Does the Mass Media Affect Us, or Do We Affect The Mass Media?

There is no doubt that society especially, the younger generation are influence and affected by mass media. However, there has become a turning point in which the evolution of societal networks have caused a change. Mass media is mainly directed towards the younger generation because they feel as if their minds are easier to manipulate and brainwash stereotypical messages about gender and sexuality into their mind. Young people follow these misinterpretations presented by the media because they feel obligated to fit in with the rest of society. The mass media tries to form the future generation by presenting them with distorted values supplying them with false facts about how one should view the opposite gender as what is portrayed in today’s society. Therefore, the media displays a distorted image of our lives about sexuality and gender.  All forms of popular culture use restrictive labels to define us. These labels hold titles of racial appearance, status quo, etc. This makes society categorize themselves under certain labels and creates grouping. This is exactly what the mass media wants! Categorizing yourself under a certain group of shared interests gives the opportunity for the mass media to base assumptions about the needs and wants of society. Younger females have been heavily influenced by the media because they have been outnumbered by representations of male figures in popular culture and have been constantly portrayed as sex objects where the value of their beauty is most important. These are ways by the media to create a preferred identity for all genders. However, social networks; a growing mechanism of social media- are allowing us to be free of these instructed representations of formed identity. Social networks such as facebook, twitter and myspace, allow us to create our own identity. These networks give us the option to mould our own identities while at the same time they allow us to connect with people based on our own interest, no longer relying on media companies to do this [1].

The mass media knows that we are the products of their future and therefore monitor the things we do and the interests we are following. It’s freaky to know that they have access to viewing our monitor! This being said, there has seemed to be a turn in the leading role of the mass media. It seems to be, that the mass media is becoming more and more influenced by our changing identities and interests depicted by our own selves. This is because the mass media wants to know more about us so that they can create new ways of influential marketing products.  So suddenly, our interests have become respected by the media in a way none other than before. This being said, the growth of social networking is enabling the change of portrayals in gender and sexuality in popular culture. We are becoming the change! 


Here is an interesting video for reference:
1. http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_social_media_and_the_end_of_gender.html