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Media influences public attitude
How society is influenced by media
Mass Media And Society
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Drugs in the Media and Society When looking at popular media such as TV, movies, and social media there are lots of stimuli drawing your attention every second. Whether it be funny cat pictures, or a celebrity going to jail, or the constant appearance of some form of drug or alcohol. Since the rise of popular media such as movies and social media, the amount of drug references and depictions of drugs has gone up significantly throughout the years. When looking at drugs in the media, they typically garner a positive image that it is the cool thing to do, and the American values such as individualism and leisure help shape this ideal. In social institutions, drugs and alcohol are strongly viewed as a negative leading to the creation of many drug resistance programs for children. Socialization has help shaped our understanding of this issue by understanding the harms it caused in the past, to lead to disseminating the idea of drug use today. To start, the media has cast a fake image of what it is like to do drugs and alcohol. “According to a study conducted in Columbia (University), people who watch R-rated movies are six times more likely to try marijuana”. This is due to the fact that in R-rated movies they are much more lenient on the use of drugs because the movie is intended for a mature audience with understanding of the effects. But movies such as Project X, 21 & Over, and 21 Jump Street show drug and alcohol party sequences that are very enticing to the teenage demographic. They are enticing because they show teens having a good time, hanging out with friends and all the crazy things that they do under the influence. Even though these movies are for mature audiences teens are impulsive and influenced fairly easily. “This l... ... middle of paper ... ... or any social media and explain the harms that go along with these substance. Then, people would understand the danger that they are putting themselves in and that it is not cool to drink or smoke marijuana. In summation, American values get placed into all forms of media: TV, movies and social media. We see that we are glamorizing the use of these drugs and drinking until you pass out. Through our media we try to represent what type of society we have and it makes a fake image of society. While, in social institutions such as schools and families they talk about being a negative, how they cause harm not to just you but everyone around us. The United States as a society is trying to build off its past and not make the same mistakes, but we are by showing what we are in movies. This why we need to stop our current culture and understand the issues of substance abuse.
The chapter, “The Social Construction of Drug Scares,” was a great example used in order to explain why the Holocaust happened. The drug scares are intended to notify the public on how bad a drug is and why to avoid it. According to Reinarman (1995), drug scares are comprised of seven ingredients: a kernel of truth, media magnification, politico-moral entrepreneurs, professional interest groups, historical context of conflict, linking the drug use to a dangerous class, and scapegoating a drug for a wide array of public problems (163-165). The three major parts that played into the “drug scare” for the holocaust are media magnification and scapegoating a drug for a wide array of public problems.
Our society today, definitely has a drug culture feel to it because of the music industry, film industry, and the overall attitude of the world helps mold the teens of today into thinking that it is okay to abuse drugs. Today, a person can rarely find a song that does not have a reference to smoking marijuana, taking prescription pills, or drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. Within films, they are producing films about having the wildest parties, drinking with all your friends, and taking drugs without thinking about the consequences. The youth of today refer to partying as getting “turnt up”, which means “thee act of getting drunk and high to thee highest degree” said by Urban Dictionary. If this is the mindset of the future of this world, then we are all in for a rude awakening and need to address these matters fast.
As a young person, seeing the media portray the the youth “party culture” and experiencing this culture is quite different. Media portrayal of drugs is often glamorous, and though teens are educated on the dangers of drug use, they are still impressionable and as a result susceptible to mimicking such behaviors. The opportunity to see these cultures first hand in two different countries is very fascinating. At sixteen years old, I spent a summer abroad in Europe, and saw firsthand youth immersed in these situations. While at a convenience store in the college town that is Hatfield, England, I witnessed a girl who was nowhere near legal alcohol purchasing age (even for Europe) being sold alcohol without any identification.
