Mass Media Influence on Youth

THESIS STATEMENT: The world’s media today seem to have more violence than ever. Video games have vivid depictions of accident catastrophes, fighting and murder. Television news programs generally lead with a violent story in order to gain an audience. This is free society people can stay what they want. ‘’ Media violence has many negative effect on youth today to commit crimes in society.’’

* According to the National Television Violence Study, the context in which violence is portrayed is as important to its impact as the amount of violence. The study concluded that 66% of children's programming had violence. Of the shows with violent content three-quarters demonstrated unpunished violence and when violence occurred 58% of the time, victims were not shown experiencing pain. (14)

Television is the mainstream of our culture. Violence on television has been a topic of conflict since before 1950. There have been repeated debates on how to protect children from the harmful effects of violence on television. Television is one form of modern media that influences the everyday lives of people. Televised violence has a major effect on how children perceive the world and how they behave. "American television has become the most violent in the world. It is for this reason why researchers have focused their attention toward television violence" (Cantor & Hoffner 424-4-25). Children enjoy watching television and now with the increased technology of cable and movie

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.

There is no question that television and films these days are filled with violence and antisocial behavior. Virtually every show, movie or news story nowadays has some sort of violent theme. Studies have shown that for every hour of television, there are 6 violent exchanges shown, and this number increases to 14 exchanges an hour

Media violence is one of the most debated public issues society faces today. Television screens are loaded with the glamorization of weapon carrying. Violence constitute as amusing and trivialized. Needless portrayals of interpersonal violence spread across the television screens like wild fire. Televisions spew the disturbing events such as children being assaulted, husbands inflicting domestic abuse on their wives and children succumbing to abuse by their parents. Scenes of betrayal, anguish, infiltrate the television screen. Unfortunately, a child becomes subjected to media violence. Everything a child sees or hears in the media affects them in some way or another. The precise effects of media violence on children are

The media has a strong influence on teenagers since they are mentally vulnerable and have access to various media especially visual and social. It is imperative for parents to filter the content that teenagers have access. This paper seeks to find out the effects of media on teenagers. Mass media has both negative and positive influences, and I strive to prove this claim.

The impact of television violence on youth behavior has been an issue for many years. Television stations and their executives tend to deny television’s contribution to youth violence. Unfortunately, there is a direct correlation between television viewing and violence. This provides one possible cause for the shocking rise in violence on Americas’ school campuses. Communications technology is expanding through the entire global community. Children everywhere are being born into a world of images and messages, which are largely separated from their home, school and spiritual lives.

With the evolving of the technology, children easy access to the variety of these different media forms, many of which have high levels of violent content. Nowadays, just by clicking on the screen, children observe tons of news regarding to murders, beatings and sexual assaults. Eron and his colleagues conducted the research show that before finishing the elementary school, the child would have witnessed 8000 murders (Eron, 1993). Other media such as movies, video game, the Internet seems to be effective methods of informal observational learning and also correlate with youth exposed to violence. Violence in the media is going to be considered if it fires violence in the real world. Yet, there are many investigations concluding that the relationship between media violence and aggressive behavior is strong (Anderson et al., 2008; Dubow et al., 2010; Fanti et a., 2009).

By the time someone is 18, they have already seen about 200,000 violent acts by watching TV (“Television”). As children grow up, they spend a lot of their time in front on the television. They learn from what they can see. The problem is that a lot of violence is shown on TV. This exposes children to actions that they should not see until they are old enough to understand what is happening. The violence in movies and television affect society’s children’s way of growing up because they are exposed to aggressive actions since they are young.

Media violence is not the factor in violence today. Studies show that over 90% of homes have a television which is argued to be the cause of violence because kids are spending up to 28 hours a week watching media and being on social media as there is more phones in houses then televisions, which 28 hours a week is more time then kids spend in school. Based on this factor it is discovered that most of the homes in the study have a TV located in children’s rooms were it is unsupervised to be able to watch shows that display violence. Research has also displayed that younger children can’t differentiate between fact and fantasy so they look up to people as role models in shows and movies to determine what’s “cool” in society. There is also research stating that music videos and video games display at least 15% of violence but there is little data on violence when it comes to music and video games and social media on the internet to being a broad range of what you can find on the internet that displays an act

Mental health problems have been affecting nearly every society in some way, shape, or form for as long as we can remember. According to the World Health Organization, approximately one million people die from suicide every year (Schaefer, 2018, p. 6). Durkheim also noted that the suicide rate in a society reflects how well the people were integrated in the society (Schaefer, 2018, p. 7). The problem that I want to focus on revolves around how marketing to children teaches them values, like material objects and money, that will eventually lead to higher rates of anxiety and depression at an earlier age. It is known that the mass media strongly influences kids ages 12 to 17, but the age at which kids gain access to technology is starting to decline (Schaefer, 2018, p. 90). Gradually, we can see how the media has an overwhelming effect on the youth from the way children think about their future and their career path to the way that they play. This is directly observed in a nationwide survey of incoming college freshmen which shows that values having to do with money and power rose from 42 percent in 1966 to 82 percent in 2015 (Schaefer, 2018, p. 63). If corporations constantly promote the idea that having more things will lead to happiness, then when kids can’t have those things they start to believe that they can’t be happy without them.

How much is too much? It is no secret that technology has changed the way teenagers interact in their daily lives. Adolescents specifically spend most of their screen time scrolling through social media, in attempt to connect with one another. However, this desire for a constant connection has spiraled into a borderline obsession. Like any addiction, social media provides an escape because it allows people to mask their identity and reinvent themselves. Many teens invest large amounts of time building their online personality, without even realizing how much time they have wasted.

In the recent years, the prevalence of mass media has been undeniable. All over the world, youths have access to mass media through their smartphones, television sets and computers. In such a media-driven world, it is no surprise that mass media has come to play a substantial role in the attitudes and mindsets of youth. To a large extent, mass media does have the power to influence youth too much nowadays as seen through increasing consumerism, commercialised perceptions of beauty and loss of individuality. However, it is also true that the youth are not completely controlled by mass media as seen through innovative

One of the biggest change in social environments today is the advance and increase usage of mass media. The mass media parent the children of today. Consequently, radio, video games, television, movies, videos, phones, and social networks play a significant role in their upbringing. For, they assist in influencing a child’s values, beliefs, and behaviors. Children rather unconsciously heed and imitate the images exhibited, for example, in television, they learn the appropriate way to comport and one’s countenance. Electronic mass media, in particular, contains an element that is harmful to children’s psychological being which is violence. Others argue that exposure to the commonly favored aggressive media are rather healthy for children in the way it allows them to express their belligerent side virtually and also enhance their confidence and creativity. However it 's a struggle for parents, they lose the battle regarding how much of aggressive media can their children consume since children have access to them everywhere. Evidently exposure to violence in video games, television, and movies for children and adolescents augments the risk of violent behavior similarly to how being raised in an environment containing real violence increases the risk of violent conduct.