This week in class, we viewed a documentary on the effect of media on women. It showed how not only does it change how men think of women, but also how women think of themselves. I agreed with what the documentary said, in that media has a strong influence on our opinions. I think that media is very influential, as we are presented opinions as fact so we believe them. We are shown how something should be and presented a biased comment that we take to be true.
We take in all of this, and end up having our minds twisted to fit the opinions we are presented. We end up thinking in the way we see media, and depending on what we see, it can be good or extremely horrible. This can not only make us think worse of someone else, but of ourselves as well.
In the case of this documentary, we are shown how media makes us think of women. In media, we are presented with the main idea of how men are better than women. Most people within media or in charge of the programming are male, making it extremely difficult to see a female opinion in a subject. This causes for us to have a male perspective when it comes to women, such as thinking that males are better or that what matter most about a woman is her appearance. While many people may not actually think this at first, there are still many who believe this. Some of these people are in media, and freely share their opinions with us, easily shaping our opinions.
It's extremely easy for them to do this as we are constantly presented with only one side, never another. If someone keeps seeing the same thing over and over again, shown in a way that makes it seem 100% true, they will end up believing it themselves. Men in media constantly express the same opinion, that being male is better and women are important for appearance and not much else.
The most dangerous part about this is women end up believing it themselves, not only men. Women feel much worse about themselves, in that they don't think that they are as important as men, if at all. They are influenced to think that they don't matter, and so never are able to do anything as they believe that they can't. They think that their only importance is how they look, so even if they are in a place where hey can do something, they are too busy worrying about what media has them to worry about. Media causes for us to believe in the opinions of others, as we are shown them as fact, rather than follow our own beliefs.
We take in all of this, and end up having our minds twisted to fit the opinions we are presented. We end up thinking in the way we see media, and depending on what we see, it can be good or extremely horrible. This can not only make us think worse of someone else, but of ourselves as well.
In the case of this documentary, we are shown how media makes us think of women. In media, we are presented with the main idea of how men are better than women. Most people within media or in charge of the programming are male, making it extremely difficult to see a female opinion in a subject. This causes for us to have a male perspective when it comes to women, such as thinking that males are better or that what matter most about a woman is her appearance. While many people may not actually think this at first, there are still many who believe this. Some of these people are in media, and freely share their opinions with us, easily shaping our opinions.
It's extremely easy for them to do this as we are constantly presented with only one side, never another. If someone keeps seeing the same thing over and over again, shown in a way that makes it seem 100% true, they will end up believing it themselves. Men in media constantly express the same opinion, that being male is better and women are important for appearance and not much else.
The most dangerous part about this is women end up believing it themselves, not only men. Women feel much worse about themselves, in that they don't think that they are as important as men, if at all. They are influenced to think that they don't matter, and so never are able to do anything as they believe that they can't. They think that their only importance is how they look, so even if they are in a place where hey can do something, they are too busy worrying about what media has them to worry about. Media causes for us to believe in the opinions of others, as we are shown them as fact, rather than follow our own beliefs.
I agree media plays a huge role in delivering messages. Media plays a big role in influencing individuals, and those individuals usually end up mirroring the messages displayed in the media. Now this becomes a chicken and the egg type of a discussion. Obviously those ideas come from somewhere, people. Then that would place the root of our problem on humans themselves because we are the ones sending those messages through the media, and we should have better control over what we allow in the media. On the flip side we could also blame media because they are the direct cause of influencing a majority of people, and it is a direct cause for a majority of our problems. However, we cannot rule out the influence the people in our lives have on us.
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