Something Fishy: Blog Task 1: Mass Media as Storyteller

Mass media as a cultural storyteller – True or false?

Our current society is, nevertheless, dictated by the media. Lifestyle as we all know it, is influenced by the storytellers - they narrate about how we should dress, how we talk and even how we act around certain people. If we were to take the word ‘storyteller’ in technical terms, it simply means a person who tells tales and creates fables. To juxtapose (to compare or to put into contrast) to our own perspective into the matter, we see storytellers in the light of neutrality. It’s apparent that stories can be told out of any motive, it’s up to the audience / consumer on how to reflect it upon themselves. By nature, impressions are completely subjective to one individual; it depends on the glasses they put on to see the world. So how do mass media relate to this? All around us, we see people dressed in a way where it’s mostly influenced by a different culture particularly, the western society but this doesn’t end here. In fact, cultural appropriation applies to most aspects of our lives, even though we don’t pay much attention to this subtle takeover. It's an inconvenient truth that the storytellers of our time are no more fathers who sit by our bedsides and tell us stories of knights in shining armors, instead, they are people who decide on what we know as reality nowadays.

Clarify what do you comprehend by "the media is a social storyteller?"

When broken down into its simplest form, the main task of a storyteller is basically to portray a fictional fantasy into a near reality libretto which have moral lessons embedded deep in its the passages. Throughout the whole passage written below, the values, attitudes and beliefs of the contestants are collocated to our own further understanding.

How does the TV shows chosen affect the society in terms of it’s moral values?

Audiences are able to assimilate moral values into their acumen of the world as how it is delineated by mass media. The television programmes that we base our assignment on are American Idol and The Voice. As you probably would know, American Idol is a reality singing competition series created by Simon Fuller, an English entrepreneur, artist manager and a renowned television producer who has produced an astonishing number of TV shows.

On June 11 2002, American Idol has successfully become one of the most viewed shows in the United States. Due to the fact that the show has gained public attention, it's now able to spread in a global level where it has adapted to different cultures and as an example would be Malaysia's version of it, Malaysian Idol.

Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/id/6/61/MalaysianIdol2.jpg

Similarly to the original programmes, the contestants from our country have the self-confidence to audition for Malaysian Idol. After all, you won’t know if you don’t try. The most notable winner from the show is Kelly Clarkson who started off her world of fame from just being an ordinary girl from Texas. By knowing that it is possible to be successful from winning a show, people from our community are more willing to take the risk to pursue a career on television. Kelly Clarkson has influenced the group of talented shy people around the globe to just take that extra step and find the deep - seeded courage in their hearts to perform in front of a live audience.

Source: http://www.ticketsmove.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/americanidol.jpg

"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying." - Michael Jordan

As for The Voice, it’s a little more complex than the classic American Idol. The Voice can be considered as a two in one competition. Not only are the contestants competing but the judges are too as they are locked in battle against each other to win the contestant’s trust on being their mentor. Little known fact, Javier Colon was the first winner of The Voice USA. Javier Colon was driven by the fire of his passion to sing his heart out during the whole time he was competing. What makes Javier distinctive from the rest would be that he infuses the essence of his culture in his voice and that gives us a rough understanding of Javier’s acoustic soul. The participants work hard in competing for a spot and that indirectly transcends the Malaysian community which sadly, doesn’t particularly have plenty of singers to feel motivated to achieve success, the way Javier achieved it. As fun as it can be, the contestants were also having trouble during the show but they managed to persevere throughout the entire period. We Malaysians will learn to not give up easily as....well, we always do so.

Source: http://trendio.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/The-Voice.jpg

What can we learn about the mass media’s influence in shaping our perceptions about reality through its role as a “cultural storyteller.”

As we look through our lenses, the TV shows stated above creates similar moral values and trends that inflict somewhat of an effect on the society through social media. One of the main aspects, would be fashion. A scenario we could relate this to would be while walking down a street, we would tend to observe the public's ensemble of everyday clothing. This goes to show that our culture is indoctrinated by countless stereotypical images on how to dress. Other than that, the change in our society also includes new words such as “swag”, “peak”, “shade” and many more. To add-on, people in our current generation, especially children of younger age, are also highly exposed to vulgar words such as “bullshit” and countless others. Not only that, people now neglect catechizing on a simple fact on how we address someone of a higher tier. We were taught to apply proper manner and tone. Lastly, social media has managed to widely influence many teenagers in doing trendy activities such as meaningless online challenges, for instance, the ‘Kylie Jenner Challenge’& ‘Don’t Judge Challenge’.

There is no doubt that media as a storyteller has total control over our perception about reality even though we don’t take notice of it. Maybe it’s because these storytellers traps us in a never ending tale where cold hard reality is suppressed. Ignorance is bliss.

Sources:

1. http://www.soultracks.com/javier.htm

2. http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/muskegon/index.ssf/2012/10/how_does_the_voice_work_your_c.html