Most colleges in the US are full of significant policies and ideas that never get transformed from the laboratories to the market. It is because college administrators lack marketing skills and the fact that social media covers issues within the college in an ambiguous manner. The way media portrays college students particularly the movies gives an unrealistic view of how they live and provides a false picture of college life. Media channels give unreasonable concepts of what college students are in that they imply that students are party seekers, lazy non-working individuals, and people with plenty of time to waste. This essay, therefore, seeks to explain how media portrays the college system and students.
Sometimes media representations may exaggerate colleges due to their diversity. Films have some power in that they can present an up-close picture of a reasonably vague entity or a notion to many people in which the anonymity of these notions originates from the people’s lack of knowledge. Therefore, providing a film or any form of media is definite; people embrace its message without weighing its accuracy or veracity, particularly if an audience is unacquainted with the picture portrayed by the media. Among the films that show higher education, the common ones concentrate on the social phases of a university or college and overlook parts concerning academics. Given that the media is very influential, it has supported poor descriptions of colleges in the Americans’ minds. For example, in the big bang Theory, Penny, an ex-college student who is currently an attendant at the Cheesecake Factory, asks Sheldon Cooper, a theoretical physicist who has two doctorates, if she can inquire something. Sheldon says, “Given that you have a college education, I encourage you to ask as many as possible. It implies that Sheldon is superior to Penny because she only attended college. In a way, this film indicates going to college is a waste of time given that Penny learned in college and later became a waitress.
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The article “A look at the Stereotypical College Student” by Kirsten Hoverman, has captivating ideas on the issue regarding how college students are viewed. This article is written to essentially give a picture of how college life is depicted in movies for instance “Animal House.” Hoverman indicates that college apprentices are depicted as alcoholics, lazy, sex maniacs, and self-absorbed people who only think of attending parties from Monday to Monday. However, Media doesn’t cover every event that occurs in the lives of college pupils. The article states that at a point in college, people get to do crazy things like going to parties, getting drunk, enjoy lazy days of doing nothing, avoid attending lessons, drink all night and extend to the afternoon, and this is relatable in a way. It is a form of having fun in the campus, but when it comes to movies, they make the world believe that all students do party, drugs, drink, and sex which is not cool at all. Students need to be epitomized with extra credit.
A close examination of significant sources such as “How to be a College Student,” “22 Jump Street”, and “Animal House,” explore into common cultures images of a regular day college student, including the kinds of stigma that are linked to them. Given that I am currently a college student myself, I can declare that despite the images depicted by the media, students also have lives outside of school. Being a college student is a task itself, and it comes along with numerous responsibilities. Some students have acquired actual full-time jobs that they handle besides class assignments (Becker, 2017). There are also groups and meaningful relationships which need attention. This alone can make a student lack enough time even to exercise, eat, and stay healthy. It, therefore, becomes offensive for the media to portray students as full-time party animals who have no important matters to deal with. Living as a student comes with so much stress that the movies don’t correctly portray to the society; instead, they sugar coat the situation. Scandals and Strikes at the campus are frequently enthusiastically taken up by the conventional press, while the jurisdictions of academic papers that have been published on vital topics are often given minimum attention (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005). Over the past years, with the detonation of the social media and prompt news broadcasting over the internet, colleges have found it difficult to correct their already tainted image and control whatever that press releases to the society. It, therefore, lets media reporting to outline public policy discussions on public education carelessly.
In the movie “22 Jump Street”, there is a drug that is new in the market, and for the detectives to find out where it is sold, who sells them, and stop the activities, they have to camouflage as students. The action is somewhat ironic given that they need to hire detectives to attend college simply because they want to curb a new drug implies that drug business is a common activity on the campus. These detectives join the campus with an already built, notion of how the campus is and what they need to do to fit in. Considering that they had never been on campus, it implies that society has a horrible picture of the campus students. The movie has an aspect of reality as much some behaviour like partying, and other incorrect images were exaggerated. Aubrey Murtha in “10 Inaccurate College Kid Stereotypes as Portrayed by the Media” also covers some stereotypes within the college. Her article explores a few stereotypes all through college right from the athlete, sorority girl frat star, 4.0 student, and the stoner. According to this article, athletes are regarded as “dumb as a stump and unmotivated unless the task at hand involves squats, deadlifting or protein shakes” while the 4.0 student “frets about any and every academic assignment, and his dedication to his school work always pays off with very high marks at the end of the semester”. These predetermined opinions the two actors in “22 Jump Street” imitate the views of this Murtha’s article.
In conclusion, the media has played a significant role in controlling the views of people in the world around them, and mainly creating a negative picture to the society on the activities that go on campus. Most movies show that campus students spend most of their time drinking, doing drugs, and attending parties which are not the case (Fredette, 2016). The same media which captures all forms of evil that happen in campus outlook the struggle students suffer. In the same campus which has students that party all night and all day, other students struggle to balance work and studies to the point they do not have time to exercise and eat healthily. It is therefore upon each to choose which course to follow instead of blindly following people with an attempt to fit in.
References
Becker, H. S. (2017). Making the grade: The academic side of college life . Routledge.
Fredette, J., Mawn, B., Hood, K., & Fain, J. (2016). Quality of life of college students living with type 1 diabetes: A qualitative view. Western journal of nursing research , 38 (12), 1595-1610.
Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (2005). How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research. Volume 2. Jossey-Bass, an Imprint of Wiley. 10475 Crosspoint Blvd, Indianapolis, IN 46256.
