8 An Introduction to Clearer Thinkingadult is often difficult to cope with. Adolescence is an age of
powerful needs; if those needs are not filled by family, church,
school, or society, the small peer group becomes disproportion
ately important in a young person’s life— and the young lead the
young.
Finally, the mass media are powerful affecters of attitudes.
Newspapers, magazines, radio, movies, and, most importantly,
television provide huge amounts of information, all of which
affects our attitudes about the issues they discuss. Today, mass
media provides information instantly to everyone about inci
dents that happen in the farthest reaches of the globe.
One of the problems inherent in the very concept of mass
media is the idea of “mass.” How does a magazine provide
weekly information for a mass audience? At what level is the
language used, how deeply can the complexity of the issues be
discussed, how controversial can an article be to appeal to a mass
audience? It seems fairly apparent that the larger the circulation
of a magazine becomes, the more bland the content must also
become. Most large circulation magazines have a reading level
that appeals to a sixth-grader.
Radio and movies are basically entertainment media, and
therefore their contribution to knowledge is less dependent upon
fact than it is upon impact. The impact of such entertainment
vehicles can and does affect attitudes. The problem posed here
is that there is a minimum of factual information presented with
a maximum of content for effect. To develop attitudes on the
basis of information gathered from these two mediums is to
make judgments based on an emotional response. Radio and
movies are mediums whose very success rest on their ability to
manipulate emotions.
The problems with newspapers is that newspapers try to
present information as soon as the event happens. Speed and
efficiency are the goals of most newspapers. Get the news “out
while it’s hot.” Unhappily, speed and accuracy are often mutu
ally exclusive. On June 29, 1985, the Associated Press reported
“39 U.S. hostages leaving for Syria.” Good news but simply not
true. The hostages were not released for another two days.
Probably one of the most famous pictures in the world is of Harry
S. Truman smiling broadly, holding a newspaper with the
premature headline, “Dewey Defeats Truman.” Obviously, er