Many people believe that the media, a huge part of everyone’s daily life, has become such a negative influence on the lives of society. But my question is, why? Why do we constantly talk about media in such a negative manner? Why do we bash all the latest celebrity stories? Why do we continuously follow all the most recent news with who has gotten into trouble with the law and watch all the performances online when society thinks so poorly of it? We are constantly doing this to ourselves, as we want the media that we are getting! The media can be seen as part of a purely self-serving and profit-motivated consumerist culture” (O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler, J. Media and Society: Media Studies. Page 13). We are getting what we want when it comes to media, although everyone involved in the production of it is using it for profit and popularity. “The media have to sell themselves successfully to large numbers of the population: they have to win big audiences in order to be economically viable and survive” (O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler, J. Media and Society: What Do the Media Do to Us? Page 32). Think about how popular Miley Cyrus has become. Everywhere I go someone is talking about her most recent media debuts. It all started with her video posted all over the web of her smoking salvia on her birthday. One post on YouTube had almost 4 million views, and that is just one of many videos. Her video for her song “We Cant Stop” has a lot of dirty dancing, booty shaking and crazy partying. The music video went viral and had many hits online. Then there was the VMA performance where she was seen in a nude bikini with a foam finger, which she used provocatively through out the song and was “twerking” on Robin Thicke. The performance took the title of the most tweeted about performance at the VMA’s, where it brought in approximately 360,000 tweets a minute! People today are still talking about that performance! Her most recent music video for her song Wrecking Ball, which involved her nakedly swinging from a wrecking ball and licking a hammer, has much over 250 million views! Everyone is talking about Miley Cyrus, her crazy life and how poor of a role model she has become, but yet we are so caught up in the media that we cannot stop watching it! She is the role model of many girls and her outrageous life is not a good one to follow. Miley and her production team, know how big of a reaction her performances are getting from society and will continue to give us what we want in order to continue being the trending topic in society. Miley Cyrus is just one of the many celebrities who uses this to her advantage. The media wants as much attention as possible and will continue to produce what they know we will want to see.
torigligic 