It started by way of messengers and scribes, evolved through the presentation of newspapers and radio, brought us together with television, and now serves us world-wide via the ever-popular Internet. It is the mass media, and even from the earliest days of its existence, it has contributed greatly in ways that both enlighten and enrich society, and ways that deteriorate and perplex it. It is not a surprise to learn, then, that the mass media is the most powerful source of information we have, and nothing else in today’s world influences public perception quite as heavily.
It would be downright absurd to assume that women in this society are treated as sexual objects only because the media releases or broadcasts pornographic material. A magazine associated with make-up and skin care, for example, will quite obviously not be concentrating on much else. Such a magazine would not display pictures of women who mountain-climb or women who water-ski; only images of make-up and text referring to skin care would be relevant. Clearly, society does not consider women to be beings who’s only purpose in life is to worry about make-up and skin care; but why are the complaints only directed towards pornographic media then? The answer to this question may be more complicated, however, what remains obvious is that the media does not portray women as only being able to fill male sexual desires. To say that pictures featuring nudity, etc, are making objects out of women is foolish. One should consider females who pin-up posters of male rock stars or children who collect hockey or baseball cards. Society, however, does not say that objects are being made out of these rock stars and sports heroes; pictures of clothed people are no less objects than pictures of naked people.
The Essay on Impacts Of Electronic Media On Pakistani Society
Introduction: In the last 50 years, media influence has grown exponentially with time. First there was the telegraph, then the radio, the newspaper, magazines, television and now the internet. The media boom has also brought a revolutionary change in the morals and ethics of society. But a moral change in a society can sometimes prove itself to be an insincere change fraught with social evils.The ...
It is fundamentally important to realize that the media does not deliberately create images of hate or disagreement (Howitt, Cumberbatch 1975:80).
They just influence the more appealing things in society (thus directly increasing their ratings).
Although it is obvious that pornography is largely a male interest, a noted increase in female interest would certainly cause an increase in the amount of pornographic material geared for women; this relates to the laws of the business world (Christensen 1990:50).
In addition to the many other accusations against pornography, many in society believe that there is definite connection between organized crime and pornography. Although this may be true, the idea is largely over-exaggerated. The reasoning behind this theory is very simple, yet very shallow. Consider, that pornography is created by organizations and contains sexually explicit material that may be thought to be legally obscene in some areas. To make the connection, these anti-pornography organizations assume that the organizations (hence organized) that produce the legally obscene (hence crime) material, are operating illegally. It is obvious why pornography is attractive to criminals; just as anything that is banned or is made illegal, there is always someone who will pay the high black-market price for it.
As members of society, we recognize the power of the mass media. We understand that public perception can be easily persuaded. But it should be clearly understood that pornography in the media alone cannot persuade men to cause harm to women; it cannot cause men to do things that are socially unacceptable. As was mentioned earlier, pornography only causes feelings of excitement and satisfaction and these feelings overpower those feelings of violence. For these reasons, it can be said that until a positive link can be found between pornography in the media and violence against women, it will remain that sexual violence such as rape is the result of sexual frustration, and not of sexual arousal.
The Essay on Running Head Media And Violence
Running head: MEDIA AND VIOLENCE Media and Violence April 16, 2009 Media and Violence Violent content in media has become the issue of the day. From the earliest days of the popular newspapers, magazines, journals, and TV programs there was widespread public concern about violent scenes and episodes. Although there is no direct proof to the assumption that violence in the media causes violence in ...
Reference Cited
Christensen F.M.
1990 Pornography. New York: Praeger.
Howitt, Cumberpatch
1975 Mass Media, Violence and Society. London: Elek Science
Harmon, Check
1988 Role of Pornography in Woman Abuse. (City unknown).American
Commission on Obscenity and Pornography.
Hawkins, Zimring
1988 Pornography in a Free Society. (City unknown).
(Publisher uknown).
Bibliography 1. Pornography, Christensen F.M., ã1990, New York, Praeger. 2. Mass Media, Violence and Society, Howitt, Cumberpatch, ã1975, London, Elek Science. 3. Role of Pornography in Woman Abuse, Harmon, Check, ã1988, American Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. 4. Pornography in a Free Society, Hawkins, Zimring, ã1988. 5. Advertising, World Book Encyclopedia 1990, New York, Nault. 6. Pornography, Encarta Encyclopedia 1995, New York, Microsoft. 7. The Question of Pornography, Donnerstein, Linz, Penrod, ã1987, pp.152-153. 8. Pornography and Censorship, Bullough, ã1983, pp.255-261. 13 13
