Since the turn of the twenty-first century, many societal changes have taken place. Old fashion tendencies have become irrelevant and societal boundaries are nonexistent. Cultural advancements such as women’s rights, gay marriage, abortion, and other controversial issues are now accepted among most members of society. As old-fashion boundaries are falling from beneath our feet in today’s progressing society, man struggles with determining his identity as an individual and as a group. The television series, “House, M.D.,” serves as a dilemma in which the detective, Gregory House, struggles with determining his conclusions about society and the nature of man. The show itself stems from the roots of the detective fiction genre. Traditional detective fiction served society in that it highlighted cultural anxiety towards the unknown as well as poverty. Now that these are not relevant issues, modern day detective fiction, such as “House, M.D.,” has adjusted its themes into a demonstration of society’s needs. Viewers can come to their own conclusions based on House’s findings and are provided with answers on the nature of man and society.
As traditional institutions have weakened, today’s media has been charged with carrying the burden of organizing public opinion. Mass media such as fashion, news, magazines, radio, and popular television series often convey society’s views on a broad number of topics such as politics and religion. However, now American culture has become relatively accepting to many different opinions. Society no longer has a set of boundaries that are deemed ‘appropriate.’ Therefore, the reflected image in the media has become a large maze of topics and unrelated ideas. “House, M.D.,” provides a common ground for all ...
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...ake. Similar to the show’s religious references, sex in “House, M.D.” is used to represent society’s new-found openness and celebration of limitless boundaries.
House allows viewers to follow along with him in his discovery of cultural needs in today’s society. Through use of many elements from detective fiction and themes that are relevant in today’s society, House illustrates the loss of boundaries in society. The needs of society can be concluded as discovery. Man yearns to discover more about topics that have previously been inappropriate.
Works Cited
"Everybody Lies." House, M.D. Writ. Shore, David. Dir. Barclay, Paris. Fox. 17 May 2005.
“Wilson’s Heart.” House, M.D. Writ. Blake, Peter. Dir. Jacobs, Katie. Fox. 19 May 2008.
Winks, Robin. "The Scene of Crime: Detective Fiction Discovers America." The Wilson Quarterly. 9 (Winter, 1985): 148-55. Print.
The Breaking Bad television series has been memorable to viewers due to its diverse plot and stirring scenes. Vince Gillian incorporated Scholes matrices of power into his piece. Rhetoric has played an important roll in Breaking Bad, pathos, ethos, and logos have brought this film to another level. Allowing a sense of emotion, logic and credibility, within each episode. The series has been culturally relatable to viewers and the visually fascinating. Through narrativity the series has offered us intense plot lines and climaxes that are hard for viewers to resist and keep people watching. Through rhetoric analysis you are able to see the significance of Scholes matrices of power in Vince Gillian’s film, Breaking Bad.
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Looking the historical moment we are living at, it is undeniable that the media plays a crucial role on who we are both as individuals and as a society, and how we look at the...
Have you ever been watching a TV show and find yourself relating it to your life in some way? You might relate it to some problem that is going on in your life or some issue going on around your society. All of the sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically one day when I was watching the TV series Grey’s Anatomy. Almost seven series in, I started to realize similarities between Grey’s Anatomy and topics we have been learning about in class. I noticed ideas and concepts that related to sociology. From norms and agents to theories and structures, the series Grey’s Anatomy is a great analysis of sociology.
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One of the greatest exports of American culture is American media. American media is one of the most widely distributed and consumed cultural forms from the United States. This means that not only do Americans consume large quantities of their own media, but many other countries in the world consume American media, too. People in other countries will not interpret or understand the media in precisely the same ways that Americans will and do, nonetheless, many aspects of American culture and American reality are communicated to numerous viewers as part of the content in the media. The media is an important tool in the discussion of race, class, and gender in America. It takes a savvy viewer to discriminate between and understand what media accurately represents reality, what media does not, or which aspects of experience are fictionalized, and which elements ...
The media, including television programming, cartoons, film, the news, as well as literature and magazines, is a very powerful and pervasive medium for expression. It can reach a large number of people and convey ideas, cultural norms, stereotypic roles, power relationships, ethics, and values. Through these messages, the mass media may have a strong influence on individual behavior, views, and values, as well as in shaping national character and culture. Although there is a great potential for the media to have a positive and affirming effect on the public and society at large, there may be important negative consequences when the messages conveyed are harmful, destructive, or violent.
Television is a vital source from which most Americans receive information. News and media delegates on television have abused theirs powers over society through the airing of appealing news shows that misinform the public. Through literary research and experimentation, it has been proven that people's perception of reality has been altered by the information they receive from such programs. Manipulation, misinterpretation, word arrangement, picture placement and timing are all factors and tricks that play a major role in the case. Research, experimentation, and actual media coverage has pinpointed actual methods used for deceptive advertising. Television influences society in many ways. People are easily swayed to accept a belief that they may not normally have unless expressed on television, since many people think that everything they hear on television is true. This, however, is not always the case. It has been observed that over the past twenty to thirty years, normal social behavior, even actual life roles of men and women and media, regulatory policies have all been altered (Browne 1998). Media has changed with time, along with quality and respectability. Many Americans receive and accept false information that is merely used as an attention grabber that better the show's ratings and popularity. Many magazines and Journal reviews have periodically discussed the "muckraking" that many tabloid shows rely on to draw in their viewers. This involves sensationalizing a story to make it more interesting, therefore increasing the interest of the audience. "Along the way, all sorts of scandalous substance and goofy tricks appear, but not much mystery in the logic," (Garnson 1997). People often know that these shows aim to deceive them, but still accept the information as truth. Many times, people have strong opinions on certain topics. Yet, when they are exposed to the other side of the argument, they may be likely to agree with the opposite view. As Leon Festinger said, "If I chose to do it (or say it), I must believe in it," (Myers 1997). This is an example of Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory, which pertains to acting contrary to our beliefs. Television influences many people to change their original beliefs. It has the viewers think that the majority of other people hold the contrary idea. Once these views are presented, people have the option to hol...
There is an association between the development of mass media and social change, although the degree and direction of this association is still debated upon even after years of study into media influence. Many of the consequences, either detrimental or beneficial, which have been attributed to the mass media, are almost undoubtedly due to other tendencies within society. Few sociologists would refute the importance of the mass media, and mass communications as a whole, as being a major factor in the construction and circulation of social understanding and social imagery in modern societies. Therefore it is argued that the mass media is used as “an instrument”, both more powerful and more flexible than anything in previous existence, for influencing people into certain modes of belief and understanding within society.