Can the media change the way I view myself and others?
Of Media and Roses By Joie Ha
A memory: I tied the blanket around my neck and skipped up the stairs. I just finished watching the latest episode of the Power Rangers and I was going to pretend I was the pretty pink crime-fighting one. The Power Rangers didn’t have capes, but I thought it was cool and it was such a classic superhero outfit. As I reached the seventh stair, I twirled around and jumped off screaming, “Go, Go, POWER RANGERS!” As I landed, I fell on my ankle and started crying. In the end, I didn’t break or sprain anything, but after a couple of minutes I bounded up the stairs again, determined to finish my re-enacted of the Power Ranger episode. These days, it’s my 6 year old brother that is the pretend Power Ranger and I’m the bad guy that gets beaten by the marvelous red ranger. I laugh at these funny times we have, but I worry about how much more the media can influence this world. I wonder whether my brother will become a person without his own opinions, or become a victim of something similar to Columbine. Maybe he will become an individualist outspoken against the media influence or he could decide to join the war that might wage in the future similar to the Iraq war we are experiencing today.
The media today influences almost everyone across the country. More than 8.5 million people have cosmetic procedures in the U.S.A. every year amounting in a total of $12.4 billion. An average of 10 million girls and 1 million boys have eating disorders. 80% of 4th grade girls have gone on a fad diet. Many people have seen models and thought how skinny and gorgeous they were. The truth is the average weight of a model is 23% lower than the average woman. Many people are insecure due to the shallowness of our media. In magazines today the main articles are about beauty and how to diet. They portray the message of what is beautiful and what is hideous. Commercials on the TV advertise creams and hair products playing on the population’s insecurity. By the age of 21, people have seen an average of 1,000,000 commercials. Along with this, the media manages to convince people that the world is a horrible place and every other stranger you meet can rape and murder you. Even in the news most of their stories relate to the recent crimes committed. Magazines talk about horror stories of gruesome kidnappings of normal children. The drama C.S.I. shows viewers a variety of murders, rapes, and kidnappings happening at the very least once a day. The current war going on in Iraq has convinced Americans that all people who look of Middle Eastern descent are terrorists. In the news they display the Iraqi soldiers are ruthless although the Americans have displayed the same actions. The media influences everyone from boys to girls to the old and the young.
“Seems every station on the TV
Is selling something no one can be” – Anti-flag
The media is a large part of who we are as a whole, although the media is not all that bad. There are companies out in the U.S.A. fighting to boost the population’s self-esteem. The Dove campaign for real beauty describes how everyone is beautiful I their own way. The horror stories of rape and murder also have an optimistic side. They show how every happy moment should be cherished and how it is imperative to live each day to its fullest. They show how some other countries suffer and have us realize how lucky we are. Even though it is not often, there are little snippets of inspirational stories in the newspapers. These articles show that there are good people out in the world and that not everyone is a villain. Away that helped open my eyes to how Americans treat and stereotype Middle Eastern people is the Hollywood film Flightplan. In this movie, the main character played by Jodie Foster searches for her missing daughter. At the sight of a couple of Middle Eastern passengers she claims she saw them before, therefore they must have her daughter. That scene, no matter how short, showed me how judging we were. The media does not only influence bad things in our media, it helps us realize the importance of a high self-esteem and of life, and it also opens our eyes to the stereotypes we suffer.
“There is nothing ugly; I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be
What it may, --light, shade and perspective will always make it beautiful.” – John Constable
I hope, in the end, my brother becomes a smart individualist, though it really isn’t my choice to decide. I can help though. I can learn to balance the good and the bad of the media and guide my brother to do the same. We need to understand how the world is not perfect and learn to live every day as if it were the last. We need to be able to understand how the world is not perfect, and learn to live everyday as if it were the last. We need to be able to be informed about the current war and to not stereotype people. A balance of the good and bad of the media are needed in a person’s life for them to be more successful. This way our nation will not be as shallow and the population will learn how to respect the others and themselves. The media is like a rose. It has thorns that hurt the people with its war stories and perfect models, and it has its petals that show us the real beauty in a person and that teaches us to live our lives to the fullest.
