Contemporary Media Analysis

1. What does the media say about the world we live in?

I could have been very graphic with this picture, but
that would defeat the purpose of my argument of the
acceptance of violence. 

The media can do its best to represent the world we live in, but it can never be a complete and real representation of the world we live in. That being said, if I had to pick one thing that I think the media is saying about us, I would say that media says that we love violence. Not only seen through the films and TV shows, it also references violence happening in real life. There were talks about Syria and whistle blowers in multiple presentations. People are not sure if someone should be classified as a hero or an enemy. Our media glorifies war and violence and we love it. That is completely obvious after a close inspection of the box office from the previous years. There is a reason the top 100 highest grossing movies of all time (as seen here ) primarily consists of violence filled movies. I find it shocking that most of these movies came out in the last decade. This just goes to show our world's obsession with violence today.

2. Do you notice any one trend that keeps resurfacing through multiple media forms?

One of the trend that resurfaces in different forms of media and also was present in the presentations was the concept of "blurred lines." Although it was only one group who put emphasis on this, multiple groups talked about enough that it should be mentions. Media today cannot put into just black or white areas. No longer do we live in a time where movies and TV shows make the "bad guy" full on evil or the "good guy" the perfect human being. Although this has been happening over the years, it is more common now than ever before. TV shows today explore deeply troubled protagonists who have gotten themselves in some sort of trouble because of their own doing. So many TV shows have not dived into the troubled mind of a character like they today in shows such as 24, Breaking Bad, The Wire, Supernatural, Game of Thrones, Justified, The Walking Dead and so on. The protagonist is no longer an all-knowing being whose troubles are over by the end of the episode. TV shows have become more cinematic than ever before and therefore are in deep competition with film.

Another common trend that came up was the acceptance of violence. Men kill other men to show that killing other men in wrong. Okay, it may not be that simple. But, still. A majority of the highest grossing films of the past years (especially those who past the $1 billion mark) have been action movies. One of the movies that comes to mind is The Avengers. Don't get me wrong, I loved that movie...on my first watching. Second time around, I realized how much mindless action there was in the movie. The final battle, although incredibly epic and put on a grand scale, fell flat because there was no fallout from the fights. The heroes were barely getting injured. I just didn't feel like I should be fearing for these character because I was thinking something along the lines of "they can't kill him. They still need this character to milk out some more cash." Similarly, Man of Steel had the same issues, but I was bothered by it just on my first watching.

One group mentioned that media loves to expose American stupidity. Even though that may be true to an extent, it is somewhat misleading. Some people love to see something "stupid" once in a while. This could refer to shows like Here Come Honey Boo Boo where a family is exploited (they seem fairly oblivious to the impact of what they say), specifically the daughter. This is reality TV show and it adds to the conversation of stupidity. However, it would be incorrect to just say American stupidity. Stupidity exists everywhere. It's just that the media has exploited it here in the States more than anywhere else in the world. Also, it is a false representation of society. It only goes to heighten the stereotype that Americans and fat and dumb. As Gino's group mentioned, many times the people on the show are told to act a certain way simply to get the shot the filmmakers want to get...and here is was thinking that THIS IS REALITY TELEVISION. I guess even our sense of reality is falsified in media today.

3. What do you see as the best and worst of what media portrays?

The media can do its best to influence society, but it can never represent it as a whole. That is where the major fault for the media lies; it exaggerates human interests. There are channels, TV shows, video games, and movies for every type of audience. Most of the reality TV shows, which as apparently supposed to show events happening in some real person's life, shows fake people. Shows like Keeping Up With the Kardashians does have real people, but these people are so not grounded to reality that they are living in their own world. Most people don't live their lives like the Kardashians do because most people don't have so much money. Additionally, the family rarely faces big issues and they usually just become bitter over small things like Kim not feeling like talking to anyone. In that sense, this show (Along with many many more) shows the worst of of media's portrayal.

One of the best thing media has started to portray today is a general acceptance of all kinds of people. By that I am referring to all the LGBT people in the world. Shows like Glee are leading the way in this cultural change where acceptance in not just preached, but also acted upon. In TV Shows and movies, the LGBT group is represented more and more. That, I believe, is one of the best things media has done today with its portrayal of society today.

4. Where do you see yourself contributing to the conversation?

My group talked about the acceptance of violence over sexuality, specifically in American culture. We live in a world where it is unacceptable for a child to see someone's butt, but being literally ripped apart from limb to limb is a little more acceptable. As mentioned, European TV shows are more lenient on expressing sexuality than showing extreme violence. Although women are shown to wear very minimal clothing in much of American media, it is still frowned upon if any sexual acts are shown. A documentary called This Film is Not Yet Rated, made an attempt to look inside the MPAA which includes members who control what the rating for every single movie will be. The documentary explains that they say that they are trying to protect children with this, but they associations accepts violence far more easily than they accept sex. Because of this, filmmakers who wanted their films to be rated R get NC-17 and many theaters refuse to play them. Due to this, all the hard work the filmmakers put into their film goes down the drain simply because the MPAA says the content was too graphic. The media could potentially play a powerful role here by exploring this issue.