Entertainment Media

Entertainment Media

Samantha A. Collins

HUM/176

January 19, 2014

James Crawford

Entertainment Media

Heraclitas once wrote, “The only thing that is constant is change.” This holds true for our visual media entertainment today. Moving pictures were brought to life in the late 1800’s. Television and film grew into a major outlet for entertainment. The internet brought a greater variety of visual media entertainment to our culture. As the culture in America grows, changes, advances, and intertwines with other cultures, so too does the content in our visual media entertainment.

There are many ways in which visual media entertainment has shaped the American culture and its values. To see where we are, we must look back at where we were. In the beginning, it was only the wealthy that could afford visual media outlets, therefor they were the popular people to know. Individuals within a wealthy home would share what they saw with neighbors and friends. Word would spread, but information would change along the grapevine of knowledge. Today, many people in low poverty homes have televisions and the capacity to watch movies. The field of visual entertainment media has leveled the playing field for all classes of Americans to be equal.

Television and cinema housed good, wholesome, family valued dialogue from modestly dressed actors. It was a safe haven of laughter and lessons. All that has changed and America seems to have grown up now. The same avenues now take a viewer to darker places portraying the seedy underbelly of life. Modesty is lost and respectful language is forgotten. Each time an issue that is considered taboo makes breaking news stories, there is a movie or television show taking its cue from real life situations.

The social influences of visual entertainment are mostly positive, but there are those that take the viewing pleasure to the limits of not only our imaginations, but also our fears. Writers and directors want to top what the others are...