In more recent times the power of media has been recognized and wielded in very effective marketing campaigns for many products and services.  When a movie like “”Avatar” comes out, it is accompanied by a mass marketing plan that includes products in places like McDonalds, and action figures for children, clothes, items in cereal boxes, and the list goes on.  These actions are coordinated because it is understood that there is power in a managed, focused  message.  Can there be any doubt that many in the media have an agenda and attempt to shape the way certain segments of society view issues and other segments of society?

    On March 4, 2012, for instance,  ABC aired a program entitled “GCB.”  This is not the original title, which can not be repeated in this publication.  The purpose of this program could be nothing less than the demeaning of Christianity and the blaspheming of the name of God.  The Media Research Center reports that “In just three episodes, the anything-but-Christian show has chalked up more than 100 anti-Christian remarks, gags and plot twists, in a calculated attempt to offend believers.”1  It has been frequently observed that a show of this type would never be made attacking Islam.  Clearly the purpose of this show is to minimize the good influence of Christianity in American culture.

    Read the lyrics to the top-ten downloaded songs in any given year and you will find that much of the so-called music is as far from godly as possible.  In 2011, there was a top-ten song by someone called “Snoop Dogg” entitled “Young, Wild and Free.”  The chorus of that song contained these lines: “So what we get drunk/So what we smoke weed/We’re just having fun/We don’t care who sees/So what we go out/That’s how its supposed to be/Living young and wild and free.”  The number one song of that year was titled “Sexy & I know it.”2  The video that accompanied it is extremely vulgar.  Why promote these vulgarities?  It is simply an attempt to destroy traditional values.

    The Huff Post is an on-line liberal newspaper.  If you have AOL, you automatically get it fed into your homepage.  Without fail, anytime there is any religious news to report, it will always be something that destroys faith in God or in the Bible, His word.  For example, on this day, two of the stories featured on the Huff Post page on religion seek to put doubt into the mind of the readers in the truth of the Bible.  One story asks, “Did Jesus Exist?”  The other story asks, “What really happened to Paul on the road to Damascus?” as though the Bible was not clear on the matter.  Only stories that put any religion but Christianity in a good light are published and celebrated.

    When one is given a steady dose of a particular, slanted viewpoint coated in the implication that if you do not believe this then you are out of the mainstream, or are somehow to be marginalized, then it becomes easy for those who desire to be “mainstream” but who do not think critically, to be swayed in their thinking.  The media is a powerful influence. Hopefully, people are realizing the attempt by the media to influence their thoughts.  A Sacred Heart University Poll found “86.0% agreed (strongly or somewhat) that the news media attempts to influence public policies”3 It is time for people to wake up and realize the attack on the truth of God.

EndNotes

1.  http://www.mrc.org/articles/gcb-come-christian-baiting-stay-bad-sex-jokes.

2.  http://www.top10songs.com/archive2011.htm

3.   http://www.sacredheart.edu/pages20786_americans_slam_news_media_on_believability.cfm?searchterm=media

    There can be no question but that television programs, music, magazines, influential newspapers, the internet, podcasts, and other media outlets are all sources that attempt to influence the way we view the world.  If a famous actress wears a certain outfit or hairstyle, it may well become the fashion for millions of teenagers and adults alike in our country and around the world.  Farah Fawcett certainly changed the way many young women wore their hair during the seventies.  Millions of children often said “That’s the name of that tune,” simply because “Baretta” (Robert Blake) used that expression on a weekly television program.  “Where’s the beef” is another expression that found it’s way into our culture simply because of a commercial.