Mass+Media

=**How does mass media affect the way people interact with others (personally and nationally)?**=

The way people are portrayed in mass media has a big effect on how they're treated and looked at in real life. When one looks at what the mass media is exploring now, people can pretty much assume that Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton are treated exactly how the media portrays them: loose, "no-moral" druggies. However, when real world events are talked about like the Iraq War, things that someone will hear in the media can either greatly affect the interaction of people or not affect interaction between people at all.

In __Naked In Baghdad__ by Anne Garrels, all the Iraqis would hear about back in 2003 was about how President Bush kept threatening to invade Iraq and about how Americans supposedly were only in this for oil. This could've affected their responses and reactions to Anne Garrels, an American National Public Radio correspondent who was there in Iraq for an assignment, but they were still open to her questions and treated her like family. She faced many problems concerning food and electricity during her assignment there, but had no difficulties in interacting with the Iraqis.

In __Per____sian Girls__ by Nahid Rachlin, the main character Nahid and her sister Pari often sneaked into the local movie theater to watch American movies. Unlike their family, the two girls took the movies literally and believed in their messages of marrying for true love. Their family didn't like American movies because it didn't agree with their religion, so this affected how the family treated and interacted with the two girls. The family would put their middle daughter Manijeh first because she herself didn't believe in the American movies and followed the religion strictly just like her family did.

 "Pari, you're under the influence of those American movies. Their idea of individual happiness is selfish and it has hurt their sense of family life. That's why so many Americans are miserable, lonely, killing themselves with drugs and alcohol. What we have is superior; each person should think of the happiness of the whole." (Rachlin 171). This quote shows the reader how Pari's family interacted with her. Pari always listened to the mass media causing her parents to treat her differently and tell her their own opinions of the Americans.

According to the Denverpost.com, State Rep. Douglas Bruce made some very [|stereotypical remarks] about migrant workers from Mexico. He was on the floor of the Colorado house, debating about a bill that would help immigrant workers get temporary visas when he said, "I would like to have the opportunity to state at the microphone why I don't think we need 5,000 more illiterate peasants in Colorado." This shocked the House, causing Rep. and chairwoman during the debate Kathleen Curry, to tell Bruce that he was no longer recognized to speak. Even though Bruce is his own man, he probably speaks for a lot of people who feel that way because of what they hear in the media. What the media says about Mexicans, Middle Easterns, and any other race greatly impacts people's views on them. Bruce is an example of one who stereotyped Mexicans from what he heard in the media.



= = = = = = = = Fender, Jessica. "More rebukes for Bruce." 22 Apr. 2008 22 Apr. 2008 <[|http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_9007729>. Garrels, Anne. __Naked in Bagdad__. New York, NY: Picador, 2003. Rachlin, Nahid. __Persian Girls__. 2007. New York, NY: The Penguin Group, 2006. = =
 * Bibliography**