Communications and Media: Sex, Lies, Media

Sex, Lies, and Media (reflection response)
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In Sex, Love, and Romance in the Mass Media, the author, Galician, (2004) argues that from a young age, many people are presented with various myths, and hard to break stereotypes of love, sex, and romance in the popular media. These forms of media may include books, magazines, television, radio, music, news and advertisements. She goes on to articulate that; mass media has become an influential mechanism of socialization which basically relies on distortion of real facts, simplifications, use of stereotypes and dramatic symbols in relaying their messages. Owing to this aspect, the author cautions individuals not to feel amused if they found themselves anticipating unrealistic things. The author laments that the portrayal of false sex, love and romance images in the mass media has affected individuals in the sense that, most are under pressure to match up with the myths presented by media. She says that the unrealistic expectations constructed by media leads to not only depression but also other equally dangerous dysfunctions.
Galician’s book focuses on the twelve common myths, and stereotypes that could be found in major media today. She presents these myths as “Dr. FUN!'S Mass Media Love Quiz” right in the beginning of the book. In the main body of this book, she then works on responding and critiquing each of these myths in accordance to what she terms as her prescription encapsulating health strategies which may be unfavorable to the mass media. She goes on to claim that her prescription with regard to such myths will assist the audience in acquiring essential knowledge on identifying, evaluating, deconstructing and reframing the myths of sex, love romance and stereotypes commonly portrayed in mass media. These prescriptions, she goes on will assist readers to critically evaluate and clarify their individual values either, as consumers or creators of mass communication and in turn share this knowledge with other people.
In support of Galician sentiments Yerkovich, (2006) observes that media has continued to feed human beings “a regular diet” that has co...