Daniel Chern
Professor Ehrenreich
April 25 2015
Mass Communication
Take Home Test
1a) Mass media, much like many other things have two sides: a positive side and a negative side. Even though most of the mass media is typically associated with negative outcomes, it should not undermine the positive outcomes of mass media. One of the most important mass media form that generates positivity is television. Typically, many view television as a troublesome form of mass media that draws children’s attention away from studying and doing well in school; however, when digging deeper, there is a good side to watching television. For example, according to a content analysis in chapter 11 on family values show that “the number of extended family
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In addition to television family shows, other television shows such as Sesame Street have also proved to have a positive impact on children in another way compared to television that show the importance of family values: Education. “According to a soon-to-be published meta-analysis conducted by researchers at UW-Madison, watching international co-productions of “Sesame Street” has a positive effect on children’s learning and is an “enduring example of a scalable and effective early childhood educational intervention (cited in references).” These positive outcomes include learning about the world which includes health and safety, social reasoning and attitudes, and also cognitive literacy and numeracy. “The significant, positive effects of cognitive, learning, and socio-emotional outcomes observed in the current meta-analysis represent real educational benefits for the millions of preschool-age children around the world who visit ‘Sesame Street’ via their televisions,” says Mares. This proves that Sesame Street is a very educational television program that provides many benefits to pre-k children.
b) Aggression and Violence has always been a significantly negative part of the media. It has been involved in almost all forms of mass media including violent movies, video games, advertising, news media, and even books. “According to FBI statistics, about 87% of real crimes are nonviolent, but only 13% of crimes on
Violent media exposure of children or adults to violent media is a cause of aggression and violent behavior has been one of the most intensely debated issues in criminal justice and the broader populace. Concern have come and gone that media such as comic books, as well as television and movies, would lead to waves of rebelliousness, violence, and moral degradation. Sherry
The media has the potential to yield many negative effects in the development of a child. Media violence can lead to aggression in children. As mentioned earlier, an average person has viewed approximately 15,000 hours of television by the time they graduate high school. In that time, it is said that almost 18,000 acts of violence including murders, robbery, beating, bombing, and assault will be viewed. With the extent of this data, there is a definite correlation between the media and aggression in youth. The more violence students watch on television or are exposed to from different media sources, the more prone they are to be violent and aggressive as they get older, especially during adulthood. Studies have shown that even small exposure
Whether exposure of children or adults to violent media is a cause of aggression and violent behavior has been an intensely debated issues for many years. Since violence in the media has been a hot topic in society, I decided to create a theory called toxic media theory, and base it off of the statement that there is a positive correlation between crime and toxic media. An assumption of this theory is that criminal behavior is normal and learned. The process of learning criminal behavior is similar to the process in which normal behavior is learned.
Television (TV) has its good side. It can be entertaining and educational, and can open up new worlds for kids, giving them a chance to travel the globe, learn about different cultures, and gain exposure to ideas they may never encounter in their own community. Programs with positive role models can influence people to change their behavior for the better. However, the reverse can also be true: Kids are likely to learn things from TV that parents don't want them to learn. TV can affect kids' health and family life.
In the mean world syndrome video, several points are discussed about how violence in the media affects viewers. Although violent crimes has decreased over the years, the media has been showing more violent acts than before. Children have been affected by this phenomenon and it has had a disturbing effect on them too. The media should be more proactive with being fair and less damaging in the future.
This book agrees with other sources that media play a large role in violent behavior going
Mass media is part of the average persons everyday life, from morning to night; modern society absorbs and consumes it constantly. Adults are aware of it and see the media, as advertisements on television, the latest blockbuster at the theaters or the trendy new clothing. Children are not free from it either; they to are exposed to the medias imagery and ideals maybe more than adults are. Parents may not pay close attention to the media their children are exposed to; adults may think they are just harmless children’s toys or games. From the time they wake up and they pour themselves a bowl of brand name cereal, to the time they are put in bed with their stuff animal or toy, they are in the presence of some sort of media and its imagery.
