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Effects of Racism on Culture, Marketing, and International Trade
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Effects of Racism on Culture, Marketing, and International Trade
Racism is a major problem in society today. Its effects in society have profound effects on people, societies, and governments. It causes immense suffering; discrimination denies various opportunities, suppression of human rights, and general progression of the society. The impact of racism is felt in key areas such as marketing, culture, and international trade.
Effects of racism on culture
Culture is also an essential aspect of life, which is affected by racism. Dang (2018) defines culture as a collective believes, behaviors values, and rituals which are associated with a certain group of people. Culture is vital in society as it helps to create a feeling of belonging. Essential attributes of culture, such as religion, have played a major role in facilitating unity and inspiration to society. The United States is one of the richest countries in terms of cultural diversity. The country is comprised of ethnic groups that range from African Americans, Asians, Whites, among others. Cultural diversity plays a key role in enhancing human development. It helps in fostering unity, enhancing creativity, and providing a new perspective of doing things.
The differences in culture should be considered as a source of celebration and inspiration in society. However, its importance in society is constantly under threat due to racism. Racism negatively affects the role, impact, and the celebration of culture among people in society. The impact of racism in culture often experienced in the immigration sector. Lawmaking organs, lawmakers and political leaders develop policies which are discriminate against the immigration of people from certain cultures. The United States has been a country that embraces and is comprised of immigrants (Hutchison, 2018). Immigrants from different parts of the globe, such as Europe, Asia, and Africa, have contributed to the growth and diversity of American society. The United States continues to use immigration to improve its economic, political, and social identity. However, in recent years the cultural component of people in the United States has been the subject of suppression. The bodies in charge of enacting immigration policies have made regulations intended to suppress minority cultures in the United. The suppression of the cultures of minority groups is enacted through limited immigration opportunities for communities from specific regions.
On the other hand, immigration policies tend to favor people from the majority communities. Increasing immigration opportunities for people from majority cultures while reducing opportunities for people from minority cultures easily translates to racial discrimination. The racist policies are a means of slowly eliminating certain cultures with a view of promoting other cultures. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act is an example of a regulation that was racially used to suppress minority cultures while benefit majority cultures (Tourse, Hamilton-Mason, & Wewiorski,2018). Although the law brought an end to immigration quotas that favored the European immigrants, it secretly created extra visas for Immigrants from Europe.
Another form of modern-day racism that has significantly affected culture is forced assimilation. Assimilation refers to situations where people adopt new cultures and make them their own. Voluntary assimilation is a vital part of society and enables people to learn about new cultures, ideas, and lifestyles. Forced assimilation, on the other hand, is dangerous and detrimental to the progress and success of society. Racism has, in the past and the present, been at the center of forced assimilation, which is directed towards eliminating certain cultures. The implementation of forced elimination among people often arises from government policies that force people to abandon their cultures. Forced assimilation-oriented policies force people to choose education systems and cultures without having an opinion or sat in the process. An example of forced assimilation is banning the use of minority languages in teaching and key government institutions. McCarty, Skutnabb-Kangas, & Magga (2008), assert that people in power view language as a major obstacle. Therefore, they tend to combat their use by enacting systemic changes such as banning their use in schools. Eventually, the language is faced out as people begin to pick up the mandatory languages used in schools. As a result, people from minority groups are unable to use their language a, factor that leads to its disappearance. Native Americans are some of the most affected cultures due to the systemic changes which limit the use of their native languages. They are then forced to adopt the languages spoken by the majority.
