In your opinion, what effect does mass entertainment have on culture?

[johnkrish]

In your opinion, what effect does mass entertainment have on culture?

[milt]

I think mass entertainment has done a great deal of harm, including turning people into spectators rather than participants. Maybe the most damaging result of mass entertainment is that the majority of people no longer think for themselves...rather they follow the crowd and become "sheeple" rather than individuals.

[Andy62]

It is huge. I would include in entertainment a large part of the high tech and communications revolution. The net effect has been a reduction in human contact and more reliance on mechanical entertainment and sources of information. People do not interact with eachother to the extent that they used too whether individually or in organizations. Even the news has become entertainment. The result is that mass communications and entertainment have become primary creators of values and attitudes.

The secret of control of the masses is control of information. Edward Bernays, the father of public relations, served in Europe during World War 1. He was watching a parade at the end of the war to honor French General Foch. There was a huge crowd present and it occurred to him that nobody there would even know who General Foch was if they hadn't heard or read about him in the media. With that realization he came back to the US, founded a public relations firm,made a fortune for himself, and business and politics have never been the same since

[Kevin Nickerson]

Just look at the Charlie Sheen saga.The biggest reality show ever or soap opera. The networks at least
NBC is WINNING (oops Charlie speak) with people tuning in to what He is going to say next. :shut-mouth:

[April]

I refuse to watch television. Does that give a hint about what I think of mass entertainment? I also don't watch movies.

When I visited my mother a few years ago, I was appalled to see how the news shows have changed from when I was a kid. It used to be that a conservative looking man read the news, period, no background music. Now it is nothing but hype. There is "exciting" background music to every gory report. The news is "exciting", even if it is someone getting their brains blown out, that is exciting. We need to get a sense of reality. And "reality" shows??? They are so rediculously contrived; not "reality" at all.

I saw a play the other night that might be worth talking about here, ilf we want a sense of reality. The high school kids here (Israel) go to Poland every year to visit the concentration camps. One part of the program was a play the other night for all the kids who are participating in the trip and their parents to see. The play was about a very old woman recounting her experience in a concentration camp. I won't tell the whole story but suffice it to say that it was replete with both physical and emotional torture. After the play was over, the actor walked out on stage with a wig stand, took off the wig and placed it on the stand. The audience was shocked to see that the actor was a young man. He told his story. In 3rd grade he learned about the Holocaust. He was the never the same after that. In high school he made it his business to find every Holocaust survivor he could and get their story. Most of the survivors he found who wanted to talk about their stories were women. He later went into acting and decided that the best way for him to get the message out about these survivors' stories was to act them out, even if it meant he played a women's role. It was a very effective and heart-wrenching evening. He told story after story of his experiences with Holocaust survivors and their children. Even men were wiping their eyes.

That was not "mass entertainment". It was personal, real, and life changing. I came away from that evening both counting my blessings (in spite of not having work right now), yet feeling that we need to learn from the past to prepare for the future. The truth is, another holocaust may be in the making as we sit here right now. And I suspect that "may be" is not as accurage a word as "is".

Who is to say that any of us won't experience the horrors of the Eastern European Jews during WWII? As a Jew, I could say, "It could have been me" and in fact, it was my relatives who did not make it to the US in time. I met my great uncle in Israel in 1979, who spent 7 years in a Siberian labor camp. He was a skinny wirey guy who had a few talents that the guards needed him for, so he asked for a little extra food in order to help them with fixing things and for making toys for their children. 7,000 went into that camp. 700 came out. My uncle was one of the lucky ones.

Did someone say something like mass entertainment is the opiate of the masses? While everyone is involved in useless media, the gov't can slip anything in under their noses and they won't even notice...until it is too late.

I'll get off my soapbox now...

[nx8games]

It effects behavior towards others, money, fashion, beliefs,family. pretty much everything in life.