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American values and media This essay is going to argue on the subject of spreading or distorting the American values through traditional mass media. It is a traditional viewpoint, that the modern media are distorting the values, which the elder generations used to have. It is also argumentative, as for whether the media themselves make the traditional American values change, or it is the combination of various factors, including economic, social and cultural influences, with which the media becomes only the means of enhancing and spreading the new attitudes. Introduction It is stated that we start to speak about our values as soon as we are threatened to lose our country or to lose our freedom, equality and opportunities. On the other hand, it can't but be stated that our national values have drastically changed under the influence of mass media, and especially television. The question remains to be open, whether we are too weak to resist to the influence of media, as it has now become not the fourth, but the first and the main power, determining our behavior, way of life and predicting our actions for the nearest future.
The values, which we used to hold earlier, have not changed, but our attitude towards them is absolutely different in comparison to what we used to have a couple of decades ago. Thus, I felt urge to discuss this issue and to see, whether it is really true that the media at present are really versus the American values, and are not with them. Is it true that the media has become an opposition to the traditional American values? Is it true that the media can become the means of spreading the American values?
These questions are yet to be answered in this paper. It would first be necessary to identify the core values of the American people, which have experienced the major changes during the recent time, as well as it would be better to concentrate on television as the means of spreading American values' ideas, as the modern times have shown the decline of radio and the development of TV and Internet technologies. Core American values In the book by Gabrial (1974) we find the list of values, which have considerably changed in the American mentality during the recent period of time, for the aims of the present discussion it will be valuable to have a closer look at them in relation to the influence of media upon them. First of all, the concept of duty is mentioned there. It is now clearly seen, that the moral duty, when one owes something to the other person has absolutely changed. What do we see at present it that people have mostly started to think about their own welfare and often forgets to think about other people's state.
Moral obligation is not an American value anymore. (Gabrial, 1974) Respectability is related in this book as the 'symbols of correct behavior'. What is witnessed at present is that society lacks the notions of the moral correct behavior, and the way the person behaves is usually judged not by certain moral norms, traditionally accepted by the society, but by the subjective feelings and attitudes this person has. This principle may also be related to the so-called 'social morality'. (Gabrial, 1974) Sacrifice this is one more value which is of no value anymore. Sacrifice at present is replaced by the pragmatic considerations, of what this sacrifice would be worth.
The more important talk is about family and husband-and-wife relations. It is no argument, that family remains to be one of the core values of the American society, but it is still changed for the worse. These changes are revealed through the understanding that the nuclear form of family is now expanded far beyond the traditional meaning of this value. The media and television have changed the value of family, making it less and putting more stress on the pragmatic considerations of career. This aspect will be discussed later in this work. In the husband-wife relations it has also changed from the role responsibilities toward making them shared.
It is still dubious, whether it is good or bad, but the facts remains that shared responsibilities within the family now take the leading role in the formation of the personal values in America. Simultaneously, the greater stress on maintaining one's health in good state has become a mere obsession among the principal American values, and media has played in this not the last role. Of course, this list of the values is far from being complete, but here it is also worth speaking about the American values, which touch the whole nation, and are supported by the most media, at times making them opposite to be taken negatively by other nations. It is said. 'Americans identify themselves as Americans through the ideas they hold and the values they hold'. (Rios, 2004) In the face of the terrorist threat it becomes obvious that the country comes down more passionately towards the discussion of its core values, among which freedom is chosen by Americans as the principal one. It appears to play major role among the three values, to which Americans keep freedom, equality and merit. (Rios, 2004) Media vs. American values The turning point in the changing of the values to which the American people used to keep was noticed in the late 1960 the same period of time when the development of television has become mass and available for almost every family.
The fact that media at present owns the world is not argumentative, as well as the fact that we are obsessed by television. According to the statistics, each American spends 29 hours a week in front of the TV screen, which is almost equal to the number of the working hours per week. Does that mean that television and other media have started to play the crucial role in formation of the values among youth and changing these values among adults? Medved (2002) speaks about the 'generational change in the human values and in the American society as a whole. The television and the press have played an important role in changing the values, which mainly influence the family and the relations within it'. What is witnessed at present, is that the press and Internet is full of the fashionable stories about the new divorce of this or that movie star, or the photos which paparazzi have got to make any new sensation about the private life of this or that singer.
What values do these publications represent? They totally change the core family values of the common society; press, television and internet have created the idols, the way of life of which we try to follow without distinguishing the bad and the good things in their lives. the values of keeping the family as a whole and trying to do our best to make the relations between the family members as best as one can is neglected through the star family matters, which people se every day. 'It is not the talk about reshaping family roles it is the talk about neglecting families as values. Public divorce processes become the matter of urgent attention, and thus people hardly understand the true feelings, which the participants of the public process experience. Keeping family together has been replaced by keeping its financial state as a whole, or getting as much material compensation as possible if the separation happens'. (Hent off, 2002) The popular sitcoms which housewives have on TV every day during their usual way of live make them think, that family problems are easily to be solved, and that the nucleus of the family, as it has used to be through the years, is not so important anymore. Television and press have made family a matter of pragmatic considerations, and not the matter of something more spiritual.
On the other hand, the mis balance between the emotions is clear. The media directs the emotions into the wrong way, making them reveled in the unnecessary situations. It is interesting, what Medved (2002) writes about television against the American values: 'Television-and not just bad television, but all television-is the obvious factor in changing America for the worse. Watching television has damaged this country and its core values in three ways: in encouraging negativity, pessimism, and a crisis-of-the-month mentality; in encouraging impatience and a short-term horizon; and in promoting a feelings-first philosophy and the primacy of emotion over all other factors in our national life. ' This statement may at first seem to contradict with what has said about the emotions and spirituality of the family as a value before.
However, it is just the support of the argument as for the mis balance of information in the media, which not only changes the values potentially the media could become the instruments of keeping the core values and developing them, making them stronger; but the pragmatism of media at present and the choice of economic profits makes American values keep one of the last positions when the talk is about that to show, what to write and what to watch through the media. 'The media has become the driver of replacement of the main values in relation to feelings, emotions and pragmatism; where emotions used to be top priority, pragmatism has kept the place; on the contrary, the instances when the emotions are not to be shown at all, they are released causing socially unacceptable behavior. ' (Pope, 1997) Simultaneously, television itself has become the media based on emotions and images, rather on the reasonable discussions and the development of the moral values; we have stuck to it through the bright visualization of when should be carried to the public. Thus, the appearance as a whole at present matters more than it used to previously. This value is displayed through the obsessive number of cosmetic salons and plastic surgery establishments, which are now opened in the US. The number of plastic cosmetic surgeries annually increases, and the matter when someone wants to look like Brad Pitt means that the value of inner morality, feelings and attitudes has been replaced by the value of looking good. We are captured by the appearances we see on...
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