Another aspect of culture which is significantly affected by racism is religion. Religion is a controversial area that has been the subject of intense criticism and scrutiny by governments and people around the globe. Although it is an integral part of the culture among people, governments, and societies around the world have used it as an avenue of racially discriminating people. Muslims are some of the people whose religion has been negatively affected by racism. Racial discrimination of Asians, especially the Arabs, has had a profound impact on their religion. Their practice of Islam is often met by resentment and negativity (Shaver et al.,2016). The negative perception of religion causes people who practice them to change due to fear of persecution or rejection from society. Racism against Arabs is often associated with Islam. Thus, the fear of being racially abused causes people to abandon their religious culture for fear of victimized by racialists. In other instances, governments tend to limit the practice of certain religions as part of controlling their specific cultures. Thus, measures are put in place, which limits the construction of religious facilities such as temples. Such racial discrimination policies negatively affect the ability of people to enjoy and practice their culture. They are driven to become outcasts.
Effects of racism on Marketing
Another area that significantly affected by racism is marketing. Marketing is an essential aspect of society. According to Urbonavičius & Dikčius (2008), marketing plays a vital role in ensuring that companies maintain a close relationship between them and their markets. Marketing also allows companies and organizations to introduce new products into the market and bring consumers to changes in specific components of products and services. As a result, marketing is essential to both the business as well as the consumers. However, the effectiveness of marketing has, over the years, been affected by racism.
The issues of race in modern society have affected the operation of marketing agencies across the globe. Marketing agencies tend to deploy persons who check their advertisements to determine whether they fit the racial eye test. The steps taken by companies to identify independent advisers on their advertisements stem from the fact that various advertisements have, in the past, led to outrage from the public due to display of racially discriminative messages passed through the marketing agencies. The modern age of social media use and increased internet availability across the globe have heightened the scrutiny on companies in terms of their marketing activities. An advertisement for Pepsi, which was done by Kendall Jenner, is an example of a marketing activity that caused an outrage by the public due to the negative racial portray of the blacks (Friedman, 2017).
Marketing plays a vital role in influencing the perceptions, decisions, and ideas of people on certain things about people. Consequentially, it is often intended to influence purchasing decisions and also develop interests in certain products and services. Marketing has been the subject of racial profiling of certain communities. Organizations, societies, and the media have, in the past, used marketing to portray specific ethnic goods in a negative manner. The perception of African Americans, in particular, in marketing negatively affects the self-belief and confidence of the community. The media and marketers tend to only associate Blacks with marketing activities that involve sport or fast foods. However, advertisements that feature executive positions or positions of influence are mainly left to the whites. The media and the markers thus create a narrative which is passed on to the society. Marketing activities that tend to create specific narratives about the capabilities of certain races tend to lower the confidence of young people in society. Other instances in marketing, such as advertisements for soaps and detergents, which depict African Americans ‘change in skin color from black to white, are a further illustration of the negative perception of the African American communities. They demean their race and portray it as an inferior race. Marketing should be about passing ideas to consumers and the public about products and services. However, marketing often finds a way to veer off from its objects and end up undermining races and the ethnic components of the society.
Another effect of racism are the overrepresentation of the whites and the underrepresentation of people for other races. Racial discrimination leads to unfair treatment of individuals in the marketing field based on their racial background. Many companies in the United States prefer to market their products and services through white people as opposed to people from other races such as the Africa Americans and the Latinos (Robinson, 2019). This leads to the underrepresentation of the minority racial groups since most of the marketing activities are carried out by the Americans. Most American firms prefer white marketers because they argue that people from other races are not attractive enough to appear in adverts. The companies have the belief that American marketers have an attractive appearance that will attract a large number of customers during the marketing activities (Davis, 2018). They also argue that African Americans lack creativity, and therefore they cannot create an appealing marketing message that can attract the attention of the potential buyers. As a result of racism, only a few people from minority racial groups, who have shown appropriate capabilities, have been employed to carry out different marketing activities in the country. There are few African Americans and other minorities occupying senior positions in the marketing industry. According to Robinson (2019), individuals who are identified as blacks account for only 5% of those working in public relations, advertising, and other marketing-related activities.
