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How much does the media influence public opinion
Influence of public opinion and media
What was the purpose of the book jungle by upton sinclair
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The hypodermic needle model demonstrates the primary reason for immediate media effects. The hypodermic needle model states that often times the media can send a message to a viewer and the viewer will receive it as a credible source without any other verification (Bryant, Jennings, et al.). The hypodermic needle theory, as well as fear, are a dangerous combination. Two instances of immediate public response due to the hypodermic needle theory are Orson Welles War of the Worlds broadcast and Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle”. This combination of the hypodermic needle theory and fear was most evident during Orson Welles War of the Worlds broadcast. On Halloween in 1938, Orson Welles narrated a fictional broadcast of the War of the Worlds invasion frightening nearly one million people (Bryant, Jennings, et al.). The fear struck in the public from this broadcast cause immediate pandemonium on the streets. People flooded the streets …show more content…
heavily armed in fear for their lives that they were being attacked by an outside world. People attempted to flee the country causing major traffic jams and road rage. Most drastically, some people committed suicide thinking that it would be the easy way out of this horrible situation. All of this happened because people took in the broadcast as a credible source without realizing how unrealistic it was.
For example, it would take much longer for an army to assemble than a mere 15 minutes. People were blinded from how unrealistic these claims were because of the fear it caused them. Welles injected the idea that people's lives were endangered and they took it in their own hands from their. This effect was overwhelming strong impacting many people in a very short time frame. Another example of an immediate media effect was during the muckraking era with Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle”. Many portions of the novel were over exaggerated for entertainment; however, the jungle brought to light the horrifying conditions of the food being consumed by the public and the working conditions of the meat packing industry. The novel placed fear in the public that the food they were eating was unhealthy. At one point within the novel he even states that human beings often fall into the rendering vats and are ground into the
meat. Sinclair had a striking media effect influencing the public to push for social change. The primary purpose of his novel was to highlight the poor working conditions on the industry; however, the main effect it had was the inspection of food the public ate (Sullivan). Sinclair’s novel effected our government immensely paving the way for the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act (Bryant, Jennings, et al.). The Pure Food and Drug Act created the Food and Drug administration is designated towards making sure that the food distributed to the public is safe for consumption. This media effect was strong creating an administration that we still have in place today.
There are similarities and differences in how the authors of “American History” and “ TV Coverage of JFK’s Death Forged Mediums’ Role” use Kennedy’s assassination in their writing. The intended effect of “American History” was to entertain and show how TV news and news in general affects people. In contrast the intended effect of “Tv Coverage…” was to inform readers how John F. Kennedy's assassination affected the news. The author Joanne Ostrow and Judith Ortiz Cofer both use Kennedy’s assassination in their writing to explain how TV news affects people in a community.
Upton Sinclair, the author of The Jungle, wrote this novel to unveil the atrocious working conditions and the contaminated meat in meat-packing workhouses. It was pathos that enabled his book to horrify hundreds of people and to encourage them to take a stand against these meat-packing companies. To obtain the awareness of people, he incorporated a descriptive style to his writing. Ample amounts of imagery, including active verbs, abstract and tangible nouns, and precise adjectives compelled readers to be appalled. Durham, the leading Chicago meat packer, was illustrated, “having piles of meat... handfuls of dried dung of rats...rivers of hot blood, and carloads of moist flesh, and soap caldrons, craters of hell.” ( Sinclair 139). His description
In Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel, The Jungle, he exposes corruption in both business and politics, as well as its disastrous effects on a family from Lithuania. In a protest novel, the ills of society are dramatized for its effect on its characters in the story. The Jungle is an example of protest literature because it exposes in a muckraking style the lethal and penurious conditions that laborers lived and worked in, corruption in business and politics, and the unsanitary meat that was sold.
At the beginnings of the 1900s, some leading magazines in the U.S have already started to exhibit choking reports about unjust monopolistic practices, rampant political corruption, and many other offenses; which helped their sales to soar. In this context, in 1904, The Appeal to Reason, a leading socialist weekly, offered Sinclair $500 to prepare an exposé on the meatpacking industry (Cherny). To accomplish his mission, Sinclair headed to Chicago, the center of the meatpacking industry, and started an investigation as he declared“ I spent seven weeks in Packingtown studying conditions there, and I verified every smallest detail, so that as a picture of social conditions the book is as exact as a government report” (Sinclair, The Industrial Republic 115-16). To get a direct knowledge of the work, he sneaked into the packing plants as a pretended worker. He toured the streets of Packingtown, the area near the stockyards where the workers live. He approached people, from different walks of life, who could provide useful information about conditions in Packingtown. At the end of seven weeks, he returned home to New Jersey, shut himself up in a small cabin, wrote for nine months, and produced The Jungle (Cherny).
