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10/29/2019 Chapter 3: Culture and Media

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Media Effects In considering the media, mass culture, and subcultures, we can plot the media’s effects in a two-dimensional diagram, as shown in Figure 3.1. The vertical dimension indicates whether the effect is intended (i.e., deliberate) or unintended. The horizontal axis depicts whether it is a short- or long-term effect. A short-term, deliberate media effect (section A in the illustration) would be advertising. As a kid, you may have watched Saturday morning cartoons; watch them now and keep track of the number of advertisements for children’s food. A child today might see an ad for Cocoa Puffs and that same afternoon go grocery shopping with his or her parents. That child is possibly on a sugar crash from an early-morning bowl of Super Frosted Mega Marshmallow Crackle Blasts and is really clamoring for a box of Cocoa Puffs. The advertisers timed it just right, with the pressure on Mom or Dad to buy that cereal.

Figure 3.1 Media Effects

Section B of Figure 3.1, on the other hand, represents a deliberate, long-term media campaign. Here, a single theme is reinforced through repeated exposure, as in public service announcements or when Sesame Street repeats counting and spelling to help educate children. Sesame Street was created with the intent of providing educational programming for low-income children who didn’t have the same opportunities for day care and preschool as their wealthier peers and it works! This type of campaign is generally used by not-for-profit organizations to educate the public. Other examples include Smokey the Bear (created in 1944, “Only you can prevent forest fires”), Woodsy Owl (created in 1970, “Give a hoot, don’t pollute”), and the “This is your brain on drugs” commercials from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America (the original fried egg aired in 1987, and the sequel frying-pan smash aired a decade later). In a new public service announcement from the Ad

10/29/2019 Chapter 3: Culture and Media

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Council—the nonprofit behind ad campaigns like Smokey the Bear—the advertisement reads “You don’t want them responding to your text” next to an ambulance (Ad Council, 2018). Other recent campaigns focus on sexual harassment, suicide prevention, and health problems like type 2 diabetes. Of course, not all attempts at deliberate, long-term

effects are a success. Often, an issue must be framed as a problem before solutions can be advocated, and that can take a long time in a media campaign. For instance, various environmental groups have advocated for taking measurable action to reduce the release of greenhouse gases. However, only in 2013 did the Environmental Protection Agency feel it had enough support in Congress to propose greenhouse gas emission limits for power plants. Section C of Figure 3.1 represents media with short-

term, unintended consequences. An example might be when teenagers play violent video games and then go out and commit crimes almost identical to those portrayed in the game or when a kid listens to heavy metal music with violent lyrics and then commits a school shooting. You hear of such events every so often, and sometimes the media’s creator will use the defense that the short-term response was not intended. In an interview, for example, the software producer or musician might be asked, “Did you know that your music is causing teenage boys to commit violent crimes?” And the response will be, “That is not my intention at all. I use violence as a metaphor.” Scientific research hasn’t yet ruled definitively one way or the other on this controversial subject, but many believe that the media occasionally have short-term, unintended effects. Finally, section D of the illustration represents the

long-term, unintended effects of the media. Many people, not just cultural conservatives, argue that we have been desensitized to violence, sexual imagery, and other content that some people consider inappropriate for mass audiences. In the film industry, for example, the Production Code, also known as the Hays Code, was a set of standards created in 1930 (although it wasn’t officially enforced until 1934) to protect the moral fabric of society. The guidelines were fairly strict, and they were a testament to the mainstream ideologies of the time (see the box on pages 106–7). Slowly, however, the power of the code began to erode because of the influence of television and foreign films and the fact that being condemned as immoral didn’t prevent a film from becoming a success. In 1967 the code was abandoned for the movie rating system. Over time, we have grown accustomed to seeing sexually explicit material in films, on television, and on the internet. Those who lament this desensitization seek to reinstitute controls over media content.