Media Effect on Today’s Youth Media plays a strong hand in the development of a child in society. Youth are easily influenced and could think actions of unsavory morals are appropriate because it was in media. This is a major problem today as the news make reports of children intentionally committing crimes as big as murder. Children are experimenting with drugs and alcohol at an earlier age and there is even a show dedicated to teen moms on MTV. Of course, media is not the only force at fault here as peers and parents are just as much to blame as media. The media is full of violence, sex and the use of addictive substances, that affects youth negatively. Being a youth in today’s society is challenging. On a daily basis, many positive and negative influences are thrown at us; Without proper guidance, a child could have a tough time distinguishing between right and wrong when their are many outlets to affect their decisions. In my elementary school we had a mentor who would talk to the men in the school. Occasionally these talks involved not being influenced by what we see people in media doing. He always spoke of how being an athlete or a celebrity is a job that few can get in because many individuals always want a place. I used to wonder how my friends could be so influenced by an athlete’s actions to want to be just like them. I have witnessed how television and music can influence a mind in both positive and negative ways. That being said, a negative influence is more common among the minds of youth. Television is the biggest outlet for violence in society. Households that lack a television are few and far between. People have all imitated something they’ve seen as children. Acting like we can fly after watching a superman movi... ... middle of paper ... ...uence declining would, of course, involve parents limiting the different media uses, but not seen as a punishment as a way to have more quality time with family. All media are intertwined with society. Media can change and influence adult minds on certain decisions, even their outlook on different aspects of life. If adults fall prey to media influence, how can this generations youth fight against it? Media contains violence, sex, and substance abuse that make an impression on children and teens. If the youth continues its current path of sex, drugs and violence, our country will become dystopian society, where no one feels safe. Media can do its part and reduce the sex, drug, and violence that’s broadcasted, but the parents of the youth should spend more time without media to make sure their children understand what is fiction and what is acceptable in our society.
1. I think media has a great impact on how people behave. The media is defined as listening to music, watching TV, movies, reading magazines, and searching the internet. I think when people here about certain things in songs, or see things in movies or on television it has an effect on them. If there is violence in a TV show or on the news kids can think that's cool to do and do it. A lot of movies show fighting and violence and it effects people and they may do what they see. Television in the home is the greatest source of visual violence for children. Video games expose young children to a level of violence unimaginable. The news also creates fear .
Not only are the media at fault for influencing children of today, the parents are also at fault for their encouragement of the media market. The market has a strong hold on children and is continually influencing them through many aspects of their lives. Parents need to encourage their children to not conform to whatever the media says. Kids do not need the newest items or hippest clothing in order to be successful. Parents need to slow down on spoiling their children and have them focus less on material things. Overall, we need to crack down on the gripping media market and encourage the children of today to be true to themselves and not rely so much on the media driven society.
Television with its far reaching influence spreads across the globe. Its most important role is that of reporting the news and maintaining communication between people around the world. Television's most influential, yet most serious aspect is its shows for entertainment. Violent children's shows like Mighty Morphing Power Rangers and adult shows like NYPD Blue and Homicide almost always fail to show human beings being able to resolve their differences in a non-violent manner; instead they show a reckless attitude that promotes violent action first with reflection on the consequences later. Contemporary television creates a seemingly insatiable appetite for amusement of all kinds without regard for social or moral benefits (Schultze 41). Findings over the past twenty years by three Surgeon Generals, the Attorney General's Task Force on Family Violence, the American Medical Association, the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other medical authorities indicate that televised violence is harmful to all of us, but particularly to the mental health of children (Medved 70-71).
Television plays a big role on violence. Most of us watch television daily. And what do we see daily on television? The news, about our world surrounded by violence? Movies, that only show shootings, death, and more violence? Even cartoons are violent, like the Simpsons, south park, and even Tom and Jerry, shows specially for our young audience. ...
The media, including television programming, cartoons, film, the news, as well as literature and magazines, is a very powerful and pervasive medium for expression. It can reach a large number of people and convey ideas, cultural norms, stereotypic roles, power relationships, ethics, and values. Through these messages, the mass media may have a strong influence on individual behavior, views, and values, as well as in shaping national character and culture. Although there is a great potential for the media to have a positive and affirming effect on the public and society at large, there may be important negative consequences when the messages conveyed are harmful, destructive, or violent.
In this century there has been a lot of attention toward the media and how its affects young people. Joyce Garity, author of “Is Sex All That Matters,” and Steve Lopez, “A Scary Time to Raise a Daughter,” write about how media such as magazines, the internet, and television affects teenagers. Both authors talk about how the media is using sex and violence to sell products, thus leading teenagers to commit wrongful deeds, including lack of using birth control leading to unwanted pregnancy, imitating girls on the magazines, and cannot distinct between fantasy and reality. Both Garity and Lopez explains how the teenagers do not have individuality and lose their virginity at a young age; Garity uses personal experience to state the point about media pounding messages about sex and violence directly at young people.
