Raven's+Reflections+4

Reflection: The items in this room are a heavy reflection of American values and modern American stereotypes. The reference to the Reality TV Era is a very obvious relation to the American work ethic. T.V. Shows like American Idol give artists the chance to attain instant fame within a matter of 5 months. The music business is notoriously hard, and achieving fame through has been even more complicated. With shortcuts like American Idol anyone can go onto the show and achieve in 5 months, what some people have been working hard for their entire lives. The quote from contestant LaToya London states that American Idol is an amazing opportunity, but it is also an easy entry into the music industry by bypassing the years of hard-work, training and perfection that most aspiring musicians go through. The fact that the fate of these contestant’s lives are in the hands of the American population, also is an example of another important value to Americans, power. The power to mold someone else’s career and ultimately life is the main draw for most watchers of the show. Orson Wells’ Radio Show is in my room because of the heavy affect he had on American listeners. The War of the Worlds Radio Show talked of alien life forms and supernatural events. During the time of this show, American belief in Aliens rose more than 13% while Well’s was on the Radio. A more modern example of powerful media is the Oprah Winfrey Show/ Oprah’s Bookclub. The power of the celebrity these days is so heavy, that a millionaire like Oprah Winfrey can recommend a book to her audience and within a few weeks the book will be on the best seller list. These statistics just go to show that the media affects everything down to everyday leisurely purchases like our reading material and that American’s sometimes depend on media to steer their lives in the right direction. America even depends on media sources like magazines and movies to set their standards of beauty which most times are unachievable or unrealistic to the average person. The T.V. show “The Swan” is an example of this—the object of the show is to take women who consider themselves ugly and give them cosmetic surgery and put them on diets until other people are satisfied with their beauty. Media Page