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Kaitlyn Ramsey

Media Criticism

January 9, 2018

Writing Assignment 4

The modern Information Era has in fact, entered a new age, it is a digital phase. Digital

communication, images, texts, and sounds are transformed electronic signals that are then

decoded as specific reproductions of, magazine articles, songs, telephone voices, etc. With this

new emergence of the digital phase, it has cultivated a new direction of the mass media, the

Internet. The “information highway” was originally created with military-government planning,

national security being one of its goals. Universities and government research labs fundamentally

used the Internet, with corporations jumping on the bandwagon later on. Many developers of the

Internet did not foresee how quickly its mass appeal would expand far beyond military and

research involvements (Campbell, Jensen, Gomery, Fabos & Frechette, 2014, pp. 257-258).

The Internet creates a stage to give a voice to the voiceless. This new digital form has

changed our mainstream media. The Internet has changed the way the mainstream media narrates

our society. However, the mainstream media need to do more than act as the agents of modern

change for our society, moreover they need to act as agents of liberal causes (Campbell, et al.,

2014, pp. 251-260).

One such cause that is left out of the mainstream media is the ever over looked issue of

men and masculinity in our culture. Masculinity is not an inherited trait, masculinity is a learned

trait though societies culture. Our culture is based on the idea that in order for a male to be

deemed masculine, they need to be strong, powerful, hard, tough, confident, in-control, etc. These

qualities are what make a male a “real” man. That if a male is more connected to their emotions,

they are then considered weak, soft, emotional, etc., not a “real” man (Katz, Tough Guise). Where

does the conditioning of male’s masculinity develop?

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Both family and community play a role in conditioning young boys into adult masculine

males. However, media has made a significant impact on the male population where these

qualities are learned. The media portrayal of men tends to emphasize male social dominance.

Social dominance in such ways as, the male characters are heterosexual, males are more often

associated with work rather than home life, and work issues are more vital than personal issues.

Along with the visual of non-white males that are more likely to encounter personal problems and

use physical aggression or violence to solve said problems (Earp, Jeremy, & Katz).

Violence is an aspect that has been an accepted part of being a man. Violence is not

discussed as a gender issue; however, the male gender is the largest culprits of executing violence

on to others. In the media, the issue of violence is de-gendered; it is assumed that boys are

causing the violence but is never highlighted. Manhood is connected to, as media portrays,

control, power, and violence. That films that engage in men with muscles, guns, and money tend

to create this feeling of masculinity. This in turn allows these images of hyper masculinity to

become the norm of the society, which does not leave room for any deviations, differences for the

male gender (Katz, Tough Guise).

“The portrayal and acceptance of men by the media as socially powerful and physically

violent serve to reinforce assumptions about how men and boys should act in society,

how they should treat women and children” (Earp, et al.).

The Internet has developed from the bottom up. The Internet would not be what it is

today without the help from their armatures; students, engineers, and computer buffs who built

the entire system. One snag with the Internet is its increased circulation of “spam” email and fake

“news”. Unlike the long-established media, which employ editors and producers as the

information gatekeepers, individuals and newsgroups on the Internet put out information and data

that may not be checked by anyone (Campbell et al., 2014, p. 271).

Click baiting is emerging throughout the Internet. It is where the website creates an

attention grabbing headline, usually false, for the viewer to click on. These “news” stories tend to
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be fake, however they are usually stories that feed into the emotions of the reader. The emotions

that are tapped into to are ones of anger; anger sells. Anger is the driving force for their audience

to “share” these false articles to others. We live in the age of Ripple Effect Entertainment; where

one small post or one small story can escalate and grow to a much more massive and dangerous

thing. Whereas one individual can come up with a fake news story or upload a false image, it gets

picked up through other bloggers, websites, hash tags, until it reaches the mainstream media and

big time news outlets. Once it has gained such momentum, no one goes back and fact checks the

original source; that band waging makes it into a reality (The Film Theorists).

Media criticism has opened my eyes as to how our media shapes our economy. We, as

the subordinate American people, are used to not only to help the elites to maintain their agendas,

but moreover were the facilitators for the growth of our economy. Our “common sense” leads us

to believe that we make our own choices of what we like and dislike, that what we choose to

spend our money on is not related to what the media advertises. Which, though this class is all

false; we are manipulated through our mass media, our trusted source for our information. The

ones who are in charge of molding and shaping our democratic society through the help of their

submissive American citizens.

The impact that mass media has on our society absolutely enormous. This is because

most citizens do not want to fact check any information or data that these giant media

conglomerates are spoon feeding us on the daily basis. We as the American people, are too lazy

to find the truth behind the hidden agendas of the elites that are thriving in our democratic

society. Take the blindfold off and see what is really taking place, what issues are not being

discussed and why! There are reasons as to why the media corporations have designed tools to

manipulate, distract, and calm their subordinates down; for most, these tools are executed

seamlessly.

The tools that I have gained throughout this course is to fact check, to see who is

benefiting, who holds the cards in the discussion, and how to see past discretions, find the real
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issues behind the curtain. This course has influenced me in a way that I now take mainstream

media news, or entertainment, as a grain of salt. It is my job as a democratic citizen to inform

myself, to do the research and form my own informative decisions about the issues surrounding

our society; to take of the “rose colored glasses”, if you will.

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References:

(n.d.). Retrieved January 13, 2018, from

http://permalink.fliqz.com/aspx/permalink.aspx?at=70c32b07d45e4efabd6d8b6196dd4ee

f&a=c51dc391e9144f1b86310993a7f6d918

F. (2016, December 23). Retrieved January 13, 2018, from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIn33sDwKqQ&list=WL&index=15

Campbell, R., Jensen, J., Gomery, D., Fabos, B., & Frechette, J. D. (2014). Media in

society. Bedford/St. Martins.

MediaSmarts. (n.d.). Retrieved January 13, 2018, from http://mediasmarts.ca/gender-

representation/men-and-masculinity