The other impact is the failure to meet the marketing objectives of products marketed by people from minority races. The main objective of carrying out marketing activities is to increase customer awareness and enhance the demand for a particular product (Davis, 2018). Some of the companies in the United States market their product through people from minority ethnic groups such as the backs and the Latinos, to enhance the customer awareness of their brands. However, racism makes it challenging for these companies to attain their marketing goals since the consumers in the country are racist (Robinson, 2019). The consumers do not watch adverts aired by people of color because they argue that they are not appealing and attractive. They prefer viewing adverts presented by American marketers than those presented by people from other races (Davis, 2018). The adverts aired by people of color attract a small number of customers which makes the marketing efforts of the company to be unsuccessful. This affects the future sustainability of the company in the competitive market.
Effects of racism on international trade
International trade involves the exchange of products and services between two or more trading nations. According to Heakal (2020), international trade allows a country to expand the market of its products and services across the borders. It also allows a country to get products and services that it does not produce domestically. International trade is important because it provides a more competitive market that leads to an increase in the quality of products offered to the customers (Heakal, 2020). Global trade involves different countries from different parts of the world. These countries have different cultural and racial backgrounds. Therefore, racism is one of the factors that affect international trade.
Racism has various effects on international trade, which includes the following. One of the impacts is the discrimination of some countries in global trade. This happens when one of the countries refuses to carry out business with another country. The two countries have trading products and services, but one of the nations is unwilling to buy the products offered by the other country (McCluney et al., 2018). The bases of this type of discrimination are the racial background of one of the countries in international trade. For instance, the United States prefers to import tea from Argentina and India than from African countries. In Africa, there are various countries, such as Malawi, that produce high-quality tea. Racism influence the United States to buy tea from white countries than to buy from black countries. African countries are large consumers of American products, but America consumes a small number of products from Africa (Ashe & Nazroo, 2017). This type of discrimination reduces the market for one of the trading countries. It increases the amount of waste, which makes the country incur substantial losses.
The second effect is the reduction of the quality of goods offered in the international market. The products offered by a country in international trade are produced by local companies. Racial discrimination is common in most of the firms in the United States. Racism has various effects on the production activities and the quality of goods and services manufactured by a company (Ashe & Nazroo, 2017). It increases the internal conflict in the workplace. This makes it challenging for the employees to coordinate and work together with a common aim of producing proper quality products. Workplace racism also makes it hard for employees to work in teams. Teamwork is essential because it increases employee interaction, and they can work together to solve workplace issues to enhance the quality of the produced products (McCluney et al., 2018). Also, racism demotivates the affected employees, which reduces their performance in the workplace. Workplace racism reduces the quality of products and services produced by domestic firms, which affects the quality of products offered by the country to international trade.
The other impact of racism is the reduction of the amounts of products offered in international trade. The amount of goods and services provided in the global trade by a country depends on the production of the local firms. Racism has a significant influence on the productivity of domestic firms. Racial discrimination leads to unequal and unfair treatment of the employees from the minority racial groups, which acts as a demotivation factor to the affected team members (McCluney et al., 2018). As a result, it affects the performance of the discriminated employees, which reduces the firm’s productivity and the number of products offered by the country into international trade. Racism also makes some countries not engage in trade with other nations. This reduces the number of products in global trade since the discriminated country will not offer its goods and services (Ashe & Nazroo, 2017). The reduction in the number of products can have various effects on the customers in the international market. It reduces the level of competition since it is only a few countries that participate in international trade. Reduced competition can affect the quality of products and services and the prices charged to the consumers.
Racism can also lead to a decline in demand for products and services from a particular country. This happens when two countries engage in trading activities, but the consumers in one of the states refuse to consume products from another nation (Ashe & Nazroo, 2017). The main reason behind the consumers’ decision not to consume the products and services is the racial differences between them and the people from the other country. This leads to the loss of demand for the discriminated country’s products and services, which reduces its net sales (McCluney et al., 2018). For instance, a consumer visits the supermarket and refuses to buy a plastic product because it originates from China. China produces high-quality plastic products, but the racial differences between them and the United States can influence an American buyer not to buy the products. Racism will reduce the demand for Chinese products in the American market. As a result, it will reduce the net sales of the discriminated country in the international market.
