Manipulation by the Media

The greatest form of conditioning is repetition. This is further put forth by imagery and putting forth information in a subtle way. According to researches by the Glasgow Media Group, media messages are full of connotative codes that evoke emotion and feelings in a person. The most common example of media conditioning is seen by the issue of gender representation in media. Media reinforces capitalists’ ideologies as advocated by Marx. He says that the mass media in every form reinstates females in a passive role and men in an active role. Even children’s books and stories follow the same theme. Disney movies have also reinforced this ideology that females no matter how strong mentally must await their Prince Charming who will sweep them off their feet and give them endless happiness. According to Marxist feminists, this conditioning reinforces women to wait for men to provide for them and remain good home makers instead of fighting for their rights in the work force. The Glasgow Media Group also talks about agenda setting being a common practice in media corporations. Agenda setting involves specific media content being tailored to match elitist perspectives. For example, newspaper editors under Rupert Murdoch tell stories about Murdoch’s telephone calls to direct the content of the front page.

Even if we set aside the blame on media corporations for setting content of their media, the journalist are not free of blame. Journalists of major corporations are trained to specifically broadcast a certain type of message across to the audience. Their style of reporting impacts the public very much. This can be seen in the aftermath of the Iraqi War where many American journalists roamed around with the US Army, reporting the conditions of the Iraqi’s but at the same time from behind the US Army hence never negating their image of freedom fighters irrespective of the views of the Iraqi civilians.  It is not only the news that impacts the people but also subliminal messages in movies, books and magazines. The influence of media is not restricted to reinforcing social norms but also to simply offer a different perspective that can be used negatively or positively by the audience. The influence of media is best illustrated by the headline of Observer International, Sunday 18^th November, 2001, which blamed the movie ‘Scream’ for influencing a teenage girl’s copy cat murderer.