However, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which was established in 1970, used the movie satirically to aid in the reform of marijuana policy. The film, in the 1930s, was considered an “unabashed propaganda film,” but has now turned into a “cult classic” (Armstrong). From the release of the movie in 1936 to now, there have been almost a hundred movies containing frequent use of marijuana, usually in a fun or comical light to make it seem less harmful to the American public. Its popularity in the television community has dramatically increased as the casual use
In “America,” Hoagland uses metaphors to illustrate the growing influence of consumerism, capitalism, and most of all the greed that rules the modern American society. Consumerism is a modern day blessing and a curse for America. Consumerism is the theory of society’s preoccupation with consumer goods. This is evident in the beginning of “America.” Hoagland writes, “Then one of the students with blue hair and a tongue stud/ Says that America for him is a maximum-security prison/ Whose walls are made of RadioShack’s and Burger King’s, and MTV episodes/ Where you can’t tell the show from the commercials.” Here, Hoagland lists the details of American “trendiness” by mentioning hair color and body piercings. Also, Hoagland describes modern day businesses like Radio Shack, which market and sell consumer based goods, and fast food restaurants like Burger King that gives super-sized food portions.
The media only portrays the teenagers as the bad guys regardless whether an adult was involved in that action or case; the headlines always include the word teenager. If an adult pays a teenage girl to have sex is called teenage prostitution. Or a teenage girl getting pregnant by a 20 year old male is called teenagers getting teenagers pregnant. The same concept comes in account when violence is talked about. Even though stats say something else, the media automatically portrays the teenagers as the bad guy.
In other words the sensationalism of serial homicide equals money. In Jenkins article, “…journalistic practices in the 1980s were marked by a growing trend toward sensationalism, and the growth of what has been described as a tabloid approach to news gathering, so that we would expect and acceleration in the spiral of crime reporting” (Jenkins, 1994). These media patterns only show how much the issue of serial homicides is embedded into our pop culture or genre and how there is “no news like bad
If rock music is all about drugs, sex and alcohol then why do we listen to it? The answer to these questions is simple. These are all stereotypes fabricated by the media and accepted by society. The media plays an important role in stereotyping due to its ability to access privileged
Schlosser then goes into discussing the callous illegal immigrant labor that takes place in strawberry fields of California. He doesn’t primarily focus on one individual case; however, the detail of the harsh work and living environments leave a lasting mental image of what the workers had to endure to make a measly buck. The final essay in Schlosser’s book discusses the founder of the pornography industry, Reuben Sturman, and the many trials and tribulations the U.S. government brought upon him. All three of Schlosser’s essays put the U.S. government in the forefront, showing all the ways that government intervention did not seem to be in the best interest of society. Reefer Madness The first focus of Schlosser’s book spotlights on the booming business in marijuana cultivation.
Sexy Sells Sex is everywhere in our society. It is on the television, radio, billboards, magazines, and basically everywhere you look today. Advertising has a great influence on what men and women buy, what they wear, and how they look, but is that always a good thing? "Pornography is more dangerously mainstream when its glorification of rape and violence shows up in mass media, in films and television shows,in comedy and music videos, and in advertising" (272.) Jean Killbourne, author of "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt", has a very strong opinion of women being used for sex appeal, and that is that advertising has reached a point where bodies are portrayed as objects therefore normalizing attitudes that lead to sexual aggression.
In his first essay “Reefer Madness”, Schlosser looks at the marijuana industry in the United States. Marijuana is very popular in American society, yet it is something that the government punishes harshly. In “Strawberry Fields”, Schlosser writes about migrant workers in California, who are mostly illegal immigrants from Mexico. In “Empire of Obscene”, Schlosser writes of the rise of the pornographic industry. Pornography, once a taboo market in the United States, now a popular form of
Abercrombie Zombies I believe that the popular American clothing store Abercrombie and Fitch is much to blame for turning American teens into a group of clones. They use subliminal advertisement to get into the minds of today’s youth and make them think that they have to spend every dime they have in order to look cool at school. The teen psychology is very prone to conformity and Abercrombie takes advantage of this through the use of their very sexual advertisement and magazines. They also make kids think that it is alright to make fun of different cultures with their “comic” tees. The extreme overpricing of their clothing is shameful.
Pornography Is Harmful To Women and Children Let it be known that the purpose of this paper is to argue that pornography is harmful to society, but more specifically women and children. Unlike any other media representation of sex and sexuality, pornography within our postmodern society has become a cultural category of significance. The typical seediness has somewhat become lost but replaced by a society that mainly focuses sexual imagery in almost everything everyone sees. High contents of sexual imagery is used in the advertising and music industries as well as a number of late night television shows. This sudden shift in people’s attitudes towards the use of certain sexual and erotic images in today’s society raises a number of questions that need to be answered in order to better understand the harms it does to society.