In 1906, socialist Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a book he hoped would awaken the American people to the deplorable conditions of workers in the meat packing industry. Instead, the book sent the country reeling with its description of filthy, rat infested plants, suspect meats processed and sold to consumers, and corrupt government inspectors. President Roosevelt became seriously concerned by the charges brought forth by Mr. Sinclair and determined the only way to protect consumers from unscrupulous business and unsafe food was to enforce regulation.
Meatpacking commenced thousands of years ago, and the safety of the meatpacking industry has been evaluated greatly since the industrial revolution in America. The history of the meatpacking industry in America, the impact of literature such as the novel of the jungle written by Upton Sinclair, the rendering and irradiation of meat, and current worker issues contribute to the horrible safety precautions as well as the awful environment involving the meatpacking industry. Meatpacking served as solely a family business up until the 17th century. As the population in America grew immensely, industry as well as urbanization created a demand for meat products. Consequently, heavy industry quickly replaced traditional practices.
“I aimed for the public’s heart, and by accident I hit them in the stomach” (Sinclair). Upton Sinclair uses these words to describe the reaction his novel, The Jungle, received upon its first publication. Sinclair’s original purpose of The Jungle intends to illustrate the difficult challenges of immigrants in Chicago at the turn of the century, giving details and samples of abuses in the Chicago meatpacking industry to highlight their troubles. Instead, the public demands government intervention against the atrocities and this public outcry leads to the 1906 Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Elements of Naturalism exist throughout most of the text.
Media is a powerful tool that can be used to influence the majority and the distortion of truth in media has a rippling effect that may prove to be dangerous. Good Night, and Good Luck is an extravagant film that exposes the truth of media. The main protagonist in the film, Edward Murrow, makes attempts to caution the audience about the power of media. In the film, Murrow says “We have a built in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information; our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses, and recognize that television, in the main, is being use to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture, too late.” (Heslov & Clooney, 2005) Which is
At the turn of the twentieth century “Muckraking” had become a very popular practice. This was where “muckrakers” would bring major problems to the publics attention. One of the most powerful pieces done by a muckraker was the book “The Jungle”, by Upton Sinclair. The book was written to show the horrible working and living conditions in the packing towns of Chicago, but what caused a major controversy was the filth that was going into Americas meat. As Sinclair later said in an interview about the book “I aimed at the publics heart and by accident hit them in the stomach.”# The meat packing industry took no responsibility for producing safe and sanitary meat.
Without the advent of the medium of film to wage a war of propaganda both the Axis and the Allies of World War II would have found it difficult to gather as much support for their causes as they did. Guns, tanks, and bombs were the principal weapons of World War II, but there were other, more subtle, forms of warfare as well. Words, posters, and films waged a constant battle for the hearts and minds of the masses of the world just as surely as military weapons engaged the enemy. Persuading the public became a wartime industry, almost as important as the manufacturing of bullets and
Many people believe that the only way to receive HIV and AIDS is through sexual intercourse. Although it can be spread through sexual intercourse without proper protection, there is a bigger issue at hand. Not only can HIV and AIDS be transferred through sex, it can be transferred through the sharing of needles. A large number of people forget that drugs are becoming a popular trend in today’s society. The spread of HIV and AIDS has increased because of the sharing of needles between drug users.Not only is it an STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease) it is a bloodborne pathogen. This is why needle exchange programs are a must have in communities like Licking County, today. Needle exchange programs are extremely helpful because it decreases the spread of HIV and AIDS.
Then, there was The Wave which was a classroom experiment gone wrong that was created by a teacher who was trying to give his students an idea of what the Holocaust was like. In this experiment, the teacher, Mr. Ross, used militaristic styles and methods of teaching like making the students stand up to speak and speak formally and shortly similar to that of a drill sergeant and much like the methods that were used in the Holocaust. All the followers looked up to Mr. Ross as Nazis did to Hitler.
With the roots taking hold, an avalanche of accusations followed for the next few months. The beliefs that helped trigger the accusation that left men, women and children abused, murdered, or left to rot in jail came from false hearsay. Arthur Miller says, it is widely assumed that hysteria approximately close to what was seen 308 years ago could never again effect out government system. Today some events call assumptions to question; in some cases we see sticking similari...
Fyne, Robert. The Hollywood propaganda of World War II. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1994. Print.
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.