When looking for an article that argues for media effects, I searched for an article on Ebsco Host and found an online journal article regarding the "Effects of Sexy TV." I was interested in the topic because it seemed prevalent to a lot of the behavior of people my age and I wondered if there was a correlation. There was a lot of difficult language when I was trying to see what this article was trying to prove but I think I was eventually able to make some discernings about the content.

The source for my article was Journal of Sex Research, May 2005, Vol. 42 Issue 2, p130, 8p. It was composed by Laramie D. Taylor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The purpose of Taylor’s argument, I believe is to create a greater distinction between previous studies of effects of sexual television and his own, which attempts to prove more specific content analysis. Taylor says:

“Based on the information processing model of media effects, I proposed that the messages embodied in such content, the degree to which viewers perceive television content as realistic, and whether sexual content is conveyed using visual or verbal symbols may influence the nature or degree of such effects. I explored this possibility through an experiment in which 182 college undergraduates were exposed to visual or verbal sexual television content, neutral television content, or no television at all prior to completing measures of sexual attitudes and beliefs. Although exposure to sexual content generally did not produce significant main effects, it did influence the attitudes of those who perceive television to be relatively realistic. Verbal sexual content was found to influence beliefs about women's sexual activity among the same group.”

What I thought was interesting was even though many of the points that the author investigated had weak outcomes, there was still that chance that there was some form of influence, which I think means that no matter what the situation is, we are all somehow affected by media, especially television, because it’s such a common form of media and one of the most prevalent. Even if people don’t have a computer, they usually have a television and the way that children are raised today, it seems like a lot of parents just plop their kids right in front of the TV and expect Sesame Street to teach them all they need to know. It’s not that these programs aren’t helpful, but it seems that sometimes some parents, not all, but some definitely depend on the education of television, and to me it makes sense that a lot of teens are having sex early, especially because of what they see on television, teens taking “the next step,” “going all the way,” etc. It’s really frustrating that kids think this is okay when they’re only fourteen, I mean I hear my brother talking about kids his age already having had sex, or experimenting like when they’re just out of elementary school…that’s just a little too young, especially with extended life spans and such---with a potentially longer time to live, why experience these things so soon when you can get an education first and avoid being poor or homeless cause you’re raising kids you had when you were like 16 or something. It leaves fewer children off the street, eases the exploding population of adoption centers, etc., and especially in the instance that a child isn’t planned, I think it eases the stress between parents and their kids. If they didn’t want a kid to begin with, they might have relationships that are strained. If they planned having kids however, I think it would promote healthier parent/child relationships.

So my conclusion in relation to Taylor’s is that despite the fact that “Sexy TV” may have fewer effects than expected, it’s still important to recognize that people are affected by sexy TV and that even if one believes they are invincible, one can still be influenced by things one sees on television, and that somehow maybe this sort of genre should be monitored. It could also create unrealistic fantasies that people might tend to think are realistic, especially the more realistic the images are. Just something important to think about I think. Because I think people need to realize that “Sexy TV” doesn’t just promote more sex, it promotes unsafe sex, because a lot of it doesn’t seem to realistically portray possibilities of those side effects, like STDs.

So the next time you watch TV, realize, no matter how powerful you think you are, you are affected so subtly sometimes by what you watch on television, and step back from the big picture and look at your situation in context. Has anything changed in your views?

And I’m not trying to sound uber conservative or anything, cause I’m not, but how easily are you being influenced, and is it making you be less safe in your behaviors? Because ultimately you could end up with a kid or some STD in a situation that you didn’t expect anything out of. So instead of following the Nike slogan, “Just Do It,” I think something more appropriate would be, “Just think it, before you do it, then either do or don’t do it based on your conclusions.”
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Over Thanksgiving Break I did watch a lot of television but I was frustrated with the fact that I did not find many Thanksgiving images in the shows and movies I watched. It seemed like a lot of the movies were Christmas ones and they even were announcing New Years celebrations and plans for the end of the year. It surprised me because it just seems so early for that kind of stuff, but apparently people are interested.

The difference might have been, however that my parents got cable for the first time this year and the first time in my life and the channels were different than they have been in the past. So when I was expecting to see Charlie Brown’s Christmas aired on Thanksgiving like it usually is on public television, I didn’t find that to be true this time around. I found they just played classic movies or holiday movies. But there weren’t that many holiday movies that I saw on television.

I have to say I was disappointed in the way of finding Thanksgiving images. The only Thanksgiving idea that I recognized was having turkey, squash and stuffing with my family. But my grandmother even decided to mix the meal up a bit because she has this new thing for Indian cooking. She made curry rice and we didn’t have the regular gravy that we usually have. She made this sauce that I didn’t want to eat at first from the look of it. Not with turkey at least. She had made this white cream sauce that had some sort of red spice in it, either paprika or cumin or some sort of Indian spice that she’d gotten from a shop in Nashua and she’d steamed red peppers and onions and added them to it and it was SOO good. My mouth is watering just thinking about. I guess my point to this is it was a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, except for this change in gravy and the rice, but it was still delicious.

One thing that I’ve noticed when thinking back on this is that holidays have certainly changed over the years. Traditions aren’t necessarily as strict as they used to be. It’s not just one type of food. I remember how two years ago my grandfather cooked some sort of clam sauce for Fourth of July and I was “appalled” if you will because I was so used to hamburgers and hot dogs on the Fourth of July. It’s what you look forward to. The cold rich summer foods. But it’s definitely an interesting idea. Traditions and values are changing in regards to holidays. Thanksgiving does not seem as commercialized as it used to be. Right after Halloween, stores take out the Christmas stuff: even when it’s October. I noticed that in a visit to Colonial Pharmacy not long after Halloween was over.

I think it’s kind of sad that we are losing this holiday. I think it might not be in existence any longer if it weren’t for the fact that it is a national holiday that everyone gets off. This is a totally hypothetical and rhetorical idea, but what if we got rid of Thanksgiving being a National Holiday? People could still celebrate it, but they wouldn’t get it off sort of like religious holidays like Ramadan and Yom Kippur. Those aren’t national holidays, but they still get celebrated. Would Thanksgiving be more important? Would we be more grateful and long for meaning behind Thanksgiving? Just something to think about.