NOTE: Controversial advertisements accompany this column. They should be viewed only by mature audiences.

Last week, a professor of mine brought my class’s attention to the fact that there’s a lot of danger in not understanding the context of the mass media we consume.

I think about how many mornings I flick on the T.V. in the living room and catch just a glimpse of the news while I brush my teeth, straighten my hair, do my makeup and throw my arms into my shirt all at the same time.

How many mornings do I then go on with my day, repeating just pieces of what I heard because it made for exciting news? If I hear something and repeat it falsely, how many people overhear a part of what I say and then in turn repeat it incorrectly?

What happens when news starts out as false or misrepresented before anyone ever sees it?

The answers to the above are the same — people can get hurt. Sometimes wrong information leads to physical harm, but more often than not, it’s detrimental when people develop incorrect perceptions of their world, societies, cultures and selves based on faulty or fleeting information.

Unfortunately, we, as a culture, want news entertaining and we want it now.

When that speedy information is inaccurate or taken out of context but accepted as fact, the results of such easily accessible and wide-spread communication can be disastrous.

Think of Orson Welles’ contemporary reading of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. The play was performed on a CBS radio station in 1938 as if it were an actual, real-time broadcast of a Martian invasion. Though the radio announcers made a statement at the beginning that the play was fictional, those tuning in part way through immediately went into a panic, believing the world was truly being destroyed by aliens.

More recent examples include a singularly controversial episode of Beavis and Butthead that aired on MTV in 1993. The “cat episode” featured the two stoners discussing the possibilities and logistics of killing a cat by sticking a firecracker up its anus.

Though Beavis and Butthead never killed a cat, many put the suggestions to life and cats wound up — let’s say, rendered unalive — across the country.

When media is taken out of context, bad things do happen. Even if information is correct and credible, if the writers’, producers’ or advertisers’ intentions are misunderstood, the backlash can cost millions.

The Breast Cancer Fund promoted a campaign in 2000 with three different controversial posters to increase awareness. The ads featured beautiful women with single or double mastectomy scars. The ads were designed to look like Victoria’s Secret, Cosmopolitan and Calvin Klein ads — all of which are known to use large breasts to sell products.

Instead of sparking talk, awareness or pride in the women’s beauty and sexuality despite no longer fitting society’s image of “beautiful,” many reacted with horror or shock to the ads, claiming they were too graphic.

The Fund’s intent was to show that until we honor women and their bodies as a culture, we can never beat a disease that attacks one of the most profound female symbols.

I realize that many in society are intelligent enough to know the difference between cartoon and reality, between blatant lies and fact. Sometimes, however, the line between what we perceive to be true does gray and we entirely miss the point.

In one episode, Beavis said to Butthead, “The future sucks. Change it.” And Butthead replied, “I’m way cool, Beavis, but I cannot change the future.”

He was wrong. We can all change the future — and it starts with correctly understanding and appreciating the present. Don’t take anything at face value, especially during an election year. Be responsible for your own knowledge and act accordingly.