Media Influence On Adolescents And Adolescents

Literature Review

Media Influence on Adolescents

The adolescent stage must be the subject of the research, in that preliminary research suggests that in the adolescent stage of life, important social aspects are being noticed and formed, especially by way of media, while looking to family for social information or influence diminishes (Arnett, 1995). In researching the effects of media on adolescent views of relationships, one must first research if scholars have yet studied and answered if the media has any relationship or effect on adolescents at all. In the research conversation of media influence on adolescents, it has been found that there are five uses of media by adolescents, including entertainment, high sensation, coping, identity formation and youth culture identification (the two latter uses will be highlighted later in this paper) (Arnett, 1995). With this, adolescent’s use of media for a number of purposes is evident and has been established for some time. Moreover, research suggests that U.S. adolescents spend six to seven hours per day using media, with half of that time devoted to television/film (L’Engle, Brown, & Kenneavy, 2006). Furthermore, many studies have found that heavy television/film viewing does positively correlate with effects on an individual’s beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions (Shrum, Wyer, & O 'Guinn, 2009). Professor and Researcher Dr. George Gerbner coined and introduced cultivation theory into this communicative conversation. The cultivation theory is defined as the “independent contributions television /film viewing makes to viewer conceptions of social reality (Gerbner, 1998). The cultivation theory describes and has both constructed a platform research in this area as well as prove that me...

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...erview’s transcripts after each session was complete, then reviewed and analyzed the transcripts. In reviewing the transcripts, I was able to find recurring responses and responses that were extremely different, responses that are extremely important for analyzing the gender portion of my research. After reviewing the transcripts, I thus categorized and reported my findings according to my research questions, using a deductive approach. Meaning once the data was grouped, I looked for similarities and differences in order to answer my research questions and test my hypothesis. I utilized the interview notes and transcripts to coin definitions for each category and narrative theme. I will then code all 6 interviews according to the resulting definitions. Moreover, in conducting this research, I discovered and noted suggestions for further research in this conversation.