Media And Children's Aggression, Fear, And Altruism

Next, the type of media consumed by children can affect their development. The article, Media and Children’s Aggression, Fear, and Altruism, by Barbara J. Wilson, PhD, head of the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, explains that it has more to do with the type of media consumed versus how much time is spent consuming it. While developing through childhood, a person learns the customs and values of their society. Since children are spending more time than ever in front of screens, they learn a great deal from the media they consume rather than from face to face interactions. Thus, it is important to expose children to media that promotes social interaction and positive values rather than violence and

Many fears can develop in a child from media exposure. For instance, a child may not be afraid of clowns until they watch a show about a scary, people eating clown. Since children are getting less and less time interacting with each other face to face, they will also have to learn how to react to different situations from their media exposure. If all they consume is violence, they will most likely learn to react violently or in a comparable manner to what they are familiar with (Wilson, 2008). Children also are learning how to identify the emotions of others. Most children can identify basic emotions, but struggle with more complex ones. Studies show that children remember emotions better when expressed by a person rather than a cartoon character. If the child is not getting a lot of interaction with others, it is important to expose them to real characters over cartoon characters (Wilson, 2008). It is important to mix up the lineup for them regularly and limit overall animated programing. Wilson states that if children are subjected to situational comedies and educational television, they can be positively affected in their altruism and tolerance

With children viewing more and more media, it is important to understand the impact it is having on them. Heather L Kirkorian, postdoctoral research associate at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Ellen A. Wartella, executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of California-Riverdale, and Daniel R. Anderson, professor at the university of Massachusetts-Amherst, examined children under two years of age in their study, Media and Young Children’s Learning. A conclusion was made that educational programming can have positive effects on children academically while violent programming can have negative effects on children academically (Kirkorian et al,