RELATED+ISSUES


 * RELATED ISSUES**


 * The four main areas we feel the media has manipulated society with are...**

1. Imagery in the Construction of Suburbs

The media seen in the suburbs is not necessarily reflective of the ideals of the city planner. Advertisements may project imagery disregarding the increasing diversity and construct an image of ideal prospective homebuyers; western, white, middle-upper class, youthful, beautiful and part of a family. (Selling Suburbs, 6) This is theatricality; these ideals and images of life are emulated rather than reproduced. Therefore, these advertisements act like propaganda, and at the same time blur public and private space. Advertisements aim at selling more than just a commodity, they are selling a lifestyle. A house becomes a home through imagery and can be analyzed semantically. Based off cultural codes and meanings, at a denotative level, the signifiers are the bricks, windows and roof, and the signified is the house. On the connotative level, the signified is the home where the depicted house, nature, quality of life, recreation etc. are cultural codes which provide meaning when decoded by individuals. (Selling Suburbs) According to a study, marketing media consists of brochures, outdoor signs, websites, indoor signs and magazine ads in that order of popularity. (selling suburbs, 25) The marketing strategy is predominantly split into three groups: keywords, phrases and images, and they correspond to the main marketing themes of suburban media. (Selling Suburbs 25)

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2. Body Image, Materialism and Advertising

Body dissatisfaction has become a major social issue with concern to adolescents especially girls and young women. The major forces causing this increasing issue—besides parental messages and peer-related teasing—are media related images of the beauty ideal. (Grabe 460) “Across movies, magazines, and television programs, thinness is consistently emphasized and rewarded for women and thin television characters are overrepresented while overweight characters are underrepresented” (Grabe 460) The message that adolescents and young women take from what the media is presenting is this idea that being thin and materialistic will reward you with power, money, and a great life. Adolescents are very susceptible to influences from the media and their peers and the need to conform to what the media has deemed popular and trendy drives adolescents into a frenzy, trying to obtain that 'look'. So they spend more money to obtain that look and have material that justifies their popularity. For example, “compared with their counterparts in other Asian countries (e.g., Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand), youths in Singapore have the highest rates of ownership of expensive digital devices like mobile phones and digital video cameras. Many young people in Singapore admitted that they preferred designer goods and those they used material possessions as a criterion in judging others.” (Chia 401) The more exposure to advertising an adolescent has, the more likely their desire for material possession because advertising often portrays materialism as important objectives and goals one should obtain because it brings happiness and allows one to conform to society. (Chia 401)

3. Politics

A former director of communications for the Conservative government, Kory Teynecke, is “leading the bid from [Sun Media] to create a new conservative television network” (Martin). By placing a former communications director in charge of the proposed television station, Sun Media has positioned themselves not as a leader in unbiased factual news, but rather as a propaganda machine for the Conservative Party of Canada and for right-wing politicians. The government has also been taking steps to ensure that they are able to control what information is available to the media. In one example, “all media inquiries to scientists working for Natural Resources Canada must now pass through a Byzantine thicket of “subject matter experts” and the minister’s director of communications” (Cheadle). After Rob Ford was recorded saying he would buy controlled drugs for a Torontonian, his campaign team setup a fake twitter account under the guise of a George Smitherman supporter in order to attack all the candidates and to reduce the impact of this recording on Ford's campaign (Flack). The media quickly picked up the latest news item and moved on, re-assuring the public that Rob Ford was the correct candidate for Mayor.

4. Violence and Fear

Media manipulation basically involves the suppression of information and inducing topics of personal and particular interest. In a recent article regarding the health care situation in America, the media is using fear to deviate the American population from the real issues and deviating their minds to the topics they would want the public to focus on. The use of fear will always continue, as humans will constantly desire and strive to achieve that desire by any means necessary. According to one recent study, The Spanish-American war which was the sudden sinking of U.S. Battleship Maine was a cause of severe media manipulation. "The Maine added fuel to a media firestorm that was responsible for the war, even though there is eveidence to suggest that the Maine sank due to boiler explosion and not because of an attack" (Moyer). This is an example of how media used a simple case of boiler explosion to the limits of starting a national war between countries. Media influenced people into believing that the explosion was a result of attacks from Cuba while the Cubans were shown that they were being framed for a crime they did not commit. Media or the people in control of the media manipulated the minds of people of both sides and used fear and violence to achieve it's goals.