The Media Psychology Blog

It’s fitting that my very first blog post, as in, any blog, ever, was spurred by yesterday’s purchase of a to celebrate our 12-year wedding anniversary. Sure, jewelery and perfume and flowers are romantic, but for a true television lover like myself, nothing beats watching a show about a horrific medical anomaly in brilliant high def. When my husband yelled up the stairs last night “The show about the baby with eight limbs is on a high definition channel,” I practically fainted. It actually felt like I was in the operating room with the surgeons, and I wanted to reach out and mop the sweat off of their perspiring brows.

Yes, I love television, and I’m not afraid to shout it from the rooftop for all the world to hear. Trust me, I know TV has a bad rep, and I have heard and read all the arguments about how insidious, awful, and mind-dulling it is. As one of the few proud recipients of a Master’s Degree in popular culture (with a specialization in television studies-my parents could not be more proud) it has been my job to seek out and read these kinds of condemnations. I am the first person to point out the rampant racism, classism, misogyny, violence and homophobia in American media (or as my college students would say, “ruining TV for them”), and have brought many a good time to a grinding halt with my rantings about everything from the evils of Elmo to the atrocities of Ally McBeal.

The great thing about academic media studies, besides being able to write cable off on your taxes, is that you get to discover all the good things that media can do. There is no denying that it is perhaps the most powerful force in shaping cultural beliefs that we have, but what if we could use that power as a force for good? What if our collective knowledge and expertise about Britney’s custody battle and Suri’s haircut could be transferred into political awareness and action, or empathy for others? What if the analytical thinking and creative problem solving inherent in our much-maligned young folks’ video game competence could be used to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, like clean water, food shortages, and AIDS? That’s the kind of thinking that drives us folks at the Media Psychology Research Center and FableVision to do what we do, and what eases my conscience a smidge when I am in my 4th hour of the ubiquitous America’s Next Top Model marathon. Tyra Banks is a worthy opponent, and I figure we have to know what we are up against if we are going to change the world.