Conclusion
Racism is common in the country. Racial discrimination occurs in different sectors and affects various operations in the country. One of the aspects affected by racism is culture. The United States set regulations that suppress minority cultures and favor the Americans. Marketing activities are also affected by racism. The minority races are undermined in adverts, and they are underrepresented in the marketing operations. Also, International trade is affected by racism because it involves the cooperation between various countries that have different racial backgrounds. Therefore, it is important to learn and educate the public on ways that racism affects crucial aspects of the society such as marketing, international trade and culture. Learning and acknowledging the existence of racism in theses areas allows people to speak against it and put measures which prevent its prevalence.
References
Ashe, S., & Nazroo, J. (2017). Equality, diversity, and racism in the workplace: A qualitative
Analysis of the 2015 race at work survey. Online: http://hummedia. Manchester. ac. UK/institutes/code/research/raceatwork/Equ…(accessed: 7 April 2017).
Dang, W. (2018). How culture shapes environmental public participation: case studies of China, the Netherlands, and Italy. Journal of Chinese Governance, 1-23.
Davis, J. F. (2018). Selling whiteness?–A critical review of the literature on marketing and
Racism. Journal of Marketing Management, 34(1-2), 134-177.
Friedman, N. (2017). A Pepsi commercial’s lesson for advisers. The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/06/opinion/a-pepsi-commercials-lesson-for-advertisers.htmlHeakal, R. (2020). The investor’s guide to global trade,
https://www.investopedia.com/insights/what-is-international-trade/
Hutchison, E. D. (2018). Dimensions of human behavior: Person and environment. Sage Publications.
McCarty, T. L., Skutnabb-Kangas, T., & Magga, O. H. (2008). 21 Education for Speakers of Endangered Languages. The handbook of educational linguistics, 297.
McCluney et al. (2018). Structural racism in the workplace: Does perception matter for health
Inequalities? Social Science & Medicine, 199, 106-114.
Robinson, T. (2019). A brief roundown of racism within advertising and why it’s still happening Today. https://www.adweek.com/agencies/a-brief-rundown-of-racism-within-advertising-and-why-its-still-happening-today/Tourse, R. W., Hamilton-Mason, J., & Wewiorski, N. J. (2018). Systemic Racism in the United States: Scaffolding as Social Construction. Springer.
Urbonavičius, S., & Dikčius, V. (2008). Importance of marketing activities in a company: the management perspective. Ekonomika, 83, 41-50.
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Effects of Nursing Staff Shortages on the Health Care System
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Nursing Staff Shortages in the Health Care System
Introduction
The shortage of nurses is a global health issue that negatively affects healthcare delivery, and the problem is expected to worsen with the increasing demand for healthcare providers caused by the aging population (Stokes & Iskander, 2021). It is approximated that by 2029, there will likely be 73% more Americans over the age of 65, which will increase the demand for healthcare practitioners to provide medical services. This paper provides a comprehensive discussion of the issue of nurse shortage in the cultural and ethical context. Two Level 1 research questions, one from the ethical perspective of inquiry and the other from a cultural perspective, have been selected to guide the paper. Also, a Level 2 research question has been formulated for each perspective of inquiry to further explore the issue of nursing shortages from the cultural and ethical context. The chosen Level 1 question from the ethical perspective of inquiry is “What laws pertain to the issue?” while the formulated level 2 question from this perspective is “What are the ethical implications of nursing staff shortages?”. On the other hand, the chosen level 1 question from the cultural perspective of inquiry is “Which cultural values influence the issue?” and the corresponding level 2 question is “How does cultural diversity affect nurse shortage?”. All these questions are addressed below.