Whether it’s a story on the news or a drama at the theatre, violence has become a social norm in the media. Today, companies have significantly relied on the use of violence to ensure that their audiences are still motivated to watch. According to the Media Education Foundation, the level of violence on prime time television has increased 167% since 1998. Although there is a widespread belief that watching fictional violence causes people to become violent, the rise of violence on TV compared to real-world crime statistics over the past 20 years tells a different story.
For a child, almost any type of conflict, such as a heated discussion on a radio talk show or between two experts during a newscast, may seem as aggressive as two comic book characters throwing anvils. As of yet, we do not have a clear explanation of what causes violence and aggression in our youth, whether we analyze media content or explore the everyday aggressive behavior that may cause violent behavior, Individual studies define these notions in a lot of different ways; Thus, the rules of the game are constantly changing for those who try to analyze the situation as a whole. The difficulty in quantifying aggression and violence in ways that make it almost impossible to answer the following question: "Does violence in the media cause people to commit acts of violence? "
As censorship of the American media has broken down over the years, the amount of violence allowed to be shown in movies, on television, and in video games has skyrocketed. From coast to coast in our nation, this saturation of hostility in our media has caused many contentious debates between scholars, parents, students and government officials alike. In this controversy, the central argument revolves around the effects violent media has on our society. The question that most researchers strive to answer is this: does watching or participating in violent media cause violent or other harmful behaviors? There are those who would say yes, it does promote destructive behavior in
Among media researchers and the court of public opinion, violence on the television can be blamed for accelerated aggression, but whether or not it results in violence is another story. Aggression is defined as “any behavior intended to harm another person who does not want to be harmed.” Aggression can be in the form of verbal threats or as severe as physical attacks with intent to harm. Violence, however, is defined as “aggression that has as its goal extreme physical harm.” Brad J. Bushman (Ohio State University, VU University Amsterdam), Carlos Cruz (Ohio Stae University), and Mario Gollwitzer (Philipps University Marburg), attempted to review studies and researchers by asking a series of questions in order to determine whether there was an actual disagreement to the question of media violence induced
The effect that mass media has on children is not something to be taken lightly. Particularly in the western world, children are constantly bombarded with subliminal messages that in some cases are not in the best interest to their psychological,emotional, and social well being . However, children will be exposed to media no matter what, and the consequences do not always need to cause harm. Children can benefit substantially from mass media granted they have someone by their side, helping them incorporate what they learn on the screen, in to their real life.
In our society today, mass media plays a big part in our everyday lives and we are bombarded by it constantly. Concentrating on the area of mass media violence and examining the various mediums such as television, movies, and the video game industry. Does the mass media have a lasting effects on causing violence in our children and as well if it plays an influence in causing them to be violent as adults. I will be describing the different theories used by the experts in explaining that the mass media does cause children to be violent. I will present my
The media controls society, whether we agree with this or not. Their depiction of acts constitutes our image of the world around us. They shape the public perceptions, and create moral panics. Human by nature are attracted to violence, as proven “[b]y age 18, it is estimated that the average child will have seen approximately 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders on television alone” (Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 1999). This shows violence is a part of our daily lives. This is entertaining to people and therefore the media picks up on this and reports it religiously. Stanley Cohen (1972/1980), Goode and Ben-Yehuda (1994) laid out the ways in which the media captures our attention, and capitalizes on it in many instances to push their own agendas. This and the cause of moral panics is a repercussion of the problem frame.
In the book Critique of Violence ,author Walter describes Violence as "The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, male development, or deprivation .The violence that is portrayed in the media has been debated for decades ,and it has rose a question about how does it influence the youth?. From movies to video games society has been accustom to seeing violence in their everyday entertainment. Since children are easy to be influence by their environment, it is safe to say that violence in the media can and will contribute to violent behavior.