It is difficult for most to think of media as a social institution. Most people just view the many aspects of the media as television signals, movie projection, or radio waves.

Media Economics: The reason media is not equally available to all audiences. “Ads that sell commodities . . . to audiences are part of a system in which media corporations sell audiences as commodities to advertisers.” (Budd et al., 1990, p. 172)   Television is crafted as a way to access a particular market

 A market that has money to spend on products they see advertised or placed in television shows or movies.

Media & Power: The United States is based on a consumer culture, so understanding media is a way to understand power and how it manifests itself in media   Media exert power over how people “do gender”

  All forms of media influence social norms concerning gender, race, class, nationality, etc.

  This is because such social norms provide models for what is “masculine” or “feminine” and encourage the purchase of certain products to make people more like a man or woman

Realistic beauty vs. Unobtainable beauty

An example of airbrushing to provide a female ideal body

  When media is thought of as a gendered institution, many think of the female depiction in media and the level of unobtainable beauty women are constantly struggling with. This is represented in movies, music, television, magazines, etc. However, men also struggle with body image and the way masculinity is represented in media. Media is an interlocking system making it impossible for such images and pre-conceived ideals to be present in just one form. Media is all-consuming and overwhelming. Due to this, misrepresentation of gender is a very common theme, which leads to larger issues such as violence, discrimination, and rape.