Mass Media and Mass Taste (p. 119)

My mother is what you would call overprotective. When I am watching "How I Met Your Mother" (which is SUCH a funny and great show) and they make a reference to sex or something else my mother deems to be "inappropriate" she insists that I either turn off the TV or change the channel. A request that I believe is stupid since I am almost 18 (in 5 months I will be :)) and it actually isn't inappropriate, but I guess behavior like this is why I call her overprotective. 


But let's, for the sake for this blog, cut her some slack. Media has changed some of it's focus. Now there are shows such as Jersey Shore, which glorifies getting drunk and sleeping with random people. The cast goes out and parties almost every night and acts like fools promoting behavior parents wouldn't necessarily want their kids to partake in. Kids movies now have more sexual and drug references in them too. Most of the references are subtle and I feel like they are in there to help entertain the parents during the movie but they are still in there. 


Now a days kids are getting involved with more inappropriate things sooner. Much of these shifts in morality and values are most likely due to the images media is portraying. If media is the cause of relaxed morals than maybe parents should monitor what their kids are watching. Because media, especially TV and movies, have wiggled its way into most peoples life and has a way of manipulating facts and images it has a major effect on peoples perception. 


But the question is whether societies values evolved changing media or was it media that chanced values? If society wasn't ready for Marilyn Monroe to come out with naked photos they wouldn't have accepted her and she wouldn't have gone on to be successful. I think the values portrayed in media probably comes before societies outward acceptance of the changing value. But the media isn't portraying values that society isn't ready to accept. 


Sorry I posted late. I feel asleep while reading the packet and then once I woke up I had to finish the reading and then it was dinner and then I posted. :) Sorry...