unit 1 issue 1

Yes, American values are shaped by the mass media.  How could it not? The media today is non stop 24/7.  One only has to turn on their cell phone, computer, or televison and its easy to find some sort of news.  The unfortunate thing is that with a few exceptions like PBS, news stations are businesses and like any other business they are looking to make a profit.  Each major news station like ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox all compete to deliever news to the people.  Their objective is to be the first one broadcast the news, keep you entertained, and not change the channel to another station.  This urge to be first unfortunately causes some news stations to "jump the gun" sometimes before verifying all of the facts. Each news stations chooses the stories and messages it wants to put out there.  In todays society where electronics rule, people have become dependent on information being handed to them.  The information being handed out has already been slanted to reflect the views of the media thats handing it out.   People today are using this as a way to form their beliefs and values.  In earlier times most beliefs and values were driven from personal experience.  Now that people have become less hands on and more dependent upon others for information the media is taking advantage of the situation by broadcasting to the public its ideals and beliefs