Within my second blog post I want to answer two questions which Jennifer Good our professor proposed in lecture. She referenced two questions which Harold Innis, a well known historian asked. The first question was “why do we attend to the things to which we attend?” The second question she asked was “why should we care?” To break this down into more understandable terms I feel Harold is asking why do we focus on the things in which we focus on and why is this important to us?
“Why do we attend to the things in which we attend?”
The simple answer to this question in my opinion is agenda setting theory a quick history behind this theory, it was created by “Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1972.” (Davie, G. (2011). This theory was first …show more content…
When I was younger all I knew was “Snow White” or “The Little Mermaid”. Being older and now looking back at my consumption I can now see how much I was influenced by Disney. I’m not just talking about the movies or TV shows which were created but the actual Disney ideology going to Disney World and dressing up as a princess going to stay at the Disney resort and meet all of the characters and so on. Disney from a young age has lead us as audience members to believe that only girls can be pretty little princesses that wear dresses and makeup. They have created this gender stereotype which I can see through my siblings as well. My sister is a bit of a tom boy however, due to ideologies created by media she feels the need to conform to societal expectations just because of the media she consumes has portrayed a certain gender construct. The same with my brother, he likes pink but society, through agenda setting and the media show us that pink is for girls only and to me this is an absolute ridiculous stereotype. I encourage you to watch a Disney movie and look at the way women are portrayed versus the way men are portrayed, in all movies they insinuate that a princess is nothing without her prince, lets take Snow White for example she needed her prince to kiss her in order to wake up, but this is not the only example, there are so many others of Disney princesses not being able to cope with a prince not being in the picture. Disney is such a well known concept however consumers don’t necessarily pay attention to the effects that it has on those that consume it, in other words parents don’t realize they are putting ideologies in their child’s head by allowing them to be an audience member to such content. This concept also touches upon aspects of Cultivation theory, basically have you ever heard of the phrase
“Why do we attend to the things in which we attend?”
The simple answer to this question in my opinion is agenda setting theory a quick history behind this theory, it was created by “Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1972.” (Davie, G. (2011). This theory was first …show more content…
When I was younger all I knew was “Snow White” or “The Little Mermaid”. Being older and now looking back at my consumption I can now see how much I was influenced by Disney. I’m not just talking about the movies or TV shows which were created but the actual Disney ideology going to Disney World and dressing up as a princess going to stay at the Disney resort and meet all of the characters and so on. Disney from a young age has lead us as audience members to believe that only girls can be pretty little princesses that wear dresses and makeup. They have created this gender stereotype which I can see through my siblings as well. My sister is a bit of a tom boy however, due to ideologies created by media she feels the need to conform to societal expectations just because of the media she consumes has portrayed a certain gender construct. The same with my brother, he likes pink but society, through agenda setting and the media show us that pink is for girls only and to me this is an absolute ridiculous stereotype. I encourage you to watch a Disney movie and look at the way women are portrayed versus the way men are portrayed, in all movies they insinuate that a princess is nothing without her prince, lets take Snow White for example she needed her prince to kiss her in order to wake up, but this is not the only example, there are so many others of Disney princesses not being able to cope with a prince not being in the picture. Disney is such a well known concept however consumers don’t necessarily pay attention to the effects that it has on those that consume it, in other words parents don’t realize they are putting ideologies in their child’s head by allowing them to be an audience member to such content. This concept also touches upon aspects of Cultivation theory, basically have you ever heard of the phrase