Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Hunter S. Thompson and the Media

Hunter S. Thompson and the Media in "Hell's Angels"

"àthe media help create and continuously reinforce the "social scripts" that adolescents act out in their daily lives. Much of what goes on in entertainment (movies and TV) is a reflection of what goes on in the news; the media echo messages young people hear at school ù in particular, themes of violence and sex are constantly reinforced" - John Merrow, 1999.

"The report was colorful, interesting, heavily biased and consistently alarmingùjust the short of thing to make a clanging good item for the national press" (Thompson 37). "Although this was written in 1966, it is obvious that the media, its actions and its effect, is even more consistent with this account than it was forty years ago. The purpose of this paper is to discuss Hunter S. Thompson's ideas about the media as indicated in his 1966 book, Hell's Angels and to consider the proposition that these thoughts are still relevant to today's society.

Violence in our society, perpetrated by criminals, mentally unstable and easily influenced individuals produce effects that are more far-reaching and destructive to society than the physical damage they produce. It has been proposed that the media, through news reports and fictitious depictions of violence, directly influence others to commit such acts themselves. It is proposed that, similar to a contagious disease, witnessing or reading about a violent crime often can pass the idea of such behavior along to individuals who may never have conceived of such a thing on their own. Human behavior reporting influences future human behaviors (Jennings, 2005).

Thompson's opinion of the voracity of the media for lurid sensation is in evidence shortly after the opening of the book: the Hell's Angels, he maintains, "à owe most of their success to a curious rape mania that rides on the shoulder of American journalism like some jeering, masturbating raven. Nothing grabs ...

Page 1 of 4 Next >

More on Hunter S. Thompson and the Media...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
Hunter S. Thompson and the Media. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 11:16, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1688017.html