posted
Two words to start of the rest of the conversation. The Media. Where do you learn all of your news? Who tells you what to buy and what to do with your money? Now i am aware that not everyone relies on the media, but people you must agree with me when i say that this generation is sex drived. So many things you see on tv has sexual content, one way or another. Those tv shows, magazine articles, movies, etc. want you to think like that, they want you to buy their expensive clothes, or buy the tv show soundtrack. Everyone is affected by this, its like saying you are without sin. I now i am, and many of my friends. Where do you learn all of your information about canidates when election time comes around. Who tells you what this person did, and what they were incorprated with? Of course the news is still the news. They arn't adding anything but what is occuring around the world. The government does run this country, but not all of it, mabye half or 60%. But the other remainder is run by the media. Telling people what they should do. Now folks at Hatrack, don't think that im one of those people who dont watch tv, dont play violent video games, dont enjoy watching those tv shows, because that is a lie. I am just posting on what has come to mind. Hope everybody had a good day, cause i know that i did. -Postman
Posts: 262 | Registered: Jan 2005
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quote:TheDisgruntledPostman: ... I am just posting on what has come to mind...
I guess stream-of-consciousness is a valid literary style, but it doesn't lend itself very well to making cogent arguments on a Web forum.
Posts: 1592 | Registered: Jan 2001
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quote:but it doesn't lend itself very well to making cogent arguments on a Web forum.
If you look at the title of this forum and says Books, films, food and American Culture. I am not trying to make an argument, i'm and just releasing my opinion.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
I don't think the media is the start of all the sex, I'd say that it's because of the affects of Puritans and the Victorian that everything sex suddenly became taboo, and now we're finally leaving that phase. If you look into the past children weren't always so sheltered from sex, and in fact sex (homosexuality as well as heterosexuality) was a very major part of everyday society (Greece anyone?).
Now with the media and news. I hate it all, when it came to election season, I refused to watch anything except c-span, the daily show, and sometimes CNN (better camera angles during the debates). When any rumor came my way about a candidate, I proudly researched it until I personally knew it's validity (btw, Bush DID in fact hold a small partnership in a lumber company, in 2001 he filed a profit of about $48, which made him *technically* a "small business owner" in which he was able to take substantial tax cuts from). My problem with the modern media as well as the internet including blogs, and forums (including hatrack) is that immense speed of it all. Everybody says how wonderful it is for information to be able to travel around the world in an instant, and while I like being able to know the weather in Cancun when I'm in my dorm in Wisconsin, all this massive ammount of information coming in means that nobody spends time actually processesing information anymore, people tend to think that having a lot of information means that they somehow don't need to process any of it because it'll all be clear (after all we know everything about it!). This is very apparent on things like the Oreilly Factor or Crossfire, people are brought in, and they all have the facts, everybody has the facts, but everybody is putting their own spin on it and the people? They just take it all in and accept whatever the people "on their side" say. If there's one thing my (current) three semesters of college has taught me, it is the importance of primary sources. To get the truth for yourself you have to go to the original documents, or find the original facts and extropolate your own findings, not take some John Bush's take on something. Just because he has a law degree or he went to Yale doesn't make him (or her) very smart people and very educated people are often wrong, very often wrong. Satyagraha
Posts: 359 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
Those in the media don't make us do anything. They don't make us buy clothes or cds or watch television shows. Weak willed individuals will buy into all of that sure, there's always that group. But we are responsible for our own actions. The media resorts to coersion, trying to get us to buy things because if we don't we aren't cool or hip or what not, but it's still up to us to buy into or not to buy into this.
As far as politics goes. You are responsible from sorting the fact from the fiction yourself. It is out there if you want to find out. I think the problem isn't the media (though they have gotten worse in so many ways), the problem is lazy people who don't check facts and multiple sources. They watch the news and take everything at face value, then when it turns out to be wrong later they blame the media.
Don't blame other people for being lazy, get out there and check everything until you are satisfied. And don't be a follower, buy whatever you want if you like it, but otherwise ignore the ads.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
The thing is, a free media (ours?) is fundimentally necessary for democracy, it is the the people's eyes and ears into the government. I think America the book put it best by saying:
quote: The role of a free press is to be the people's eyes and ears, providing not just information but access, insight, and most importantly context. I t must devote its time and resources to monitoring the government, permeating the halls of power to determine who is doing the people's work, who is corrupting the process, and who will promise to be a mole in the Satete Dpeartmener if their homosexuality is kept secret. Only after that - and only with time permitting 0 should it move on to high-speed freeway chases.
posted
My favorite World and European History teacher opens up his World History class with this lesson: "Sex drives human history. Get used to it. Get over it."
Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
The way you people are replying to what i said is different towards what i was getting to. I meant to say with the whole sex thing that media shows etc. are telling people that if you dont look like this your not beautiful and the other thing i was getting to was how everything is being sex driven and that can cause an increase in HIV and AIDS which no one wants.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
"The way you people are replying to what i said is different towards what i was getting to."
Yes, we know that. Perhaps that is because we do not necessarily accept the premises on which you have built your argument.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
1) The Media is not an organization or a unified group. It is a whole bunch of people who sell the same product.
News media is different than entertainment media. There is a lot less Sex in the news than in the entertainment fields, so grouping them all together is a bit useless.
2) The reason the media pushes sex in not because it has a dirty secret agenda. It pushes sex because sex sells. It gets our attention and keeps our interest. This is a part of having a free market.
3)A big part of the reason it does sell is because we as a nation, try hard to deny in public that we are sexual creatures. If we are public with the fact that we enjoy sex, then maybe we won't be as fascinated by scantilly clad members of the oppisite sex that will never share our beds. We won't have to drool over fantasies because we are comfortable with our realities.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I read somewhere--the Economist, I think--that this generation of Americans is, in general, more sexually responsible than every generation until the boomers. The primary difference between this generation and previous generations is that people are more openly sexual. In general, I think this is a healthy behavior, since it reduces the neurosis around sexual activity.
I get most of my information from printed news sources (the local newspaper, the New York Times, the Economist), the national network evening news (CBS and NBC, specifically), PBS, BBC, and NPR.
My personal favorite televised news sources are PBS and BBC. I watch Washington Week every Friday because it features journalists talking about the news, not pundits, who are hardly worthy of any of my attention. I watch the BBC world news every few days, since it's a non-american view on world news.
I stay away from anything that resembles popular culture. Music, clothes, etc. I tried to keep up with that when I was in high school by watching MTV and a few other networks, it was so painfully superficial. It's one of those situations where people talk a lot without saying anything.
Posts: 903 | Registered: May 2003
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