Good Example Of American Media Culture1 Research Paper

Media and Culture

When we relate media into our culture, we are referring to the influence of mass media to our society. It is the way media which includes television, radio, and the internet affect the daily life of the people. However, this effect varies from country to country. Since we are talking about culture media, it still depends on how cultures work and how media mixes into the process of practicing it. In this paper, we will look into American, Saudi Arabian, and Turkish culture media. This aims to describe and analyse the effect of each media into its own culture. By the end of the discussion, we will try to compare each to one another.

The American media culture mostly represents the westerner’s society that emerged as the mass media become famous. In Joy Sperling’s Reframing the Study of American Visual Culture: From National Studies to Transnational Digital Networks, it is said that the American cultural identity is something that is not fixed, but something that continuously changes as time goes by (Sperling 27). Culture is something the constantly changes from the alterations of different cultures, meaning it always transforms as cultures coincides with one another.
Today, the American media culture is more and more focusing on the visuals of everything, from advertisements to television programs, and movies. Also, the social media adds to the ever changing foundation of American culture. Along with this, it is important that critical thinking is applied into this side of media, especially the Internet. From the arising visual culture that we have today, it is important that people does not depend only on what they see, but has to digest and criticize if what they see – or even hear – in mass media is real.
Sperling also added that the most general characteristic of American culture is its variability. It is important that students “question the ways in which the Internet (re)makes our vision” (Sperling 34), because it is the main element that affects the society and the multicultural framework of American culture. Because America is a country which houses transnational identity, it needs to flow through different nationalities. Therefore, media culture also pertains to the orientation of culture where it crosses others. American media crosses borders with the emerging defined racial identities presented in today’s media and associates it to its changing culture.

TURKISH MEDIA CULTURE2

As mentioned earlier, as cultures mixes or crosses through each other, it creates a huge impact into one’s nationality. Same with any other country, the Turkish media culture also experiences the same as it undergoes major transformation. This transformation does not only apply to Turkish media culture, but also to its economy and politics. The primary reason for this change is the “globalization and Europeanization” (Keyman 539) that has opened new doors for conflicts, recognition, and challenges. Different challenges are faced by the Turkish-politics because of the restructuring that the Turkish economy is experiencing on the basis of identity politics. It brings about questions over the revival of “Islam and Kurdish question” (Keyman 539).
Moreover, Keyman looked into the effect of this transformation in societal relations and to the social democratic or left media. Because of the progress that Turkey experiences, borders between domestic and international politics are becoming unclear. Since this capacity of distinction is lost and it is getting more complicated, tension is triggered between the two powers. Differences in religion and ethnicity also add to the conflict (540). Since Turkey’s declaration as an independent nation-state, it has tried to adapt a process of modern nation-building. This modern nation-building refers to the act of the country to be the primary actor in modernizing the state. The republican state’s aim was to attain the “level of Western civilization”. Through this, the influence of western culture to an entirely different mass is seen as huge.
Because of the transformation process, the left media must be constructive and strong in response to the process. Since the left media is said to be one of the area that somehow pushes segregation and cultural identities, it must be able to rethink in which side it will fall one. It must be able to redeem itself as an “effective medium of information and democratic deliberation” (552) because it one of the most effective mass media available for the nation.

SAUDI ARABIAN MEDIA CULTURE3

As we go through, the power of the media in agenda-setting and depicting different things is proven to be powerful. In Gerhauser’s paper about how Arab-Americans and Muslims are portrayed in mass media, she focuses on the ideologies that dominate in the frames that represent Arab-Americans and Muslims. It shows that the American media continuously define Arab-Americans and Muslims negatively. It is understood that we have to describe how media affects Saudi Arabian culture, but in this paper, it more appropriate to say how American media affects Saudi Arabian culture. Muslims and Arabians are portrayed, more often than not, as extremist and terrorists. In doing this, the media has cultured the minds of American over a “national epidemic of Islmaphobia” (Gerhauser 7). To change this understanding, it is necessary that people are provided with accurate information on how these people live.
Since the media presents a framed setting on how they live and act, Saudi Arabian culture has been marked with violence and fear. Arab-Americans are subjected to racial discrimination. It has also involved misrepresentation of their religion, Islam. News and entertainment are the most influential forms of mass media, and therefore has an easy way of promoting racial stereotyping, sexism, and imperialism. The framing of Saudi Arabian culture becomes a distraction over who plays who at the top of the political powers. The westernization of media has impacted the Saudi Arabian culture in a negative way.

CONCLUSION

If the belief that the media’s role is to create opinion and structure political powers, then it is up for the people to think critically and be able to differentiate what is subjective and what is objective. It is important that we see the mass media as one who disseminates information – factual information – and not just something that realigns our thinking to bow down the dominant powers.

Works Cited

1Sperling, Joy. “Reframing the Study of American Visual Culture: From National Studies to Transnational Digital Networks.” The Journal of American Culture 34.1 (2011). 26-35. Web.
2 Keyman, E. Fuat. “Turkey, Transformation and the Left Media.” Turkish Studies 11.4 (2010). 539-553. Web.
3 Gerhauser , Patricia Tanner. “Framing Arab-Americans and Muslims in U.S. Media.” Pss Student Paper Competition. (2013). Web.