Media Exposure and Its Effects

As I've been working on my paper I have been doing a lot of different research about not only gender portrayals in sitcoms and how they have or have not changed, but also the consequences of constantly being exposed to the media.  Statistics show that Americans spend around 2.7 hours a day watching television and people ages 18-24 spend approximately 32 hours per week on the internet and social media.  With so much media exposure it seems only natural that we be affected by the images and ideas conveyed, right?  One of the major topics of my paper is the psychological consequences attributed with media objectification, profanity and violence including internalizing these images as not only normal but "embraced"and encouraging low self-esteem amongst women especially.  The media holds an immense amount of power in shaping our attitudes about ourselves and others and provides the "message and the messenger" to men and women all over the world.  Last year I had the pleasure of taking Stacy Smith's Communication 203: Communication and The Mass Media and learned a lot more about the severe consequences of a media that is appearance obsessed and entertainment driven rather than propelled by fact and wholesome entertainment.  At the end of the day Hollywood does what "works" and "sells" in the industry and often turns a blind eye.  Check out a trailer of the fascinating documentary Miss Representation, which premiered on the OWN network last spring.  It discusses the true destructive power of the media in exploiting women and the underrepresentation that is not only tainting our nation's politics and social movements but also shaping younger generations' low self-esteem and feelings of inferiority both on and off screen.  Do you think showing this film to students will have a positive or negative effect on the way they view themselves and the media? Do you think it will backfire and instead reinforce media stereotypes, or will it cause upheaval and anger which will propel change? Why? Do you think men and women will ever truly achieve parity?