American Culture

American culture changes constantly. New ways of getting messages to people are tested every day by the way of commercials on television. When new waves of media are introduced, they tend to have a success period and then die down until a new wave is introduced. American culture values different aspects of the entertainment industry.

Music is a good way to get messages across as well. Music videos on television can help portray the messages in which are being sent. Sometimes if you hear a song on the radio you tend to get the wrong idea of what is being conveyed to the audience. There is a song by a group that discusses ‘the love of his life’ most would think he was talking about a significant other. When you actually talk to the writer of the song, it has a whole other meaning. It is really about a beer. Visually speaking you would probably never guess that was the plot of the song.

Social influences of the entertainment media can be both positive and negative. I think a lot of it has to do with the individual that interprets the message. It would also be dependent on different variables of that individual at the time of interpretation. For instance, if an individual was in an angry mood and heard a rock song, they would probably have thoughts of violence or acting out. If that same individual was in a positive mood then thoughts could be that the writer may have had a bad day and he was venting out his emotions. Visually, if you watch a movie and you are bored your thoughts are not really going to be much different than your mood. Let’s say you watched the knock off of Twilight and were bored, you wouldn’t really think much of the movie and would not recommend it. If you had a good day and were out having a good time, you might think the same movie was hilarious and would watch it again.

I think that influences have to be considered at what point in time, and how they could possibly be different if the situation was different. As individuals we tend...