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
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