Mass Media: The modern-day opiate of the masses

On network television, there is a clear indication of a misrepresentation of race and gender contrasted with what one actually observes in reality. The history of media representations is not a progression from stereotypes to truth but a struggle to constantly “articulate the meanings of people’s identities and the ways they can live those cultural categories” (Coltrane, 2000). However, critics of this seem to overlook the reasons as to why there is a blatant falsification of society, and focus, instead, more on the individual examples of how there is such.  Through time, the mainstream media has lost its original purpose, which was to inform.  Unfortunately, it has been perverted into a tool of manipulation and indoctrination.  Television is a key player in drugging the masses, with countless soap operas during the day followed by one reality show after another at night.  But what is the source of this primetime drug?   Karl Marx, who once said that religion is the opiate of the masses, would probably extend that idea to television in the contemporary United States citizen, as he is asked to believe not in another world but in the mediated reality presented to them on television by pundits (much like priests) who seek ratings as the old religionists sought souls. While religion could offer comfort for people from the harsh world of real life, as Marx understood, (as can television) “it was no real guide to understanding the real world, except, in its institutional forms, to be both a buffer for and a representative of ruling classes” – a bit like television (

Media is a major contributor to the propagation of racism, sexism and stereotypes in our pluralistic society (Petrozza, 2002).  Does the media reflect our culture?  Well if the dominant culture in the west reflects that of white, male, affluent, heterosexuals, then this limited reflection can lead to a loss of the country’s history and meaningful ideas.  And if history has shown us anything, it is that those who essentially have the most influence on society match the very description I have laid out, which was the white, male, affluent and heterosexual type.  Our country’s mass media is owned and controlled by just a handful of gargantuan corporations.  They are, in descending order of power and influence: AOL Time Warner, Disney, Viacom, News Corps and Bertelsmann (McChesney, 1997).  All of these corporations are interlocked, in some way, with each other, which all have a major influence on what we, as everyday citizens, perceive as our “culture.”  Consequently, under the pressure of their owners, television censors will reflect an image to the American public in permissible range with that of the multi-billion dollar white hetero-sexual man. Certainly it is not as guileless as I present it; rather, the messages and manipulative techniques are more discreet and clever.