Research Questions from the Ethical Perspective of Inquiry
The Level 1 research question from the ethical perspective of inquiry aims to uncover the laws that pertain to the issue of nurse shortages. Since different countries have different laws that pertain to this healthcare issue, the focus of this paper will be on the US laws that pertain to the issue of nursing staff shortages. One of these laws is the Nurse Reinvestment Act, P.L. 107-205. The 107th Congress passed the Nurse Reinvestment Act on July 22, 2002. Congress had been significantly engaged since the 1960s with the goal of providing the US with sufficient nurse manpower. The Act was later signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 1, 2002. The Nurse Reinvestment Act pertains to the issue of nursing staff shortages because Title I and Title II pertain to nurses’ recruitment and retention, respectively. Title 1 of the Act provides two ways of boosting nurses’ recruitment. The first initiative is the development and broadcasting of grant-based funding of local and state public service announcements to promote and advertise the nursing profession. During broadcasting, the rewards ad advantages of the nursing profession should be highlighted, and people are persuaded to enter into this profession. The second initiative entails the revision of provisions of the National Nurse Service Corps (NNSC) related to items such as scholarships, loan repayment, funding, and reporting and eligibility requirements. Boosting nurses’ recruitment helps in addressing the main health care issue selected, which is nurse shortages. Title II of the Nurse Reinvestment Act presents policies intended to improve the retention of nurses. The provisions of Title II relate to areas such as creating career ladders and retaining high-quality nurses through retention grants and nurse education, developing and funding comprehensive geriatric education, and creating and running a nurse faculty loan program to improve the number of qualified nursing faculty. Title II of the Act helps address the issue of nurse shortages by ensuring nurses do not quit their profession. Another law that pertains to the issue of nursing staff shortage in the US is the Nurse Training and Retention Act of 2007, S.2064. The 110th Congress passed this Act on September 18, 2007. This Act aims to ensure comprehensive programs are funded to facilitate a sufficient supply of nurses. Increasing the supply of nurses helps deal with the selected healthcare issue, nursing staff shortage.
Level 2 research question from the ethical inquiry perspective aims to uncover the ethical implications of nursing staff shortage. Persistent nurse shortages across the world challenge the values and beliefs of this profession and result in various ethical implications. One of these ethical implications is poor patient care. One of the ethical obligations that nurses must fulfill during their line of duty is ensuring that patients are protected from harm (Haahr et al., 2020). However, nurse shortages make it challenging for the nurses to fulfill this obligation as the hospitals assign them to cater for many patients. Since chronically ill patients require holistic care, inadequate staffing denies nurses an opportunity to provide such care to these patients, resulting in poor patient care. Another ethical implication of nursing staff shortages is nurses’ reduced job satisfaction. Usually, ethics assist nurses in making the right decisions guided by their morals. However, nurse shortages leave nurses dissatisfied with their jobs because they do not have sufficient time to communicate with their patients and provide holistic care. Moral distress is another ethical implication of nursing staff shortages. Nurses who serve in healthcare facilities with shortage of nursing staff experience moral distress since they feel that they are compromising their ethical obligation of ensuring patients are protected from harm by providing inadequate patient care (Bayat et al., 2019). Also, nurses who work in health care facilities facing the issue of nurse shortage may suffer moral distress because they feel that they would have rendered better patient care if they were not assigned many patients. Lastly, burnout is another ethical implication of nurse shortages. According to Mullen et al. (2017), increased ethical conflict at work may result in emotional stress and mental burnout.
