Influence of Media and Popular Culture

931 Words2 Pages

Why do people believe America as a nation of freedom and opportunity? The answer is in the book called, “Lies My Teacher Told Me” by James W. Loewen, the author of “Lies across America.” This book is published by Simon and Schuster from Touchstone in October 2007 as the second edition. The whole theme of this book is to show the faulted story, and the chapter seven, The Land of Opportunity, is showing that the United States is not a land of freedom and opportunity as everyone knows. It is shocking that there are many controversies that society hides from people. Throughout the reading this chapter, I wondered why people started believed the United States as a nation of freedom and opportunity. Then I realized that the society continuously reminds us that the United States is a land with full of opportunities, and people are treated equally in here through Mass Media. “Lies My Teacher Told Me” said that textbooks and society hide and manipulate the important but negative facts to make historical characters to be heroes. It makes young children to believe what they have learned are true. Not only textbooks, but also Media and popular cultures take roles to teach wrong directions and to have stereotypes between genders.

When people think about Media and popular cultures, reality show is reminded naturally since it is popular throughout America. Media hide many truths from the people, but reality shows need censorship for youths, but some says Reality shows are just for entertaining. Moreover, Rachel Potratz, the author of “When is Reality Real?: Youth Perceptions of MTV Reality Programs,” said that reality show programs are helping youth to learn about the world by parasocial interaction when she had a survey on seventy-eight colle...

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Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. Print.

McConnell, Marla. "Media and Gender Stereotyping." Serendip. Web. 17 Sept. 2011. .

Potratz, Rachel M. "When Is Reality Real?: Youth Perceptions of MTV Reality Programs." Diss. Ohio University. Abstract. When Is Reality Real?: Youth Perceptions of MTV Reality Programs (2007). Digital Resource Commons. 2007. Web. 15 Sept. 2011. .

Rankin, Aubree. "Reality TV Study Research on Sex, Profanity and Violence on TV - Reality TV: Race to the Bottom." Parents Television Council. Web. 15 Sept. 2011. .

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