Effects of Television on Children
Beginning back in ancient times of message couriers, and progressing to newspapers, film, radio, television, and now the Internet, the mass media is unquestionably the principal way to receive information in recent times. There is quite a dichotomy in mass media. At the same time of being an essential means of socializing people values and beliefs and educating, it also has horrible consequences of being able to negatively affect and corrupt people. This paper will examine both sides of this problem, focusing on the effects of a particular mass medium, television, on a particular group of society, children. In particular it will examine studies that try to show both positive and negative affects on children.Television is by far the most popular and influential medium in which children are exposed. It probably could be argued vehemently that television, in today's world of two-income families, is more influential than parents are to children. Some interesting statistics pertaining to the time spent by children watching television include the following: Most children watch an average of 28 hours of per week. Children spend 1500 hours a week watching television and 900 hours in the classroom. (Bibliography #7) As it can be seen ch
As this study shows, parents must take responsibility toward educating their children about the content of television. Without this communication, these violent images can cause children to increase aggressiveness, and increase their appetite for more violence in entertainment and in real life. (Bibliography #8) In order to compromise with organizations that were opposed to the age-based system, a compromise system has been adopted. This system supplements the old system by using the following content warnings: "V, for violent content; L, for crude language; S, for sexual content; and D, for sexual dialogue or innuendo. In addition, programs aimed at older children, designated with a TV-Y7, may be supplemented with an FV, for fantasy violence." (Cantor pg. 66) This study, which is supported, by several other studies, found that both active and restrictive mediation decrease children's aggression, while coviewing increases it. (Nathanson pg.14) Not only does an educational program affect the intelligence of children; they also affect social and emotional development of children. Mister Rodgers' Neighborhood is one of the first programs that were designed for this very reason. Experimental studies have shown that viewers of this program characteristically had increases in such behaviors as sharing, helping, and cooperation. (Huston pg.14) Coviewing, by having the parent view this violence with out explaining the actions, may "signal that the content is important, useful, and worthy of sustained attention." (Nathanson pg. 4) Similarly, children in today's society are faced with the similar problems, if not larger in magnitude. It seems that society as a whole has become desensitized to violence. If not in television, it can be seen in rap music, or video games.
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Approximate Word count = 2049
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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