Influence of the Media in Movies & Television
The media has changed throughout the course of history such that people are now able to contact each other from far distance and receive news through the radio and television. As media progresses, televisions and movies become popular; people are able to experience broadcasts in a different level, such that everything is visualized, giving a greater impact and influence in daily American lives. Televisions and movies have regulated parts of the American culture and reflected upon the changes of society’s judgments; it portrayed the social norms of everyday life such as the ideal family and civilization.
Media Influence
For many years the media has influenced the society, such that it skews and creates fictional events into expectations or even societal norms. With the introduction of sound in 1927, movies become more popular than ever. Entertainment films soon shape people's values, behavior, and clothing, and propaganda films influence people's beliefs about other cultures and countries.[1] Without doubt, television, movies, and motion pictures have compelling powers in educating, informing, persuading, and even changing behavior. Within relationships, movies create images and expectations that people reflect upon as to whether or not their relationships are just as perfect as the movies make it. The comparison of the television shows and movies from the past to the present varies and are comparable by its social patterns.
Women Roles in Old Films
During the 1950s, television became the epitome of what was accepted in society such that the majority of the programs depicted the ideal role of women. The women’s task of being a housewife and mother was glorified; whenever women carried out the men’s job such as going to school for education or working in a blue collared job, they would be ridiculed and criticized.[2] Television shows such as I Love Lucy demonstrated social order of how the husband was always held the superior role in the household while the wife was left at home cooking and cleaning. As seen in one of the episodes, Ricky goes to Hollywood for his job whereas Lucy was there for pleasure and to meet celebrities, thus showing how men were expected to be the ones who had the jobs to support the family. Meanwhile when Ricky is off to work, Lucy decides to look for celebrities; Lucy’s visit to the Brown Derby restaurant becomes chaotic when she sees William Holden. When he returned his favor by constantly staring at Lucy because she did to him, Lucy becomes nervous and is persistently fumbling. The final scene became even more problematic as Lucy rushed pass the waiter who was serving food; the waiter tripped and the food landed onto Holden’s face. This scene ultimately showed how women were reckless and was not as intelligent compared to men. As Ricky was at work, he met Holden and Holden offered him a ride home; in return Ricky asked Holden to stay, not knowing the incident that happened between Lucy and Holden. Lucy became frightened when she found out Holden was downstairs, but Ricky urged her to meet Holden. As it concluded that Lucy had mistaken Holden’s intentions, this illustrated how men were the ones show solved the problems. Feminism during the time was not shocking because society saw it as a typical characteristic placed on women.
Change in Film Focuses
Aside from the advancements of women’s civil rights, technology excessively developed; the majority of the people had computers in which it also resulted in a change of communication when people began emailing. Internet became popular in the 1990s; however, lead to more conspiracies when people had access to other people’s information and worldwide news.[3] The change in women roles are also seen such that women have more professional roles. This exemplified in The X-Files when Mulder and Scully were busy watching the television and saw Samuel Hartley and his magical healing powers, this showed how the media and more advanced technologies lead to greater conspiracies. As the case opened and the federal agents tried to find clues, Samuel told Mulder that he saw sadness in him of a lost sister. This caught Mulder off guard and made Mulder wonder how Samuel knew. Because conspiracies begun to float around, people felt unsafe because people were able to find out information about them. After several attempts in healing people, Samuel believed that the devil ruined his powers. However, towards the end, it is known that the man, who was burnt and resurrected by Samuel, was behind all the setups of the people’s death to ruin Samuel’s life leading to Samuel’s death; concluding that the involvement of the police and federal agents begun to become more known after many crimes. Conspiracies were also seen when the nurse reported that Samuel, stated dead, walked somewhere. At first the nurse thought she was seeing things but then she was that his body was missing from the room. These typical genres demonstrate how television shows moved from family drama to paranormal and scientific reasoning.
More crime related topics began to spur as America faced several terrorist attacks; people were constantly in fear of terrorism. The advances in technology made it easier to know what was going on around the world such as natural disasters and political views.[4] In the CSI, when the detectives found the body of a deceased woman, they tried to find out the causes and how it happened. These numerous crimes have created awareness of the insecurities of society, such that anything could happen any day. As many more bodies of women were found, the detective needed to find out the initiative of the murder. Through many trial and errors, the detectives used their advanced technologies to make it easier to solve their cases, leading to their target. Like many present crimes in the world, CSI shows the process of the investigation and how each clue cannot be discarded and ignored. When the detectives found the target’s recent base with complex experimentations on a woman, this showed how even advanced technologies and studies could be used for its own bad purposes too. Many everyday crimes were related to the television shows in which some people commit crimes because of their own psychological beliefs; crimes come unexpected.[5] People were more focused and aware of the crimes around them.
Television shows throughout the decades have established the changes of American culture. The people’s attitudes of civilization and actions reflect greatly on the society, thus shaping it the way it is; televisions and movies help reinforce and strengthen these so called norms. From the past decades till now there have been many movements, from women’s roles to greater conspiracies and crimes. The media was one of the major mechanisms used to outline what was considered acceptable. These great impacts and influences by media have created America into the country it is now today.
[1] Bondi, Victor. American Decades: 1980-1989. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995. Print.
[2] Cline, Victor B. "How Do Movies and TV Influence Behavior?." How Do Movies and TV Influence Behavior?, accessed May 10, 2014, https://www.lds.org/ensign/1972/10/how-do-movies-and-tv-influence-behavior?lang=eng.
[3] University of North Carolina. "Mass Media Influence on Society." Media on Society, accessed May 6, 2014, http://www2.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/Courses/ResourcesForCourses/ Media&Society/MassMediaInfluenceOnSociety.html.
[4] PSC. "Media Influence on Youth." Media Influence, accessed May 10, 2014, http://www.crisisconnectioninc.org/teens/media_influence_on_youth.htm.
[5] Vellani, Nimmal. "People's Century." Great Escape, accessed May 9, 2014, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/peoplescentury/episodes/greatescape/vellanitranscript.html.
[2] Cline, Victor B. "How Do Movies and TV Influence Behavior?." How Do Movies and TV Influence Behavior?, accessed May 10, 2014, https://www.lds.org/ensign/1972/10/how-do-movies-and-tv-influence-behavior?lang=eng.
[3] University of North Carolina. "Mass Media Influence on Society." Media on Society, accessed May 6, 2014, http://www2.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/Courses/ResourcesForCourses/ Media&Society/MassMediaInfluenceOnSociety.html.
[4] PSC. "Media Influence on Youth." Media Influence, accessed May 10, 2014, http://www.crisisconnectioninc.org/teens/media_influence_on_youth.htm.
[5] Vellani, Nimmal. "People's Century." Great Escape, accessed May 9, 2014, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/peoplescentury/episodes/greatescape/vellanitranscript.html.
| Briana Yan |