Topic > The influence of the media on American culture

The media have been a part of the daily lives of American people for a long time, which is why they influence decisions and opinions about how people should live. A large part of the media that tends to begin to develop an idea of ​​how the everyday American should live is Disney. Since children are the main source of the billion-dollar Disney industry, children have become an important dimension of social theory (Giroux 1999: 65). “In this context, television emerges as a consumer-oriented medium that reflects advertisers' desire to reach young, upscale, and primarily white audiences” (Goodale 1999; Henderson and Baldasty 2003: 100). As a result, other races and ethnic groups other than white Americans are often sidelined when it comes to social media's vision of how Americans should live. For economic reasons, upper-class male citizens are the main priority of social media. White men are often seen as major consumers for the simple reason that they have greater purchasing power than women or any other group of people in the United States. For many Americans this thinking is often normal, but when looked at more deeply it is seen as a belief system that appears normal and natural but actually reinforces the superiority of certain people, practices and beliefs known as ideologies of hegemony. It means that other racially and ethnically diverse groups who are not white Americans tend to fall into the group known as the minority group. Minorities are often seen in social media as a disadvantage and are consequently advertised less in the media (Macionis 2011: 152). However, when a group of non-white people who appear in an advertisement are primarily “appearing in toke roles, limiting their visibility… middle of the paper… it's bad, and three men should have power and women should be subordinate and look good. Race, stereotypes, ethnicity and racism are everywhere in the world and it has become so normal that more often than not people tend to overlook these factors in social media. As stated earlier, the main goal of the media is to make money, as a result most white Americans are the media's main source of money. Yet in doing so, the media has segregated people based on their race and ethnicity in the types of channels and advertisements they have created. Works Cited Henderson, Jennifer Jacobs; Baldasty, Gerald J. 2003 “Race, Advertising, and Prime-Time Television” Howard Journal of Communications 2(14): 97-112. Giroux, Henry A. 1994 “The Disneyfication of Children's Culture.” Animated Youth 94(3):55-66.Macionis, John J. 2011 “The collection of intersections” Prentice hall:152