Confessions By Barry Gittins: Article Analysis

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 for 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

Helping children become media literate-being discerning of media images and knowing how to use all screen technologies wisely--is an imperative in the digital age. A media literate child knows he or she is in control of TV, video, and video games, computers and note be controlled by them. Family media literacy, while a crucial imperative of our times, can also be a lot of fun. By focusing on these four areas of family media literacy, parents will find that that their parenting gets easier as children become more capable and more competent. Children 's self-identity and self-respect will skyrocket. It 's sheer joy to parent kids who are in control, self-directed, and loving toward themselves and others.

Throughout time and history, the concerns of many have been made regarding the influence of the media on children and our young people. Although media, its various forms and those who are in control of them have changed throughout as time has progressed, the concerns still are the same. Plato wrote about the influence that poets had on young people of his time in the same way that those who have analyzed this issue today have revealed the effects of literature and television on today's children.

The mass media consists of any means of communication that has the ability to reach a large amount of people. The term ‘media’ can refer to movies, television, the newspaper, etc. It is because of it’s ability to out reach to a mass quantity of people that it is able to “reinforce and teach societal values.” At a young age, socialization occurs in that it involves the “learning of the values and the norms of society” and adopting them into their own personal values (Perse, 2001.) Children often have little life experience so they learn and imitate their environment whether that be the characters on television or societal institutions like their families or teachers at school. Adolescents are more susceptible to socialization in that they are at a period in which they are trying to find

Throughout America’s infantile years, the media solely consisted of the printing press, but as a result of industrialization, commercialization, and professionalization, it now extends into the world of technology, reaching far more Americans than ever before. Media can be defined as collective outlets for mass communication. In today’s society, massive amounts of media are consumed in a plethora of forms: newspapers, magazines, television, Internet, and social media. The 2007 U.S. Census Bureau 's Statistical Abstract of the United States reports that adults and teens spend nearly five months out the year watching television, surfing the Internet, reading daily newspapers and listening to music (cited in ABC News, 2006). In correspondence

Parents can help to guide their children 's media experience by offering the educational media programs as well as the non-electronic formats such as newspapers, books, board games, and watching television with them. Additionally, by putting the questionable contents into context and teaching kids about advertising can be greatly contributed to their media literacy. However, there is a strong relationship between media and education, so parents need to set their children’s limits. Furthermore, parents can actively be involved with those media tools that their children use, such as: the TV shows, computer games, magazines, and other media forms. This is the only one step that helps them, as a result of which; media will play a positive role in their children’s lives. It is a fact that media surrounds us and cannot always be avoided, so this is the one way to filter out those messages, and to develop their skills by questioning, analyzing, and evaluating them. This is generally known as media literacy or media education. Therefore, a child can learn and understand both the obvious and hidden messages from all media tools. Once the children learn and get skills of media education, they can gain to ask questions, and can think about the media messages as is it in the same way as they watch, read, or hear. Following are the basic media education points that a child and their parents should know:

The audience is able to read the alarming data that shows why parents should be concerned with the effect the media has on young minds. Hanes uses plot development to keep readers interested making the readers wanting to know more of what can happen if parents don’t monitor what their kids are seeing. For example, She discusses first hand accounts of her experience on how Disney Princesses could negatively affect young children and she continues this strategy for the entire article. When Hanes does this strategy, she helps the audience create an emotional bond with the

The media affects the lives of children daily. Children imitate things whether they are positive or negative because of the fact that they are not aware of the consequences. Parents need to be more attentive in their child’s life. They need to pay attention to what their child is either watching or listening to.

Outside of his room, a young boy can hear his parents watching television blaring out about the danger of entertainment, music, videogames and news. The boy slips on his headphones, and joins his friends in a game of Overwatch. It’s not uncommon these days to hear about the danger of today’s media, in fact if one were to look back to 1998 they would find Neal Gabler’s book “Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality”. Gabler’s book details humanities hunger for gossip, action, and entertainment in our lives. It speaks of how eventually this need will bring the ruin to us, which simply isn’t true.

