Relationship between media and popular culture

Culture and the Media: An Unbreakable Connection

Culture is reflected in movies and television by the way people look, dress, act, believe and the things they buy. Popular TV shows and movies are known for starting many pop culture trends. For example, "Episode 8 of the NBC sitcom Friends introduced the celebrated 'Rachel haircut' to audiences across America. Within weeks, hair salons were bombarded with requests for the bouncy layered hairstyle" (Rekulak & Spangler, 2006, p. 47).

People often look to the media for fashion and style inspirations, new music to download and quirky catchphrases to say. However there are more serious sides to the way culture is reflected in movies and television as well. For example, when people of certain races are stereotyped repeatedly in TV and film, this can shape the way people view that race in real life. Then again, when stereotypes are broken, for example in The Cosby Show in which the African-American family was headed by a doctor and a lawyer, this can help to dispel certain stereotypes.

This shows that media can work both ways when it comes to its influence on culture. It can have positive effects and it can have negative effects. One of the primary negative effects that is often associated with the media is violence. Many people claim that violence in the media translates to violence in real life. There have been numerous studies connecting violent behaviors with violent acts that are shown on TV and in the movies. As a result there have been many people actively protesting media violence, blaming it for many of the problems in our country. In fact, according to Gunter et al. (2003) "the setting up and organization of consumer action groups to lobby against the showing of violence on television has almost become a growth industry in itself" (p. 165).

Similar protests have occurred in regard to violence in video games. Video games are now required to put ratings on them, just like movies are required to do, if they contain violent, sexual or drug related content. Video games with the "M for Mature" rating are not supposed to be sold to minors, for fear that their minds will be warped and they will become part of a subculture of deviants. The major concern is the effect of violence, due once again, to studies that show a connection between watching violence and participating in it. For example, Bushman and Anderson (2002) conducted as study in which they determined that playing violent video games can "engender hostile expectations, leading one to expect that others will respond aggressively" (p. 1679).

The Grand Theft Auto series of video games has undoubtedly been a major instigator in the backlash against the gaming industry. Not surprisingly, most parents are not too thrilled about the idea of their children taking on the persona of a character who commits crimes to earn rewards, and runs over prostitutes so he doesn't have to pay them. There was also a major parental backlash against the PS2 game Bully before it was released, because parents assumed that it would glorify bullying. The frenzy turned out to be unfounded as the game was actually very tame and did not advocate bullying at all. However, anyone watching the news lately can see that bullying has become a major issue of interest in our modern culture.