Michael Medved Part 1

In October 1994, Michael Medved spoke to Ricks College about "Hollywood's Three Big Lies about Media and Society" 

Michael Medved started out his argument that Hollywood (meaning the people involved in any form of media; director, producer, actor, script writer, etc.) is damaging society with a very convincing and interesting statistic concerning how much time children really spend watching television.  He said that by the time a child turns six, he will have watched more TV than he would ever spend with his father in a lifetime.  In his argument, he points out that

Hollywood claims that they don’t affect people through their entertainment.  But how could they not, when so much time is spent consuming the media?  According to Medved, thethree big lies that Hollywood claims are: 

“(1) we just entertain, we don’t influence people; 

(2)we just reflect society as it is, we don’t shape society; and 

(3) if you don’t like it, just turn it off.” 

           He talks about the three different lies and goes into detail explaining how and what they are lying and covering up.  He has examples and thought-provoking information in each category.  For the first lie he talks about how if a thirty second commercial can change your opinion or cause you

to buy something, then why wouldn’t a two hour long movie have an influence on you?  For the second lie he addresses the fact that so many things on television are blown way out of proportion and often don’t portray life as it really is.  For the third lie, he talks about how we don’t always choose what we hear or see.  To close his paper, he readdresses the three lies and has solutions for them in the form of three truths.  

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