Total Arousal -- The Media's Manipulation

The media’s primary goal is to create a certain chemical arousal within the bodies of their audiences to make them feel good for the purpose of grabbing their attention and gaining their interest and curiosity in the message they are trying to convey. One technique is to use certain emotional stimulants subconsciously to make their audiences feel good, either from the ego or from the soul perspective, for the purpose of encouraging the audience to continue coming back for their products and services and eventually becoming addicted to them. This further creates more desire and frenzy from the audience which in turn creates more demand for their products and services which is what the media have been accomplishing for many years. We might turn away from those stimulants and from certain media when we find their productions to be too disturbing to our well-being. The saddest thing about this is that it is not so easy to just tune them out since they are everywhere in our surroundings. At the same time, the creators behind those productions have also tried very hard to come up with different ways and methods in a fashion that attracts the audience the most and to continue to tap into their subconscious minds.

The themes that the media consider to be the most arousing and provoking to the audience to the point of emotional excitement or disturbance would be considered the pitch, or the “hot buttons” for them to push each and every time. Theme such as sexual jokes, nudity, lust, passion, sensuality, violence, aggression, perversion, power, fame, lavish and stylish materialistic goods, poverty, silliness and stupidity, grossly funny, and shocking and horrifying things are among the prevalent ones that the media use to attract the audience’s attention. We must understand that it is not the themes themselves that are an unhealthy influence to us. It is more the way they are depicted in the form of a joke, a play, a game, an amusement to arouse our lower emotions that is considered unhealthy. (6:3-1)

Movie producers have been known to plan meticulously the roles of most women characters to be pretty and to display as much of their flesh as possible. They use close-up shots and encourage them to dress in an enticing way to show off their cleavage and legs to further catch the audience’s attention, which only gives a false image of what a truly desirable woman should be. Movie producers also have been known to plan meticulously the role of most men characters to show their chauvinistic and masculine qualities by displaying their rights to be in control of their women and that the women in their lives need to cater to their moodiness, frustration, and short temperaments with tolerance, understanding, and submissiveness. The men also have the right to feel free to stare at and give attention to any attractive woman who walks by without being made to feel guilty in doing so. They should have as much wealth, fame, popularity, and materialistic possessions as possible to show others their personal worth with a fabricated lifestyle. At other times, male characters are also being portrayed as aggressive, violent, and sometimes abusive to their spouses and children by engaging in acts like molestation, rape or murder in movies, especially to female victims.

Stereotyping males in those superficial, materialistic, aggressive, and violent roles can easily further deliver a message to male audiences that it is definitely acceptable to satisfy their need to stare at a woman’s body whenever they want. It promotes the need for power in a relationship as well as their right to exhibit rage whenever they see fit and that their women are supposed to be tolerant of the situation. Web sites on the Internet have become an increasingly negative channel for information by providing easy access and bombarding users with unwanted e-mail messages and advertisements in regard to child pornography, sex chat lines, nude photos, and virtual pornography. This kind of advertisement only creates even more disturbance and inconvenience for the general public who only want to get certain business, medical or current event information and really do not appreciate being bothered by those negative advertisements. As a result, all of these channels that bring us the negative information and influences in our society can make us emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually ill to the point that it might become extremely difficult for us to redeem our sanity and to live a life of purity. (6:3-3)

Excerpt from: Sex and Aggression: Media's Toxic Contamination, and True Leaders Part III, Professional and Social Guide

Copy Right 2007, ISBN: 1-4208-6971-X(sc), Library of Congress Control Number: 2005906194
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