Research Questions from the Cultural Perspective of Inquiry
Level 1 research question from the cultural perspective of inquiry aims to uncover the cultural values that influence the issue of nursing staff shortages. Cultural competence is one of the cultural values that influence the issue of nurse shortages. Cultural competence is the set of values, practices, behaviors, and attitudes within an organization system or even individuals, which allows them to work effectively across different cultures. Cultural competence influences nurse shortages because when nurses are not culturally competent, they tend to get stressed, which results in nursing burnout. Another cultural value that influences nurse shortages is cultural diversity. Cultural diversity is the existence of many cultures in the same society. Nurses must be well prepared to serve culturally diverse patients. Unless nurses are culturally competent, they cannot be in a position to provide quality care to patients. When nurses cannot provide quality care, they get stressed and end up quitting their jobs. The last cultural value that influences nurse shortage is cultural awareness. Nurses’ cultural awareness is their comprehension of differences between themselves and patients from other cultural backgrounds. Similar to cultural competence, a lack of cultural awareness may result in nurse shortages.
Level 2 research question from the cultural inquiry perspective aims to uncover how cultural diversity affects nurse shortage. Cultural diversity may both increase or minimize nurse shortages. Research reveals that nurses without a firm understanding of cultural differences may experience frustrations and stress when dealing with culturally diverse patients (Balante et al., 2021). Consequently, this may result in nurse burnout. Burnout is one of the leading causes of nurse shortages. Thus, it can be concluded that nurses’ lack of cultural competence indirectly results in nurse shortages. On the contrary, cultural competence allows nurses to provide inclusive healthcare service, improves nurses’ job satisfaction, and facilitates patient satisfaction. When nurses are satisfied with their job, they tend to retain their profession. Consequently, this minimizes nurse shortages.
Conclusion
Overall, nursing shortages are a global health issue of concern and have adverse effects on healthcare delivery. This paper comprised two four questions. The first question was a Level 1 question from the ethical perspective of inquiry and sought to uncover the laws that pertain to the issue of nurse shortages. Two laws were found, including the Nurse Reinvestment Act, P.L. 107-205, and the Nurse Training and Retention Act of 2007, S.2064. The Nurse Reinvestment Act pertains to the issue of nursing staff shortages because Title I and Title II pertain to nurses’ recruitment and retention, respectively. On the other hand, the Nurse Training and Retention Act of 2007 aims to ensure comprehensive programs are funded to facilitate a sufficient supply of nurses. Level 2 question from this perspective sought to examine the ethical implications of nurse shortages. They include the provision of poor-quality care, reduced job satisfaction, burnout, and moral distress. The Level 1 research question from the cultural perspective examined the cultural values that influence nurse shortages. The identified cultural values include cultural competence, diversity, and awareness. The Level 2 question from this perspective is how cultural diversity impacts the nurse shortage. It has been established that cultural diversity can increase or minimize nurse shortages. Questions from both perspectives provide insights on how the issue of nurse shortages can be dealt with.
References
Act, N. R. PL 107-205 (2002). Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
Balante, J., van den Broek, D., & White, K. (2021). How does culture influence work experience in a foreign country? An umbrella review of the cultural challenges faced by internationally educated nurses. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 118, 103930. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2021.103930Bayat, M., Shahriari, M., & Keshvari, M. (2019). The relationship between moral distress in nurses and ethical climate in selected hospitals of the Iranian social security organization. Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, 12 (8), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.18502%2Fjmehm.v12i8.1339Haahr, A., Norlyk, A., Martinsen, B., & Dreyer, P. (2020). Nurses experiences of ethical dilemmas: A review. Nursing ethics, 27(1), 258-272. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733019832941Mullen, P. R., Morris, C., & Lord, M. (2017). The experience of ethical dilemmas, burnout, and stress among practicing counselors. Counseling and Values, 62(1), 37-56. https://doi.org/10.1002/cvj.12048Stokes, F., & Iskander, R. (2021). Human rights and bioethical considerations of global nurse migration. Journal of bioethical inquiry, 18(3), 429-439. https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11673-021-10110-6Stokes, F., & Iskander, R. (2021). Human rights and bioethical considerations of global nurse migration. Journal of bioethical inquiry, 18(3), 429-439. https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11673-021-10110-6
One can view how the society gets its information in three main ways
Effects of New Media
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One can view how the society gets its information in three main ways. The first way is that individuals or the society are gullible and will almost listen to, read or watch anything. The second is that most individuals need an intermediary who is informed to show and tell them what is right, meaningful and important, the third is that individuals are smart and knowledgeable, and given the means, they understand and find out things for themselves and find their own truth version (Rayuso, 2011). This paper will mainly focus in the second way to view how people are informed, the fact that individuals need an intermediary that is informed to show and tell them what is meaningful and right. This informed intermediary in this case is the media, which holds all the information the public needs. The paper, therefore, will examine ways in which the media, playing the part of an informed intermediary, affects and influences the American culture by looking at the responsibility it has to the people and the influences it has on politics and journalism.
