The Virtual Record of My Opinionated Rantings

Media...what is media? (You are probably reading this and wondering why I'm bothering with such a stupid hypothetical question, seeing as the only people who may read this are in my class on the subject, but bear with me.) I tried defining the term myself in a clear and concise manner, but I failed miserably. As a result, like any good Gen Y-er, I went to Google for the answer.
Among other things, media is defined as, "A vehicle or group of vehicles used to convey information, news, entertainment, and advertising messages to an audience." Now that I had a proper definition to work with, I could really wow the Internet!

Like it was supposed to, this got me thinking about what this mysterious being is and how it impacts me. Then I realized I am too strong of will and mind to be impacted by such things (that was sarcasm. I felt I should point this out seeing as it's in writing and not in person), so I focused more on the effect it has on my sisters.

My sisters, Kara and Lauren, and 12 and 10, respectively, and I love them to death. They are also heavily influenced by the media, specifically the pop-tween genre (don't Google that term, I just made it up). They have their Jonas Brothers T-shirts from the $100 a ticket concert they went to, they own copies of every High School Musical movie and like to sing and dance like prostitots the girls in the movies. They love Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana (which they tell me are two totally different musical styles and attitudes) and they use Disney’s made-up slang.

I finally learned that there is actually a name for this phenomenon. My sisters, as young and short as they are, are models. Well, they participate in modeling, a behavior in which they take on the behaviors, clothing, and sometimes even speech patterns that the media tells them are preferable. Don't get me wrong; if my sisters are going to be influenced by what television calls cool, I'd much rather they get their influence by some teenage boys wearing purity rings or a teen star who just wants people to like her for who she is.


As dangerous as it is, I started thinking more. "Self," I said, observing how ridiculous it was to talk to myself at 2AM, "if Kara and Lauren, who are so young and who are only exposed to a select amount of media, can exhibit this behavior, what would happen if I took a closer look at my peers?"

While waiting for my room mate to fall asleep after that odd awakening, I figured out the answer. While my sisters and their friends may blatantly model themselves after Disney stars, my political circle definitely proves that we only hear what we want to, but we let what we want to hear influence us by giving more fuel to the fire of our political fervor.

My conservative friends get their news from Fox News, while the more liberal among them tend towards internet sources (blogs, The Daily Kos, and other such sites). In most arguments between these groups, the respective side will quote verbatim from the canon of their particular news source. In 9 cases out of 10, these supposed "news bites" will be more biased than [insert something really biased here].

I suppose that all I'm trying to say here is that the media holds great power over our nation, specifically the future of it. This power is a responsibility, though they seem to treat it like a toy at times. I never thought I'd write an argument where Disney ends up acting infinitely more responsible than the people giving us the news.

Oh well, there's a first time for everything.