself and notifying you that something just occurred, or magazines and newspapers sitting on a table or displayed in a kiosk. These sources of news are available so we are aware of everything that is going on not only in our country, but the entire world. Holding all this knowledge we are gaining makes us view the world in different ways and have varying insights to certain topics that we like to discuss and/or debate. There are a lot of changes being made in society and we have the news to keep us updated on those altercations. Many things have changed throughout the years and what has been deemed as acceptable in society is one of those changes. What has been accepted then may or may not be accepted now. Media impacts the American way of life by showing what is accepted in todays culture. The media impacts the American way of life by shaping what is messaged to the people. The media directs us on how we should view others in our society. An example of this would be about the issue with the Defense of Marriage Act or DOMA. By 5-4, [the Supreme Court] ruled the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, is unconstitutional (Peralta par. 1). Years ago, gay marriage was heavily looked down upon. There wasnt a state in the United States that legally allowed gay marriages. According to Richard Wolf and Brad Heath from USA Today, if a gay couple were to get

Sampang 2

married, they wouldnt be recognized as a legal couple to the state and they wouldnt receive benefits and programs that can be received from heterosexual couples like federal employment, health, tax and other laws (Wolf and Heath par. 10). With the ruling of DOMA as unconstitutional, gay couples can now receive those benefits. Along with that, they can now legally get married in 14 states and there have been predictions that the number of states allowing gay marriage can grow. The constant news coverage of marriage equality deems this topic as something important for people to know. Evidently, this news of gay people legally getting married shows that the United States is slowly becoming accepting of the gay community while in the past, it wasnt looked at closely and was considered inappropriate and wrong. Another thing the media wants its viewers to look at is the rise of biracial couples. Yahoo! writer Lucy Tonic states that At one point it was considered ludicrous and controversial to make a movie or show a TV episode in which a white woman and black man get married. This was because, compared to today, strong racial, gender and sex biases still existed strongly within the majority of society years ago (Tonic par. 4). A very recent example that connects to showing white woman and black man being married is the Just Checking Cheerios commercial. The commercial shows a little girl asking her white mother if Cheerios is good for the heart. After the mother reassures her that that is true, it switches to a scene where an African American father wakes up from a nap on the sofa with him coated in Cheerios, signaling that the audience is viewing a biracial household. The commercial received acclaim while also unfortunately receiving heavy online backlash. When discussing the online backlash, Today Shows Star Jones says "It allows you to be anonymous and to say the kinds of things that you would never say to a person to their face. But a lot of this is generational also. People in my generation are still stuck in giving the side eye to an interracial couple. I think younger people

Sampang 3

have gotten used to seeing black and white, and Latin and black, and Latin and white. That's not going to be an issue in years to come" (Zaimov par. 6). Exactly, what Jones expressed, Cheerios made the commercial to celebrate the different kinds of families in the United States (Zaimov). Despite the backlash, Cheerios dont plan on removing the commercial. Just like gay marriages, interracial marriages are being much more accepted in todays society. The backlash was big enough for news outlets to discuss. If this commercial were to come out during those years of segregation, news outlets wouldve been less accepting of the commercial or maybe the commercial wouldnt have even aired. Peoples social capital influences the ways they understand the messages from the media. Having money affects ones understanding on the messages in the media. In Gregory Mantsios article Class in America, it states that People do not choose to be poor or working class; instead, they are limited and confined by the opportunities afforded or denied them by a social and economic system (Mantsios). Like stated earlier, there are many ways that media reaches out to us; newspapers, magazines, smartphones, computers, tablets, etc. Unfortunately, some people dont have the money to purchase some of those things. Newspapers are still a great source for getting information but they are not getting it as fast as someone with a computer would. Also, research can be limited. If someone wanted to look up a product being advertised or certain topics being discussed in an article, they could go on a smartphone, tablet, or computer and delve into more research. A person without the technology can only go off from the limited information that is given to them. If they were to research it, the information would come to them at a much slower pace. Another way social capital influences understanding of the media are shared belief systems. Gay marriage is something that has been extremely controversial in many religions.

Sampang 4

When discussing the allowance of gay couples getting married, anti-gay activists will be unsupportive of the gay community due to their beliefs. Pro-gay activists on the other hand would be much more accepting of the gay community. These two groups will look at and understand articles dealing with gay marriages differently. Insider knowledge of messages in the media is also another influence. As stated in Dalton Conleys novel, Honky, he says In society overall it may be that those who are in control have a larger voice, the ability to fill up the newspapers and airwaves with their opinions (Conley 77). Having insider knowledge gives one the power to express what they know. That is the privilege of the middle and upper classes in America the right to make up the reasons things turn out the way they do, to construct our own narratives rather than having the media and society do it for us (Conley 100). Instead of being fed knowledge, some are privileged to feed other people with their own knowledge. Those are the people that understand the message the most. Peoples social capital impacts the ways that we interact with other Americans. Where someone lives affects how one interacts with somebody. Dalton Conley gives an example of this in his novel where race also comes into play. [Black friends in New York] used the term themselves, even called each other niggers, but they spoke the word with a sarcastic bite that negated its content. At any rate, the word never seemed dirty until we heard it used in the white Pennsylvania suburbs. Here, racism was expressed but apparently not thought much about (Conley 117). The use of words is varying around the country; some areas in the country use a certain word in a different way. This could either create positive or negative interactions. In Conleys example, the use of the word nigger in his home in New York comes off as more of a lighter and less offensive word if two black people were to exchange that word to one another. In

Sampang 5

the white suburbs of Pennsylvania however, when white people would use the word, it was used more to offend black people. Media is something that will never go away. America is constantly changing and media is something that keeps us up to date with those changes that affect all of us. Media is just one of the factors that has made the society that America knows and lives in today.