At the same time, mass media is on the rise. One study concluded that "American youth devote more time to media than any other waking activity" (Roberts, 2000). Parts of the world previously

Out of all the media surrounding us, “television is one of the most prevalent media influences in kids’ lives” (“Television’s Impact”). From a very young age, children are exposed to television, and that exposure will often increase with age. Because of this, youth absorb and remember what is shown or seen on television more than in school. Social media is another very prevalent factor in influencing youth. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “Using social media websites is among the most common activity of today’s children and adolescents” (O’Keeffe). Due to it being so common, most youth are being influenced and changed by the amount of time they spend on it. They must learn what they want and don’t want on their feed, and realize how these opinions, pictures, and videos are shaping them. Another big media influence is music. Listening to music can reduce depression by up to 25 percent (“How Music Affects Us”). This statistic shows how even something small like music can change a youth much more than school. Youth also learn from music, and helps many focus in school, aiding more in education. Clearly, the media is a huge influence on educating and shaping

Unlike previous generations who were “introduced” to the internet, television and social media, the present generation is “born” in it. By this statement, it is implied that children today are much closer to technology and media than adults are, and so, are more likely to be affected by it. Perhaps, the highest impact on the physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development of children and adolescents is by media due to its ready availability through Smart phones, tablet PCs and other portable devices. This paper attempts to evaluate some of the influences of media on various aspects of child and adolescent development.

Imagine this, it’s the year 2020 and you’re long gone from UC’s campus. You’ve gotten the job you’ve always wanted and finally have a family of your own. You come home from working a 15-hour shift and your three-year-old toddler starts throwing a tantrum about being bored but, your spouse is gone for the time being and only you can entertain the child. What do you do? Do you swallow your pride and play games, read, and or color with him or do you simply turn on the television and let “SpongeBob” take it away? This is a big battle that exists in today’s society. Most people tend to have an opinion that media, specifically television and video games, are having long-term effects on our children concerning their behavior and morals. Others, although typically outnumbered, think that the media does not heavily impact children and most children, if raised with proper care, will know the difference between right and wrong even with media present in their life. In one text, an informative, factual research style paper, the University of Michigan Health System gives insight as to why television may be more harmful than helpful to our youth using raw data from clinical researches. For my second text I have chosen a freehanded, opinion based article, written by a parent who sees nothing wrong with letting his children watch television. These two articles have different insight on the same subject considering it’s discourse community, audience, and style of writing. I’ll begin with the

In today’s society, there are a number of factors that affect a child’s ability to learn. The media, for good and for bad, is the primary teacher of American youth. This environment reflects life itself, sometimes in a corrupt way, including the positive and heinous parts, along with the beautiful and hideous parts, as well as the charitable and violent parts. It is almost impossible to protect American youth from experiences reflecting the adult world when the media invades homes and becomes so much a part of everyday living. “American teenagers spend 31 hours a week watching television, 10 hours a week online, 4 hours a week reading magazines, and 17 hours a week listening to music” (Miss). Even though mass media is a huge part of a

The worth of media is a very controversial topic. Media has given us the ability to do things in new and creative ways such as how we learn and accomplish our everyday tasks. However, we do not always know how to interpurate this information. The technology available today is constantly impacting and influencing society in tremendous ways. Many of the impacts that are accocated with media are addressed in negative ways, but can be seen from a positive perspective as well. In the current generation, media and its influences can be found everywhere. These influences widely impact today’s adolescents and maturing teenagers because they are still developing into adults. Medias purpose is not only to inform us, but to allow us to mold ourselves in how we want to be perceived online. Also, it allows us easy access to unbelievable amounts of information. Living in an era known as the “information age” is riveting, but what are we suppose to do with all of this new technology and information?