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Ap Mass Media

Decent Essays

Mass media, simply put, is just another form of communication. We see it as ads, newspapers, the internet, and over the radio.It reaches large audiences around the world, and plays a significant role in modernization, especially in America. It's imperative to understand the impact of mass media on youth and adolescence, as these groups are often the most impressionable - making them easy targets for large corporations.Right now, not many companies are using their platforms In fact, more children are exposed to PSAs than teens (Source A), meaning it's important to closely monitor what's on the screen, and what message is being conveyed through these advertisements.The issue is the same for teens as well. Around the time of puberty, teens are …show more content…

Since the dawn of radio, large corporations have exploited this vulnerability by spending large amounts of money on advertisements aimed at convincing youths and teenagers that they need their products in order to be happy. When successful, these corporations unrealistic expectations of the value of consumer products, as they convince children they will find happiness through obtaining the latest Power Ranger action figure or eating a Big Mac. The graph (Source A) demonstrates how media is targeted at various types of audiences segmented by age, like kids, teens, and adults. It is particularly telling that commercial advertisements about foods are particularly geared towards children. This may be because children are the most impressionable in this area, or this may be because children at that age develop lifelong eating habits. One would expect children to have too little purchasing power to make their own food choices, Benady suggests a possible rationale for this targeting: children have a substantial “pester power” to pressure their …show more content…

It shows a young girl being easily influenced by an ad,thinking it's “normal” to have junk food all the time, illustrating the absurdity of what actually buying into these corporate messages aimed at children would entail. However, a turn to this argument would be that children are also “strongly influenced” by food marketing environments, which actually “supports, rather than undermine” the healthy food marketplace and is positively influential on youth in America.The issue to this argument is that it's still imperative to have some sort of restrictions on what shows up on our TV screens. We still see more ads for Arby's burgers dripping with oil than we do fresh veggies and whole

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