Page 248 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2
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Med a and the Cr s s of Values |
movie stars such as Rudolph Valentino or Mae West, or the glorification of vio-
lence in gangster movies and pulp fiction. This theory, however, was not based
on actual sociological data and, in its simple form, has been largely discredited
by subsequent empirical research.
After World War II, however, more scientific studies of the media in Europe
and America, using controlled experiments, interviews, and other sociologi-
cal methods, found that people were much more selective in their media usage
than previously thought, tending to pay attention to and remember the media
messages that were more consistent with the personal values and attitudes they
already held. Conservative or liberal citizens would read magazines and news-
papers and listen to radio messages that reinforced their political viewpoints.
Media theorists concluded that most media messages, rather than forming or
changing public values and attitudes, tended to reinforce those already in place.
It also became clear, on the basis of the sociological research, that the mass
media represented only one of many influences on an individual’s opinions, at-
titudes, and behavior. The media’s messages are always competing with the in-
fluence of family, friends, coworkers, religious leaders, and educators, as well as
many popular role models and opinion leaders. Meanwhile, according to these
“limited-effects” theorists, the general consensus of public opinion in Ameri-
can society exerts a centripetal pull towards a common set of values—ideals of
financial success, family solidarity, respect for the law, and other “respectable”
attitudes and behaviors—to which both mainstream and marginalized members
of society pay allegiance. The mass media, in their search for as large an audi-
ence as possible, strive to reflect that consensus.
The cultural revolution of the 1960s, however, challenged both this view of a
naturally developed “American consensus” and the role of the media as a mere
reflection of the values of the culture. Many experts began to ask whether, rather
than reflecting social values, the media actively shape public attitudes and opin-
ions and create cultural meaning. They also claimed that the values thus created
by the media tended to benefit the socially, financially, and politically powerful
while marginalizing and disempowering the poor and powerless members of
society. They pointed, for example, to the massive amounts of advertising and
media depiction of such addictive and health-threatening products as tobacco
and liquor (while other substances, such as marijuana, were represented as dan-
gerous and socially disapproved) as well as fast food, airline travel, and other
products and services that are harmful to the environment and personal health.
They pointed to the coincidence of the campaigns on behalf of gas-guzzling
automobiles in post–World War II America with the major legislation for
interstate highway construction, the decline of support for public transportation
in most urban areas, and the growth of the energy industry. They demonstrated
many similar connections between the media promotion of certain messages
and the financial interests of large corporations and their political allies.
This depiction of the media as actively creating and promoting social atti-
tudes was reinforced by the findings of other researchers, who studied the long-
term reinforcement of certain values and attitudes through a steady, consistent
presentation of a message in a specific direction. The portrayal of minorities