Burne’a Cothrine

Silverblatt

CNN.com

News article:

Study Links TV to Teen Sexual Activity

The way the world views basic morals and values of society is reflected through media presentations, especially news. People view the news as a slice of life, as well as adopting the agenda that the news set forth in their media presentation. In Keys to Interpreting Media Messages it states a definition by Russel B. Nye in describing popular culture in helping to understand the worldview in media presentations. It states “Popular culture describes those productions, both artistic and commercial, designed for mass consumption, which appeal to and express the tastes and understanding the majority of the public, free of control by minority standards. They reflect the values, convictions, and the patterns of thought and feeling generally dispersed through and approved by American society”. This quote alone can thoroughly break down the use of worldview through media messages. In a news article from CNN it describes a fundamental worldview of the media and how it affects society. The title of the article says, “Study Links TV to Teen Sexual Activity.” The article starts of blaming television for affecting adolescents in a negative manner. The article reveals three elements that the Keys to Interpreting Media Messages make clear; the worldview, cultural ideologies, and the fallacies in the study.

Although media sets the agenda for what society deems important, contradictorily the worldview considers the media as a mass evil or poison as well as depend on the media to become the “nanny” to society concerning children. In the article It discusses a study on 1,792 adolescents from 12-17. The article stated that teenagers who watch a lot of television with sexual content are twice as likely to engage in sexual activity as those who do not watch as much television. What kind of world is depicted through this media presentation? This question is the underlying question to reveal the worldview perspective through this media presentation. The worldview of media in the case of this article depicts the media as a negative tool for adolescents if they watch television to much; therefore, suggesting that too much television is bad.

In Keys to Interpreting Media Messages it discusses cultural ideologies in media presentations, it states that “ideology is inherently political, containing assumptions about how the world should operate, who should oversee this world, and the proper and appropriate relationships among its inhabitants”. This directly pertains to the article because it demonstrates the assumption that television plays two roles. The first role is a assuming that everything on television should be taken seriously, and secondly, that the television is supposed to raise children. The problem with this is that the television was never meant to act as a “nanny” nor should anything seen on television be taken seriously enough that it allows adolescents to become manipulated. As the book mentioned before this article attempts to shape the thinking of the media audience by promoting the ideology that that because individuals consider television as a teacher/nanny, then the amount of sexual connotation should become limited during primetime television.

The study in this article endeavors to incorporate the worldview of society; however, the presentation contains a mass amount of vagueness that reveals fallacies in the article itself. The amount of unknown variables in the article indicates the persuasion of a worldview. Several questions arise when reviewing the highlights of the study through the article. Some variables include demographics. The only revealed demographic in the study is the age of the adolescents; but, the race, religious orientation, geographic region, and sex has been left out. Another suspicion about the study is the sample itself. The study according to the article never indicates where the sample has been drawn from and how it has been drawn. Because the article reflects the worldview it fails to recognize realistic statistics and standards. Because of the bias amount of information given, it strengthens the affect of “cultural control” having the audience believe that television is a strong cause in the sexual activity amongst teens. In the case of the article, the study is used as a representation of reality, therefore supporting the dominant ideology.

In the Article, the worldview of how television affects sexual activity among teens is supported by a study that thrives off of cultural ideologies as well as vague elements to perpetuate a worldview that parallels what America believe as truth. This truth directly reflects the definition of popular culture as defined by Russel B. Nye.