Let It Be!

I wrote this essay yesterday when I was under a great deal of pressure. It's probably not that well-written, technically speaking, but I think it's a good topic to argue about.

Since the invention of the movable-type printing press in the mid-1400s to our current day and age, the media has been in a constant state of evolvement. The industry has grown from being able to produce only a few hundred books per month on a converted wine-press, to the global empire that seems to penetrate every last corner of our lives. As long as we’re capable of reading, watching, or listening, our time will be spent consuming the media in some way or another. Without even thinking, our days are sectioned off into times in which we sleep, work, and consume the media. In a research study done in 2005 by Nielson Media Research Inc. it was discovered that, on average, a person will spend four hours and thirty-two minutes per day in front of the television. That may not sound like too much at first glance, but if we break it down it becomes a staggering statistic. Spending four and a half hours per day watching television ends up meaning that approximately thirteen years of your life is wasted away in front of the tube. What’s also interesting to note is that the same amount of time you spend watching television is spent with other forms of media, like the internet or radio.

With the media being such a pervasive part of our lives, it’s safe to assume that the content that is communicated through the media has the potential to influence us both for good and bad. When we watch a violent or disturbing movie, or listen to extravagantly brutal song lyrics, we don’t consciously make a decision to let ourselves be affected by it, yet it affects us nonetheless, whether we like it or not. If we’re being ethically responsible, it’s important to manage what media we consume and what media we avoid, knowing how it will affect us.

I submit, however, that the media is not the problem that many believe it to be. Our society is filled to the brim with people looking to blame the evils of the world on something or someone. Always looking for a scapegoat, they overlook the root of the problem, even when it may be sitting right in front of their noses. When something horrific happens, be it a school shooting or a case of domestic violence, there are those who feel a degree of satisfaction upon supposedly finding the reason for it in the form of a violent video game or movie.

Michael Medved, in his acclaimed book, Hollywood vs. America, quotes Teller, one-half of the Penn and Teller comedy duo, as he claims the media doesn’t affect our behavior as we often believe:

’[. . .]those who seem to think that if we stop showing rape in movies people will stop committing it in real life. Anthropologists call this ‘magical thinking.’ It’s the same impulse that makes people stick pins in voodoo dolls, hoping to cripple an enemy. It feels logical, but it does not take into account that rape predates home video by thousands of years.

’Zealots have long tried to prove that “evil” fiction causes wickedness in the real world. But the facts fail to cooperate…Those who want us to give up our freedom disagree. They claim people are not smart enough to tell make-believe from reality. Give us a break! When one pays seven dollars to go into a theater to see big pictures moving on a wall, one does not need to be a mental giant to realize you are watching a movie. It makes you wonder how they explain the millions of people who saw Psycho without stealing bankrolls or bumping off blondes’ (241).

Whether you agree with Teller or not is your choice—you, and only you, can decide what kind of media you want to consume, be it extremely violent, extremely kiddy, or somewhere in between. There exist opposing views stating that the media does indeed affect our behavior, that if we watch something violent on television we will spontaneously become violent human beings. And even if this theory winds up being total rubbish, we still all have our own opinions and beliefs with the ability to voice them whenever and wherever we want. However, the question stands, should content that some consider “illicit” be banned from the airwaves and bit streams?

First I’d like to consider how we naturally consume our media. As a person who thrives on his hobbies—reading, video games, movies—don’t you think that I would naturally gravitate toward the kind of media that interests me the most? For example, if I like video games, would it make sense for me to spend more time reading a fashion magazine than to pass the time reading PC Gamer magazine? Of course it doesn’t, for the media we choose to consume reflects our own interests. We won’t waste time consuming a media product when we don’t expect to gain anything from it. This process is called selective exposure (Vivian). Media censorship is a ridiculous concept because what one person considers offensive, others may find fascinating. What some of us may consider morally degrading may be entertainment for others. Imposing regulations on what people can or can’t watch is removing from people the agency to decide for themselves what’s good for them and what’s “evil.”

Due to the process of selective exposure, the fact that unfavorable media exists shouldn’t affect us, for we can simply change the channel or, if it’s a movie, check the rating or a parental guide on the internet to find out what’s in it. The fact that many of us have higher moral values than others does not give us the right to forcibly impose those values on others. Doing so would be a direct challenge on the first amendment—an inspired document written by inspired Christians.
Trying to snub out what we deem inappropriate will never change a thing, anyway. I quote Brian Lowry from his article in Variety magazine, as he explains to us how the media is an unstoppable force, and we should all just get used to its pervasiveness:

Anybody who has tracked the media through its history, though, can testify to one inexorable fact: Culture never moves backward. Standards shift and taboos fall, frequently provoking howls of protest. Once released, however, the genie can’t be squeeze back into the bottle, which is especially true now given the explosion of channels and screens—including those on desktops and hand-held devices—at the consumer’s disposal (13).

According to Lowry, the media’s affect on society will continue to increase in strength, and there’s nothing we can do to halt its powerful influence. The best we can do is understand that although content exists that we don’t necessarily agree with, we’ll always have the ability to choose whether or not we want to consume it.

We have to come to grips with the fact that despite there being millions of artists and directors and songwriters out there who produce questionable content on a daily basis, each protected by the constitution of the United States, there are also an equal number of people out there who produce favorable content as well. What if the topics of religion and family offends the aforementioned category of content producers? Do we hear them trying to censor any references to good family values on television?

I think the reason we fear the media is the fact that maybe it can be compared to a mirror-- that what we see in the media is simply a reflection of how we are as a society. It’s possible to assume that if the content we see in movies and television is becoming shadier by the day, it is because we, as a people, are following that same trend. We live in a different world than in the 1950s, when every television program painted a perfectly ideal and positive view of society.

The morally uncorrupt and religious cherish the media as a way to disperse its positive messages to the world. They never worry about whether or not their messages may be offensive to some, yet are always quick to criticize the array of messages being broadcast through the airwaves that they dislike. If we want fairness, we have to first give it, realizing that the diverseness and variety found in today’s media is a permanent element of our society, unalterable. It’s a beautiful thing, for it allows everyone to share their points of view and express themselves in the way they consider to be correct.