An important application is how tipping points and trend lines apply to the present status and future course of the war on drugs. According to Webster’s dictionary, a war is the “organized effort by a government or other large organization to stop or defeat something that is viewed as dangerous or bad” (Merriam-Weber’s online dictionary, n.d.). Most people will unanimously agree that drugs and alcohol are bad and at least potentially dangerous, especially in the case substance abuse. Alcohol, drugs, and synthetic substances are associated with crime, violence, moral decay, brain damage, higher high school dropout rates, a multitude of health issues, and a myriad of other societal issues. As a society, Americans actually pay a high toll for substance abuse. The bill for tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug abuse costs Americans more than $600 billion annually in areas such as crime, unemployment, loss of productivity, and health care cost ( National Institute on Drug Abuse, n.d.). Based upon these facts, it ma...
In a culture with such diverse commonalities, the differentials that set precedent come from social norms. These norms set the template for what acceptable behavior is. Being known as having a melting pot of a population we can expect that the norms are influenced through religion, values, ideas, and self views. Deviant behaviors occur when these social norms are disrupted and acts are seen to go against what we have always thought as wrong or weird. Deviance is a broad term that encompasses the idea that we know what is right from what our neighbor does. For example, trends of fashion change quite rapidly. If you don’t believe me watch shows on television that reminisce about the 70’s 80’s and so on. Today we look at what was worn in the previous decades and find it hard to imagine people dressing like this now. However, in the days that style was popular it was seen as the way to dress. Norms change to fit what the popular trend is now. Deviance likewise counters with what is unpopular. There are far more serious deviant acts than dressing from the wrong decade; they are also heavily tied to the law. Laws are more inflexible than behaviors of changing times. They are intact from the idea that if caught participating in such acts you could face serious punishment and rightfully so. Let’s take a look at one form of deviance that persisted in our culture for many years.
In recent years, marijuana seems to have become more accepted in society. Although recreational use of the drug is still illegal in the United States, it has become common to hear of teenagers experimenting with weed. It seems that teens today have an invincibility complex towards the drug and do not fear any of the risks associated with it. According to a 1994 Los Angeles Times article by Rose Apodaca, this is ironically a direct result of the teenagers’ parents, who are members of the hippie-Woodstock generation (By Design - Los Angeles Times). Teenagers see that their parents most likely smoked pot at some point or another and they turned out fine, and thus causes teens to think it is okay to use marijuana and may even consider it trendy. Teens are also prompted to use the drug as an act of rebellion, because ever since we were young, parents and educators have forced anti-drug, alcohol, and tobacco ads onto us, trying to instill in us that these substances are harmful and should not be abused. While these messages have valid points, they also unintentionally drill into young minds the first places to turn to when rebelling against our superiors. In addition, the use of marijuana and other substances is essentially adv...
For nearly one hundred and fifty years marijuana has been illegal in the United States of America. Though marijuana naturally grew in all of our fifty states, it was outlawed due the superior strength and durability of hemp rope. This threatened to replace cotton rope, which would cost wealthy cotton owners a lot of money. To this day marijuana is still outlawed in the U.S., however rope has nothing to do with it. Once slavery and the “cotton boom” were over hemp made a little bit of a comeback in a smoking form. Then, in the early 1940’s the government began releasing anti-marijuana propaganda. In the 1960’s when marijuana became popular amongst pop-culture, a movie by the name of “Reefer Madness” was released depicting marijuana users as fiends and criminals who’s normal everyday lives fell apart, and spun out of control due to the addiction to the drug. Even in the present day organizations, as well as the government, continue to try and sway people from using the substance by portraying users as irresponsible idiots. Some examples of behaviors portrayed in the commercials are: accidental shootings, running over a little girl on a bike, molesting a passed out girl, supporting terror, and impregnating/becoming impregnated. I feel that these advertisements are ridiculously tasteless and misleading. Through personal experience, surveys, an interview, and a case study I intend to prove that marijuana users do not behave in the fashion that the anti-marijuana campaign ads would suggest, and furthermore, I expect to find that the ads so grossly misrepresent the common user, even those who do not use disagree with the negative portrayals. I also challenge you to think about the suggested situations and behaviors from the commercials, I feel that you’ll see every situation and behavior in the advertisements is much more feasible to a person under the influence of alcohol than under the influence of marijuana.
