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... TV, but we don't think that appearances may be deceptive, and mostly they are. We hunter for appearance often forgetting, that it would not change our character and attitudes towards our family members. This is also the indirect influence of the emotion-based principle of television, as well as the other media. Let's now look at the values, which have changed through the media and especially Internet. With the availability of Internet for the young Americans, the total shift in the general American values has become the most obvious, as it is understood that the youth is the most vulnerable part of our society, and with the development of media and the general access to the Global network, the formation of values among children and adolescents has acquired absolutely different character.
First of all, it is important to understand, that the Internet and television themselves are taken by youth as a kind of a drug, the addiction towards which is very difficult to eliminate. Children spend the time in front of the TV screens the time which could potentially be devoted to reading, sports, communication with other children and family members, etc. Thus, the values which used to exist for children of previous generations are totally replaced by TV and other media. This first of all influences the health of children the mass campaigns against obesity and the propaganda of the instruments to fight this epidemic in the US is invaluable, but the fact is that TV and Internet have changed the attitude of children and their parents towards health. The major shift in the value of health has occurred in making the public understand, that the matter of being healthy is the personal responsibility of each American separately; thus, the state appears to play minor role in maintaining health of its population. On the other hand, mass media is full of information about the scaled epidemics taking place in various countries (just remember the panic about SARS in Asia), which distracts public attention from the personal health problems.
This is another proof of informational mis balance, which makes the media the leading instrument in changing the American values. ' The point about all of this, very simply, is that television as a medium, as a force, works against the values that this country needs and has always cherished. It's not simply a matter of getting a new chairman for the FCC or a new network president. It doesn't matter if people are spending their twenty-nine hours a week watching the History Channel-fat chance-it's still too much. The problem isn't too much bad language, violence, or graphic sexuality on television; the problem is too much television, period.
It takes you out of life, it destroys conversation, it undermines families. ' (Medved, 2002) Is it that media has only played negative role in changing the American values? The argument is clear, as not many people would agree that television and Internet are absolutely negative phenomena in shaping the national values or making them work. 'The events of the 11, September have become the landmark in re-shaping the American values to which the society traditionally kept, or, it would probably more correct to state, that this was the driver of enhancing the traditional American values, at times turning them into the radical means of protection. The traditional values of freedom, the protection of which our society used to keep, have been changed after the terrorist acts in 2001 '. (Hentoff, 2002) That freedom and the urge to protect it hads at times changed into what other nations would call 'American nationalism'. On the one hand, the media in this case could play the major role I supporting the striving of the society towards unity and common struggle for the saving of the economic, social and cultural values which existed by that time; what has been seen is that those events have become the means of proliferating the wrong ideas of protection the freedoms of the American society. The war in Iraq has become one of the principal displays and evidences of how the values of people have changed the discrimination of the other nation was not the salvation of the American freedoms, but that what was made popular through the media. Yes, this is true, that the media has played an important role in making most people understand, that they had forgotten many of their traditional values and that they had to restore them to save the society and its reasonable development; though the means of this restoration were absolutely wrong.
It is also important to speak about the way the youth is informed through the media. There is a common opinion, which has been expressed by Kelley (1992), that ' popular culture does matter, it does have influence. Even on life-death issues such as the war on terror and how to wage it. Our republic demands citizens pay attention in order for the best people to be elected. Is that happening today, when 64 percent of young Americans can name the American Idol winners but just 10 percent know who the speaker of the House is?' What is meant here is that though teenagers are addicted to watching the TV, and TV may work as the means of making the youth informed, the choice of the programs to watch and the newspapers to read is far from being correct. The value of being informed has been replaced by the value of being 'uninformed'. (web) On the other hand, The same article (web) gives an interesting fact: 'Now, there's a growing problem in America with the younger people being completely uninformed.
Public education is generally not emphasizing history, geography, or civics, preferring to indoctrinate American students into a world of tolerance, diversity, and secular values. Plus, every survey says the same thing. Many Americans ages 18 to 24 have no idea what's going on. For example, a National Geographic survey says 63 percent of that age group can't locate Iraq on a map of the Middle East even though the USA has been fighting there for more than three years.
That may be because 80 percent of younger Americans don't even own a world map. Ninety percent of the young " uns don't know where Afghanistan is. Ninety percent. And here's the best. Twenty-five percent of Americans ages 18 to 24 could not identify Dick Cheney as vice president. ' The mis balance is also evident here; this is the basis of the choice the youth makes the value of being educated is now replaced by the value of being good in the names of starts and the discussion of the latest movies. Here it is not the matter of television, or media as a whole, but the matter of the choice the youth makes.
The media and television, in particular, provides all sorts of information, but it appears that is traditionally captures the eyes and minds of the young people through bright pictures and easy talks the number of educational programs on TV decreases through their unpopularity and low commercial profits. Commercialism has become one of the prominent values at present everything is weighted by the financial profits, which can be potentially gained through this or that action. Moral values are replaced by the same commercialism, which we witness on TV. People chase the material satisfaction, which is not the negative phenomenon at all; but material satisfaction has to be balanced with other moral values and strivings, which we lack at present.
The movies, which we watch on TV and the stories of cruelty, which we read in press, as well as the sexual scenes and their open availability on net makes young people, think that these are normal situations. Conclusion The fact that the media changes American traditional values is evident. The influence is mostly negative, but the question is open, whether this influence can be change for the positive. The key notion in this work, which I tried to apply to the negativity which the media at present put on the American values in the mis balance of information.
What has been meant by me here is that potentially the media could first of all, become the means and instruments of spreading the traditional American values, making society keep to them. On the other hand, it is not only television or press in itself which makes people change their values it is the combination of many factors; the matter of choice prevails here and makes people pay attention to the news and information, which is not valuable for the development of their moral attitudes, but rather appear to be the means of spending free time. The changing of values occurs unconsciously, but it has taken large scales and needs active measures not to have the nation totally changed. The values are changed through the combination of media and other factors, among which economics, social life and culture. Commercialism and chasing money without paying too much attention to the morality and behavior patterns is not only the influence of television commercialism is just the cause of making media the way the work at present; the core of these value changes is in the general social shift, which creates impacts on all spheres of human life.
Yes, media does influence the American values negatively, but it should not be taken as a sole participant of these changes. The role of media in changing American values should be looked at through the prism of all factors which at present determine our way of life. Works cited Hentoff, Nat. 'Who is the Enemy to American Values?' The Washington Times, 2002 Gabriel, Ralph H. American Values: Continuity and Change. Greenwood Press, 1974 Kelley, Susan D. 'Traditional Native American Values: Conflict or Concordance in Rehabilitation?' The Journal of Rehabilitation, vol. 58 (1992): 213 - 217 Medved, Michael. 'American Values versus Television Values'. 1 November 2002. 07 December 2006 web 'O'Reilly: Young Americans 'Have no Idea of What's Going On' Because They 'Get Their News from Jon Stewart'. 07 December 2006. web Pope, Carl. 'Schools of Thought: Civics, Thrift and Other American Values', Sierra, vol. 82 (1997): 18 - 20 Rios, Delia. 'Just What Are These American Values We Keep Hearing About?' 25 August, 2004.
News House News service. 07 December 2006. web
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