For decades, television is a constituent part of people’s daily lives, all over the world. More than a routine, television represents a social tool for aligning viewers on a certain pattern of thinking or seeing the perceived reality transmitted through various programs. Most people are educated in the concepts that mass media, through television as one of its main mechanisms, serve their audiences. The topics presented through television programs are a reflection of the social reality. By presenting the social reality from a certain angle, television shapes attitudes and creates stereotypes. For instance, “The Wire” television program manipulates its viewers into associating the African America population with the idea of ghetto, drug dealers, dangerous and violent individuals, shaping an attitude of fear and hatred towards this cultural group.
There are two types of television audiences, namely passive and active, wherein the viewers from the first category are easily manipulated, compliant, weak, controlled and dominated, those from the second category are engaged, involved, in control and free willed (Simmons 5). It is, therefore, facile for television to create stereotypes and determine the passive viewers to assimilate as theirs, further developing attitudes as a reaction to those stereotypes. Because of this, passive audiences are considered unhealthy media consumers, not being able to think for themselves, while the active ones are healthy media consumers, as they interpret the media messages received, ask questions and search for more perspectives instead of absorbing biased messages.
In one episode of “The Wire”, Black children who are still in school are presented as shifting their focus between school and the ghetto streets, some of them already being involved in illegal activities, such as gambling or drug dealing. In one scene, a young black man is presented as being at work, namely waiting around to sell cocaine, when three of his school mates join him, asking him to come with them to get the necessary things for school that was about to start. When the young black man asks his supervisor if he can leave with his friends, he tells him “What you need back to school stuff for?”, suggesting that black kids living in the ghetto will get no education and they all become gangsters (“The Wire”, episode 1, 16:13). With this scene, the TV series induces the audience the idea that Black people have no future and cannot get a real education, or can aspire to something more than a life on the streets, selling drugs or doing other illegal activities.
As the television programs create stereotypes that suggest that white men are good and black men are bad, people watching such programs tend to consider this reflection of reality as the actual reality. In fact, the scene described from “The Wire” TV series is solely a biased reflection of reality, the reality presented from a certain perspectives. Although the presented perspective might be real, it is not the single perspective.
While there might be Black people as the ones presented in the television programs, dangerous, drug dealers, violent, etc. there may also be respectable Black people. This is the case of the policemen from the same movie who are working hard for the wellbeing of Baltimore’s people, protecting the law and maintaining the social order. On the other hand, there are also corrupt and dangerous white people who might be involved in crimes or drug dealing actions, but the reflected reality of the television does not focus on them, putting them on a secondary level, while highlighting the wrongdoings of the Blacks. Like this, they develop attitudes about blacks and whites, attitudes influenced by the stereotypes that they assimilate while watching TV programs that focus on making the Black people look bad and the white people look good.
The “Doll Test” video is an experiment that illustrates the effects of mass media on children of many races. Black, white and Latino children were invited to take the test and they were presented with a white doll and a black doll, but also with a cartoon, portraying a little girl, who has different skin colors in different images. The children were asked to indicate which was the good doll and which was the bad doll, as well as pointing out the beautiful doll versus the ugly doll. The positive attributes were mostly associated with the white doll, while the bad attributes with the black doll. Similar results were registered in the case of the cartoon, wherein all positive attributes (smart, likable, nice) where assigned to the white skin colored cartoon and the negative attributes (dumb, disliked, bad) where associated with the black skin collared cartoon (“Doll Test”). What was surprising was that the Black children also attributed positive features to the white dolls and negative features to the white doll, although they associated themselves with the black doll, which indicates self – hatred.
“Doll Test” video demonstrates that television and other media instigate to racism and to self –hatred, inculcating the Black community the idea that there is something wrong with them, just because their skin color is darker. In contrast with this mediated reality, Mary Oliver’s “Summer Day” teaches about self – acceptance, about living in harmony and enjoying life regardless if one is a swan, a black bear or a grasshopper (“Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper” 2 - 3). Oliver tells its audience that there is nothing wrong with being a black bear, just like there is nothing wrong with being a swan or a grasshopper, because all are beings created by a sole creator to live together in a communion and enjoy their living.
Unlike “The Wire” or other television programs that creates stereotypes and negative attitudes toward African Americans and even inculcate self – hatred among blacks, Oliver’s “Summer Day” is a different type of media that speaks about equality and diversity. For the passive, unhealthy media consumers, “The Wire” shapes attitudes, making audiences compliant with the messages presented. However, the active, healthy media consumers question the messages presented in the television program, searching for other means and angles from which to see the reality. The healthy media consumers are inquisitive and cannot be easily manipulated, because they would not be satisfied with stereotypical representations of an ideological reality, wherein white is beautiful and good and black is ugly and bad (Simmons 20). Healthy media consumers take into consideration other perspectives, such as the one presented in Mary Oliver’s “Summer Day”.
Television and other media are presenting a reflection of reality, which is solely a side of the reality, as seen from a certain angle, often manipulated to transmit specific messages, to create stereotypes and shape attitudes. This media agenda is highly effective for the passive, unhealthy media consumers, who perceive as real the messages that they are exposed to, without questioning their accuracy or truthfulness. However, the healthy media consumers choose to see beyond the messages presented to them in television programs such as “The Wire” choose to go beyond considering whites as good and blacks as bad, just because media wants to manipulate the public opinion into thinking so. “The Wire” and “Summer Day” are two opposing media productions that talk about reality in different ways. While the unhealthy media consumers tend to let themselves dominated into seeing just one side of the reality that make blacks look bad, the active, healthy consumers interpret reality in their own way, after comparing multiple sources, such as “The Wire” and “Summer Day”.
Works Cited
Doll Test [Online]. 7 February 2012. < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkpUyB2xgTM>. 17 February, 2016.
Oliver, Mary. The Summer Day. [Online]. N.d. < https://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/133.html>. 17 February, 2016.
Simmons, Amanda. Passive and Active Audience Theories 2014. [Online]. 2 April, 2014. < http://www.slideshare.net/aarchersimmons/passive-and-active-audience-theories-2014 >. 17 February, 2016.
The Wire. “Boys of Summer” [Online]. N.d. < http://www.shush.se/index.php?id=40&show=thewire>. 17 February, 2016.
