by Carole Cox

Created on: February 27, 2009

Hollywood has a huge impact and unfortunately, I believe it to be negative. This is not only due to their enormous social responsibility, but also in political and economic issues by the simple nature of their presence. Their greatest audience is in young, impressionable persons who will look to characters on a screen or the people who play them for guidance. This not only leads to risky social interactions but irresponsible voting and work habits. Although I applaud the great work that many Hollywood icons perform for charitable causes, I feel it falls short in balancing the negative impact they produce through their own lifestyle and scripts based on sensational and immoral characters.

For many, the path they take in life is influenced by what they see on TV or in the movies. I have recently been a little alarmed at what I hear in Prime Time Sitcoms. Is it acceptable to discuss masturbation and frivolous sex on a TV show billed in the sitcom venue? Drunkenness is presented as "funny", not risky. The words carried in many Rap and Hip Hop rhythmic poetry (I cannot use the word song) is demeaning and vulgar as well as violent.

The most recent elections is an excellent example of how Hollywood can make a negative impact on our society. Working with the media, they influenced young people to vote for an individual with little or no experience. How many Hollywood personalities have college degrees at all or more particularly ones in Political Science or Economics? They have no right to take such public stands and influence impressionable people. Their own financial status, based on a glamour factor rather than work ethic, makes them ineligible because their lifestyle is so unlike the greatest portion of the population. Just because an actor plays a president on TV, doesn't mean he could be one or even has a great knowledge or how to be one.

Who has the most time to watch TV or go the movies? Adult working people with experience and responsibility who own their own opinions? No, it is the young and impressionable who are still seeking their own selves who are the greatest target of movies and television. In other words, they are more likely to vote base on the influence of an actor or the characters they play than on. They are going to dress like the people they see on popular magazine article and behave like celebrities. We are left with a person who will dress like Brittany Spears, vote like Susan Sarandon and behave like Joaquin Phoenix. This is not to say that these celebrities are always wrong but it most often their negative moments that the media tends to present.

This leads to the entire point of this article; that the influence of Hollywood is going to be inherently negative because trash sells. The media isn't interested in how hard these people work, how many sacrifices they make or whether or not their opinions have credibility. It is the bizarre and ridiculous that sells and that is what becomes and influence.
Free speech must remain but it would be of great benefit if it were free speech with consideration; consideration toward the values and goals of a positive society.

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