In the past fifty or more years the effects and influence of the media on the society have grown exceedingly chiefly with the progress in science and technology. First, there were telegraphs and then radios, magazines, newspapers, TV and currently the internet. Today’s society depends on communication and information to move towards the right direction and do everyday tasks like entertainment, work, education, health care, travelling, personal relationships and any other activity. The average American person wakes up each day and checks information and news on the TV and newspapers before going to work where he or she makes several phone calls in a day and makes contact with their family when it is possible and basically, leaves his or her life based on the information and knowledge derived from the media (Rayuso, 2011).
The mass media have essential tasks and roles in the modern society as the main communication channel. The populations depend on the media as the central source of information and the foundation on which they base their opinions and election and voting decisions. As the cultural selection theory argues, any choice of messages and information in the mass media will, therefore, have a momentous consequence on the rest of the society. There is an increasingly interesting situation in the current society: on one side, the media have significant influence on individuals and their decisions, conscience and activities, but on the other side, the media are the institution least trusted to have any social weight (Rayuso, 2011). There are several reasons as to why the condition is like this. For instance, the media are seen to have a significant influence on individuals because of its ability to influence the actions of individuals and even children. There have been several of surveys that have pointed out the paramount influence media have had on the American culture. These influences range widely and they include the influence on lifestyle, clothing, style, manner of speaking, and violence when it comes to the younger generation (Baker, 2004).
Alternatively, the media are viewed as the most untrustworthy institution because of their ability and tendency to exaggerate, violate privacy and feed the society with unsuitable and at times inappropriate information. For instance, the media are blamed and untrusted when it comes to vulgar and sexual material usually aired on the television and witnessed in movies and films. Because of these two sides or faces of the media, that are not positive, the mass media today has to assume a number of responsibilities because it is much recognized and followed by a large percentage of the population (Baker, 2004).
The mass media, for instance, has to be careful on the kind of information they avail through TV programs, movie, films and information on magazines, internet and the newspaper as it influences the society largely. It is also the responsibility of the media to feed the society with all the relevant information that they need to live their lives comfortably. Hiding significant information or releasing only a part of it is not responsible. Another responsibility the media have is to inform individuals about elections, political leaders and parties and their visions. This way, the media have a huge influence on the decisions the society has during elections. The media does this through dispensing specific information to either favor a candidate or tarnish their reputation. Either way, the media play significant roles in the American politics today (Baker, 2004).
The media do not only have impacts on politics and society alone, they also significantly affect journalism and techniques and methods informed. With the emergence of advanced technology, journalism has taken a new course that does not just require the TV, radio or newspaper to spread information. Today’s America receives information from a wide range of channels most of which are online. As it follows, journalism has had to advance its methods of communication to remain at par with the rest of the world (Rose, 2010).
The above are only a handful of instances of how the current mass media affects and influences the American culture.
References
Baker, M. (2004). The media and social responsibility. Mallenbaker.net. retrieved from http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/page.php?Story_ID=1210
Rayuso. (2011). Mass media influence on society. HubPages. Retrieved from http://rayuso.hubpages.com/hub/Mass-Media-Influence-on-Society
Rose, C. (2010). The Security Implications of Ubiquitous Social Media. EABR & ETLC Conference Proceedings. Dublin: Ireland.