While violence is not new to the human race, it is an accumulative epidemic that is taking over today’s society. With firearms, ammunition and explosives becoming more accessible, this is resulting into more violent behavior and less serious consequences. Violence in the media plays an imperative role in the etiology of violent and hostile behavior in the world today. While it is difficult to determine which age group have experienced more televised violence, studies have shown that the consequences of aggressive and violent behavior have brought a great deal of human agonizing, suffering, pain and financial destitution to our society, as well as an atmosphere of apprehension, distress and doubt. Research indicates that violence in the media has not just increased in quantity; it has also become more explicit, sexual and sadistic. Most acts of violence in media and on television are laughed off and there are no consequences for these actions.
2013. P125) media is shaping today's youth no just with violence, gender stereotyping, and sexual promiscuities, and this becomes difficult to interpret what is the true influence of media.
A media panic, or often referred to as a moral panic, is a term that describes how the media is formulating issues amongst our society. Over time, our culture has shifted and caused many conclusions regarding media panics and the relationship between youth and the media culture. Based upon previous knowledge and course readings, I have drawn a very disturbing conclusion; this being that no matter what age, children are willing or non-willingly now under surveillance to determine what kind of role media is playing in their lives. With what I have gathered from the readings and class lectures, most authors strongly believe that different forms of media directly influence children's thinking or perception. What authors and researchers continue to imply is that there is a direct correlation to what youth today see in different forms of media and their behaviours.
The United States of America has endured many massacres throughout the countries existents leaving scars in Americans hearts that will never cease to exist. One of these scars was left on Americans during a massacre in Littleton, Colorado leaving fifteen people dead including two shooters and twenty one injured. Many Americans wonder who and why anyone would do such massacres, especially on their own country. Although social media, video games, and television can be used for education and positive influence; it is often blamed for such acts of violence including the shooting at Columbine. The issue concerning social media in American and its effect on their youth are likely to be debated, but there is more than enough evidence to determine that media in American should be monitored and controlled with tighter security to ensure the safety of America’s future as a nation.
As you can plainly see, we as a society cannot place the blame of the problem of today’s children on the media and saying that the media is harmful to children. True the media can be harmful, but if it is carefully monitor and parents use discretion before saying yes to what their children can play, read, or watch then this problem would be greatly lessened. If we blame the media without ourselves taking action then we are just as responsible because we are allowing the media to cause harm to our children with us just standing by and watching. It is true that the media as an industry must ensure that the products and programming that they are putting out is targeted to the proper markets, but in the end it is ultimately up to the parents to decide what is best for their children. It is the parents responsibility to determine what is or is not harmful to their children.
There are so many Incidents that violence in mass media caused. For instance the Columbine High School incident, where two young boys that acted on violence were said to have played numerous hours of violent games acted on it. They killed 12 students and a teacher. Also injured 21 other students, and then committed suicide. People are not looking on the bigger issue in fighting these mass media production companies. Instead many folks are ignoring the problem. Most children are watching and playing these without knowing what reality is and what isn’t. And what’s right and what’s wrong. This media also promotes inappropriate scenes that children should not engage
Society has been bombarded with violence from the beginning of time. These concerns about violence in the media have been around way before television was even introduced. Nevertheless, there have been numerous studies, research, and conferences done over the years on television, but the issue still remains. Researchers do acknowledge that violence portrayed on television is a potential danger. One issue is clear though, our focus on television violence should not take attention away from other significant causes of violence in our country such as: drugs, inadequate parenting, availability of weapons, unemployment, etc. It is hard to report on how violent television effects society, since television affects different people in different ways. There is a significant problem with violence on television that we as a society are going to have to acknowledge and face.
The mass media has played a key role in shaping people’s lives. The modern society’s use of mass media including TV, radio, newspaper, as well as print media has largely influenced people’s ideas regarding themselves and the society at large. This is evident from their behavior towards themselves and their community as well as their treatment of the environment. While some experts believe that the media is to blame for most of the negative behavioral traits among the active members of society, the majority agree that the media makes people understand and develop a positive sense of association with their society within which they live, making it easy for them to identify and get their role in it.
“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses” (Thinkexist, 2010). The mass media, including news, movies, magazines, music, or other entertainment source has become a part of daily life for many people. As the quote mentions mass media and its power are capable of influencing people’s mind and behavior. Contents in the media introduced to young people make it difficult for them to distinguish between what is real and what is not, as a result stimulating confusion and blind imitation. The mass media plays an important role in the increase of violence, sexual activity, and risky behaviors among teenagers.