The mass media is powerful and influential. It can pressure how we think, sway our actions, and how we perceive ourselves. The media shapes our perception on what being perfect is and defines the meaning for us. If you don’t conform to what the advertisements say, then you will not fit into society.
Companies and corporations have specific groups and scientists to figure out what makes people work and how they can manipulate them to buy or use something. Mass media and advertisements are some ways to, exactly that, control human behavior. The mass media is a functional myth. They study psychologically and mentally the human mind with the end goal to find ways to influence consumers to consume. Companies research and study to understand people’s desires, standards, and insecurities. Then they try to explore them, exploit them, and then get people to buy their products.
Commercials are directed to target consumers to alter their ideas. They give the idea that people are far from perfect. They tell consumers that if they purchase the product, then they will be complete or better off then without the product. Eating a specific brand of food will allow people to make friends and make them fit and healthy. Drinking a certain brand of flavored water will give you athletic abilities and driving a special car will transform you into Derek Jeter.
Commercials and advertisements create a sense of what a perfect person is. The ideal woman is shown as being skinny, tall, and pretty. Using a certain shampoo would give girls perfect hair and make them pretty. The ideal man is pictured as tall, athletic, having muscles, and handsome. Using a certain brand of deodorant will give guys special powers, attract dozens of pretty girls, and become the picture of the ideal man.
Media through the news outlet is especially powerful. The news they do tell us, we have to believe. We do not know if it is true or not. The government could be controlling what is being told or not. The news reports that are reported are chosen because they are interesting. Reporters would provide information that is only interesting and not necessarily relevant. More time would be spent on a small story. They might embellish a small story instead of reporting a big story due to the fact that the small one is more attention grabbing than another. For example, stories about celebrities are on a lot instead of world hunger. Because of this, we think that the celebrities’ life stories are important news instead of foreign and domestic problems. Each news station is also bias toward their own belief. For example, fox news is favored toward the republican standpoint.
Advertisements manipulate the human mind into thinking what the ideal person is. Corporations exploit people’s insecurities and provide products to fix the insecurities. Consumers buy the products though to make themselves feel complete and idealized. The mass media plays an important factor in our decision to buy a specific brand or eat a certain food.
No comments:
Post a Comment