Considering the cultural impact of MTV, it is necessary defining that MTV represents one of the most popular and widely spread television channels available in almost every country of the world. Therefore, the information it administers and visual content it delivers significantly shapes the cultural, social and musical tastes and preferences of its audiences. The following paragraphs will consider all the factors of this cultural influence and summarize accordingly.
Being a TV channel for a specific audience, MTV delivers a particular media content infused with a corresponding media message. In detail, it’s a musical channel for the young age categories that are identified as teenagers. Therefore, the channel promotes the values of youth in their stereotypical expression: representations of continuous parties, random emotional and sexual relationships, alcohol and even drug abuse etc. What is more important, the channel not only shows the stereotypic illustration of “contemporary youth”, but also creates a scenario for the young people to follow in case, when their life does not correspond to the images delivered by MTV (Mtv.co.uk).
MTV in its message neglects any seriousness in the life of young people. It appears more than evident that young age appears to be fundamental in shaping the character and values of a person; accordingly, the attitude towards life and behavior towards the people around are changing, as well. Correspondingly, having such one-sided and stereotypical imagination of life as an instruction, a young person can hardly become an adequate and effective member of progressive and civilized society.
Among the themes of MTV, it is necessary defining prevailing sexual content and/or partial nudity show in musical videos, TV programs and advertisements. Correspondingly, such sexual content shapes the perception of sexuality of the audiences; moreover, being impressed by the sexually appealing shapes of male and female models and actors shown on the TV screen, the teenagers start believing that their sexuality is strongly associated with their body and the shape of it. In other words, teenagers believe that their sexuality is not something that each person has initially, but a trait that needs to be achieved and/or deserved. Respectively, the sexual relationships are being reshaped. In addition, the sexual orientation appears to be of high interest for MTV; moreover, the most popular personalities shown there appear to be of untraditional sexual orientation. Certainly, the paper is not going to insult the sexual minorities in any case; however, sexual orientation on MTV is shown as an attribute or a fashionable accessory instead of just being a personal choice and preference of an individual. Thus, the viewers might appear depressed of their casual appearance and traditional sexual preferences due to the fact that they are not shown as fashionable on their favorite TV channel (Mtv.co.uk).
As for the information delivered by the channel directly, it is mostly the media news, highlighting the events of show business and life of pop-culture stars, including music and movies. In addition, this content also shows that the life of stars is the best choice for everyone because of its benefits, which makes it more appealing for the teenagers. Further, this type of life makes possible for them to become “trendy” and correspond the image of “sex symbol” depicted above. However, the channel also avoids mentioning how much effort do their stars put in themselves to achieve their current status and maintain it. In other words, MTV shows the values of easy and trendy life, simply neglecting the values of being an individual and personality along with denying the importance of working hard for their life goals.
Works Cited
Mtv.co.uk,. "MTV TV Channel Guide". N.p., 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
