Digital And Print Media 's Effect On The Self Respect Of The Older Generation

The media’s job is to entertain, inform, and educate society on what is going on around the world. The media entertains society by reporting stories that amuse people. The educational function of the media is about allowing society to know their legal rights. The informational aspect of the media does not need to be explained; it is self-explanatory. Within the last three decades, the media’s role has changed dramatically. The media went from using telegraphs, post offices, newspapers, magazines, radio, and television to using cell phones and tablets. In the modern era, which is also sometimes referred to as the information age, global networking and global communication have shaped modern societies. The majority of

The research study was carried out to evaluate the correlation between age and preference for association with individuals from a certain age group or bracket. The use of an IAT test revealed that most people have a strong bias towards old individuals in favor of associations with younger people. The research study was based on extensive observations in numerous American societies that prefer or exhibit a veiled discrimination and/or bias towards old people. Once individuals attain a particular age when they are not self-supporting, a majority of families prefer to send them away to nursing homes and care facilities to live out the rest of their days. Old people are associated with a negative societal stereotype that have been there for a long time, for example, old women are associated with witchcraft or being witches. The inability of the older generation to cope with prevailing social and cultural trends makes them unsavory beings to be around and most people try to avoid their company. IAT is a test that was created to gauge or measure implicit beliefs and attitudes that individuals that are either unable or unwilling to acknowledge when faced with the task of describing these aspects to self or others. The research study was conducted based on the hypothesis that results garnered from an age IAT would correlate with results obtained from a survey carried out to gauge people’s age preferences because they all measure similar constructs.

Moreover, elderly are exposing to ageism through the process of negative stereotyping and discrimination. Cardigan and Zsamigin 2000 argues advertising industries either ignores elderly people or present them in a negative stereotype. Labelling theorist ray et al argues ageism creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that causes the elderly to behave in a way that confirms those beliefs. Bradley refers to old age as neglected and hidden dimension of social stratification.

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

Carr explains that “the media or other technologies we use in learning and practicing the craft of reading play an important part in shaping the neural circuits inside the brain.” (9) This shows that the internet’s influence extends past our subconscious, affecting the growth and development of our brains. But not only is the internet influencing us as individuals, but the media as well. Carr reveals that “as people’s minds become attuned to the crazy quilt of Internet media, traditional media have to adapt the audience’s new expectations” (19). This describes the extent of the internet’s reach on society and how it essentially controls consumers and media

In Steven Pinker’s article, “Mind Over Mass Media”, the author illustrates the intellectual benefits obtained from mass media and argues that the media doesn’t have a negative effect on our brain. His examples are the great American crime decline not because of new technologies, the predictions that the new technologies would be harmful were wrong. Not only just the crime rate decline but also the I.Q. level rose continuously. With any new media that has emerged some people continually believe that our brain power and skills will plummet. The article points that people need to use new technology with self-control. As the author concludes, that “the Internet and information technologies are helping us manage, search and retrieve our collective

The aging of society has not significantly changed our perceptions of the elderly. Ageism is widespread in Western societies (Dionigi, et al, 2011). Older adults are seen as boring, grumpy irritable, weak, debilitated, mournful, and most significantly cognitively. These stereotypes which are negative can be allowed by the aged themselves negative self-stereotyping (Dionigi, et al, 2011) and are as well found among specialized caregivers (e.g., Cowan, Fitzpatrick, Roberts, & While,2004). The image in relation to which older adults are more ineffectual than younger adults is predominantly dominant. Nevertheless, in a variety of domains, older adults are inclined to have analogous performances and at times even do better than younger

Television shows, ads, and movies compromise our national image of the elderly. “Television shows often depict the older relative as doddering and feeble...” (Lauren Stiller Rikleen). In many movies and shows, elders are shown as churlish and sickly.

In the article, “Confessions of a news junkie who hides the news from his kids,” Barry Gittins discusses the topic of mass media, he asserts that it has misguided children. Mass media has always been something to inform people. Yet, it’s the over consumption of media seems to affect the mental and physical wellness of children. This new generation of advancing gadgets and devices has altered children’s way of life and connections. The best way to avoid harming the child’s mental and physical wellness is moderation on the screens. Parents claim that in their youth, they used their creativity or sensibility to create things that make them occupied and entertained them. Children are only children once. So, why not bring that back and help the

People may have different reactions to how the media portrays older adults however it’s apparent that many times these stereotypes are not all fun and games and can actually be detrimental for the ageing population. Society may not realize that by continuing to generalize and stereotype older adults in the media it’s creating larger issues. A major issue I notice is that the media is also a form of education and for those who did not already have preconceived ideas about the ageing population; the media can then sway them to view older adults as such.

Ageing females are also portrayed as undesirable in the media due to the language used. This language is aimed at shaping, reinforcing, and reflecting the attitudes and responses made towards growing older among women. Language is understood to carry and convey the meaning which leads to the assumptions that encourage the development of discrimination and stereotypes towards ageing females. The language also has the ability to encode stereotypes and scripts that are discriminatory in nature which makes discrimination a normal part of everyday life. In particular, the media can play a role in the establishment of implicit bias through using language that is stereotypical and prejudicial when representing ageing females in the media (Gendron et al., 2016). This in turn makes older women to be portrayed as undesirable in the media. An example where the language used by media has contributed to the portrayal of ageing females as undesirable can be drawn from a popular sitcom, “The Golden Girls”, aired between 1985 and 1992. This comedy highlighted social issues that are associated with elderly women. In this comedy, the negative construction of ageing women was illustrated by the character of the octogenarian mother, where this character was depicted as being intelligent but yet stubborn with a difficult to please character. Another example of how language is used by media to portray ageing females as undesirable can be drawn from a popular commercial made during the mid-1980s. In this commercial, one of the three old women is heard asking repeatedly about where the beef is, in which older people are seen as stupid and small while being exploited (Vickers, 2007). The language used in these examples appear disparaging towards older women while illustrating the extent at which ageing women are portrayed as undesirable in the media.

Adolescence is a time where an individual’s sense of identity starts to emerge and a majority of their social norms are perceived. In this day and age, adolescents live in a world heavily submerged around media, which plays an important and habitual part of an adolescents' life. In a national survey conducted in 2009, adolescents on average spend more than 7.5 hours using some sort of media a day (Rideout, Foehr, Roberts, 2010). With this unprecedented access to the world, individuals are learning and connecting with many different people and ideas through the media (Brown & Bobkowsi, 2011). With different forms of media playing an influential part in an adolescents’ life, their perceived social norms may be seriously influenced.

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.

The media is a humungous influencer of how knowledge sharing is processed. Appropriately, I included questions about the media in to receive a more detailed idea on society views the media as an agent of socialisation. My research reveals that despite the media’s overwhelming power of influence, 80% of those who participated in the questionnaire believes that the media does not create a false portrayal of our current society’s youth. I believe that this could be a unwanted response since the media does tend to portray youth in a negative and stereotypical way based from my own personal experience. However, a staggering 90% believes that the media creates a hindrance to socialisation between generation x and z. This fact is accredited to the media’s different production of trends that is based on specific age cohorts. Furthermore, when asked whether or not the media has a negative impact on adolescents and young adults all participants responded in a neutral manner. A clear image is represented through this result by demonstrating that a majority of people from different ages and society are well aware that the media is both beneficial and negative

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?