The Mass Media and Its Place in our Culture
| By: Dr. Ted Baehr; ©2000 |
| Dr. Baehr explains how the mass media has replaced thinking in our culture. Should you be concerned? If so, what can you do about it? Dr. Baehr explains. |
THE MASS MEDIA AND ITS PLACE IN OUR CULTURE
The famous German philosopher Martin Heidegger concluded that “an intellectual thinks about thinking.” To which the late, great Dartmouth professor Scott Craig responded, “A genius thinks about thinking about thinking.” And, there is the rub with culture, civilization and worldview. There are profound ethereal concepts requiring that one reflects on the intangible that most people avoid. We are too busy, or distracted by the media. Thinking takes time, but our time is taken up by the media.
The mass media of entertainment has become our culture.
We buy designer products that we don’t need. For instance, many years ago, I was friendly with the owner of one of the leading perfumeries. His company sold brand name perfumes which cost pennies to produce for tens and even hundreds of dollars based on the nuances of his mass media marketing. Another friend manufactured dress shirts. He said that his company manufactured the same shirt for the low budget discount stores as they manufactured for Brooks Bros. The only difference was the label and the price, which was based on nothing more than promotion and advertising techniques.
Our news entertains us; our sports figures entertain us; entertainment is everywhere; but, just as Toto exposed the elderly Wizard of Oz, when you pull back the entertainment industry curtain, you find only a few entertainment companies and the several old men who control our dreams, our thoughts and our desires.
The impact of the mass media of entertainment on our culture has been tremendous. The American dream has turned into the Hollywood nightmare.
Although the majority of people are concerned about the influence of the media, most have very little desire to regulate their media consumption. Therefore, this ephemeral topic is one of the most important we can consider.
How does it shape us? What does it mean for our future? And, how do we get a grip on young lives that have been negatively transformed by the media? The Media-Wise Family™ video series will explain just that, and help you to understand the media in a way that will pull the end teeth of its negative influence without marginalizing its enjoyment.
You owe it to your children to help them become media-wise by ordering The Media-Wise Family™ four part video series today.
(Check at www.movieguide.org for further information.)