The war on drugs in our culture is a continuous action that is swiftly lessening our society. This has been going on for roughly 10-15 years and has yet to slow down in any way. Drugs continue to be a problem for the obvious reason that certain people abuse them in a way that can lead to ultimate harm on such a person. These drugs do not just consist of street drugs (marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy), but prescription medications as well. Although there are some instances where drugs are being used by subjects excessively, there has been medical research to prove that some of these drugs have made a successful impact on certain disorders and diseases.
Drug in the American Society is a book written by Eric Goode. This book, as the title indicates, is about drugs in the American Society. It is especially about the misuse of most drugs, licit or illicit, such us alcohol, marijuana and more. The author wrote this book to give an explanation of the use of different drugs. He wrote a first edition and decided to write this second edition due to critic and also as he mentioned in the preface “there are several reason for these changes. First, the reality of the drug scene has changed substantially in the past dozen or so years. Second much more information has been accumulated about drug use. And third, I’m not the same person I was in 1972.”(vii). The main idea of this book is to inform readers about drugs and their reality. In the book, Goode argued that the effect of a drug is dependent on the societal context in which it is taken. Thus, in one society a particular drug may be a depressant, and in another it may be a stimulant.
Higher. This just show how people are so into tech that it takes one little
Everyday people are peer pressured and influenced into multiple unhealthy behaviors. Acts such smoking, alcoholism, and unprotected intercourse are frequent issues in any lifestyle. Friends, family, and especially the media have a way of twisting a person’s mindset into believing these unhealthy choices are safe. Currently, the most reoccurring phenomenon is issues with drugs. More often than not, there are reports on people misusing and abusing drugs, particularly celebrities and athletes.
The use of drugs and mind-alternating substances has been a part of society for decades. The ‘high’ that people attain from the use of such substances is very attractive and exciting however, the effects of this use are minimized. Particularly for youth, a group of individuals who are seeking independence and experimentation, drug use represents the balance between taking risks and taking responsibility for one’s actions. However, the developmental processes of adolescents are known to not encompass the maturity required to fully think through such decisions. As such, the use of a ‘smaller-scale’ drug like marijuana is even more minimized. The purpose of this paper is to discuss what the risks of using marijuana are for youths, why they are the most affected, how this problem has progressed over the last three decades, and what preventative measures and treatment options are in place. It will also discuss what schools, parents, and government agencies could be doing to help improve the issue, and the impact that this issue is having on society.
Illegal drug use is one of the most common problems that affect Americans every day. Joyce B. Shannon (2010) found that, “More than 35 million individuals used illicit drugs or abused prescription drugs in 2007” (p. 11). The impact can be seen in communities of all types, and people with low and high income levels. Drug use is at the root of many problems with our society. Joyce B. Shannon (2010) referenced a survey from 2004 that states, “32% of state prisoners and 26% of federal prisoners” admitted that they were currently serving jail time for offences committed while they were, “under the influence of drugs” (p. 102). The reasoning behind this issue will be explained from a psychological, sociological, and an anthropological perspective including the benefit of an interdisciplinary perspective to grasp the cause of drug use and it’s affect on society.
The first step when beginning to implement drug education in a classroom or school is for the individual that is considering the topic to deem why the implementation is important. There are three main reasons teachers have found the implementation to be important. The first reason is that students are more likely to come in contact with drugs by hearing about them, or using them. By having a program implemented into a classroom or school, it can assist individuals to gain knowledge about the topic. The purpose of this is to help individuals make healthy, responsible decisions about drugs now and in the future that will reflect the individual’s identity and morals.
The media is also influencing more people to use drugs by advertising how celebrities are going through rehab, and they are using drugs. Men and adults are affected by this, and the celebrities are influenc...