Media Influence on American Youth
The United States of America has endured many massacres throughout the countries existents leaving scars in Americans hearts that will never cease to exist. One of these scars was left on Americans during a massacre in Littleton, Colorado leaving fifteen people dead including two shooters and twenty one injured. Many Americans wonder who and why anyone would do such massacres, especially on their own country. Although social media, video games, and television can be used for education and positive influence; it is often blamed for such acts of violence including the shooting at Columbine. The issue concerning social media in American and its effect on their youth are likely to be debated, but there is more than enough evidence to determine that media in American should be monitored and controlled with tighter security to ensure the safety of America’s future as a nation.
Ranging from using television as a educational resource to the development of motor skills with video games, many experts believe that social media is an effective way of mentoring the up-bringing of a child. Television, which in today’s time televises educational shows for children of all ages, can be a beneficial factor towards beginning a child’s education. James P. Steyer and Chelsea Clinton, the authors of “The Other Parent: The Inside Story of the Media’s Effect on Our Children” write “I set out to build a new kids' educational media company -- JP Kids -- that would create high-quality content for kids on TV, the Internet, publishing, and related platforms” (pg. 5). The educational media company JP Kids is one of the few educational media companies still existent today and provides education for thousands of viewers dail...
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...the exposure of media at home is also another common ground factor needed to establish a working solution. Jami VanCamp, the author of a review journal on “The Other Parent, The Inside Story of The Media’s Effect on Our Children” writes “Revealing that an astounding 66% of our children actually have televisions in their bedrooms, Steyer examines hour our society has allowed the media to saturate our children’s live” (pg 1) Monitoring the use of these 66% or even lowering the percentage is a possible solution towards monitoring and controlling media in children’s lives. The success of coming to a solution towards the problems, concerns, and issued faces when surrounding children in an ever changing world surrounded by media of different types and kinds is essential to the success of countries around the globe as well as the prevention and saving of lives throughout.
In the cases of school shootings that took place at Columbine High School, Sandy Hook Elementary, Virginia Tech University and Northern Illinois University, the media highly publicized the fact that the perpetrators were avid video gamers, but why is this important? The media want’s your attention and they are more than willing to say almost anything to get it. They reported that the perpetrators were avid gamers with the implication that there is a well establish connection between the two when there is not. They exploit the fear of parents and concerned citizens by not including relevant corresponding information in order to leave you more interested lea...
The media has been a part of the daily life of the American people for the longest time, because of this fact, the media influences the decisions and views of how people should live. One big part of the media that tends to start to develop a sense of how the day-to-day American should live is Disney. Since kids are the main source of Disney’s billion dollar industry children have become an important dimension of the social theory (Giroux 1999: 65). “Within this context, television emerges as a consumer-oriented medium that reflects advertisers’ desire to reach a young, upscale, and primarily White audience” (Goodale1999; Henderson and Baldasty 2003: 100). As a result other races and ethnic groups other than white Americans are often put aside when it comes to the social media view of how Americans should live.
Family environment and the press are two major influences resulting in the recent tragic school shootings. As much as society continues to focus the killing rampages on factors such as television and music, what children are exposed to in reality contributes to the violence. The most recent school shooting in Michigan involved a six-year-old first grader who killed a classmate with a .22 caliber pistol. The news coverage had vanished after two or three days, and I was left wondering what had happened. Considering the fact that the media wore the Columbine incident out, I wanted to know why they did not pay more attention to this school shooting. As evidence did arrive, it was discovered that the child lived in a household where cocaine, heroin, and many other illegal drugs were commonplace. Also in this “home” guns were easily accessible to the child. Children growing up in this type of environment certainly are likely to be held accountable for future violence. Even though I am against the news media presenting too much school violence, Americans should have been deeply disturbed by this shooting because of the child’s young age. The Michigan shooting should have enlightened Americans to the dilemma we face in this country. Two weeks after the Columbine High School shooting, information on the mass murder was still being broadcast on television. The press was feeding young viewers ideas on how to kill their classmates. News was reported how the teenage murderers acquired information regarding building bombs, obtaining guns, smuggling guns into the school, and proceeding to kill their classmates. A mentally unstable teenager could simply watch these news reports and write a book entitled, “How to Slay Your Classmates”. This onslaught was ridiculous and the news coverage should not have been permitted to continue for countless weeks. Society has determined three reasons on which to blame the shootings. First, the nation blamed it on television’s violent programs. Following that, Americans gave the music recording companies the evil eye as well as attacking the gun manufacturers. All of these reasons involve material objects that are unable to think for themselves. Televisions and CD players do not control themselves, people control them. Finally, boundaries controlling the television programs children view should be set by the parents. The same explanation applies to firearms. How can it be a gun’s fault that a person killed another human being?
Author also point out television undermines the family. Most parents are now relying on outside sources such...
Media has had many changes in the past years. Growing up I remember my mom saying that we were lucky to have color televisions now. She would say that when she was younger she would have to hear her stories and games over the radio because back then there was no televisions. Another way of getting entertained was reading stories. The newspaper and the radio was the only way of getting news back then. I thought it was funny when my mom told me that since they were one of the few families that had a television in the neighborhood, she would charge the kids 10 cents to watch television in her house. This was actually a pretty smart thing to do.
Comstock, George A., and Erica Scharrer. Media and the American child. Burlington, MA: Elsevier, 2007. Print.
White, A. V. (2006). Television Harms Children. Opposing Viewpoints. Television. San Diego: Greenhaven Press. (Reprinted from Mothering, 2001, 70)
I am going to study the two pieces of media. The first one I will
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 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 continue to imply is that there is a direct correlation to what youth today see in different forms of media and their behaviours.
Popular Culture's Hold on America's Youth (attention grabber) It is not difficult to see evidence of popular culture’s influence in practically every aspect of American students’ daily lives. Popular culture has not only taken over the aspects of the American youth’s daily lives, but has malignantly taken over their thought processes, opinions, and beliefs. The profane music that is listened to, posts retweeted, subtle “shade” thrown at peers: they are all signs of the effect that entertainment holds on America’s youth. Take a moment to check out the cheerleaders “whipping” at the next basketball game, note the Donald Trump jokes floating about the lips of students, and acknowledge the omnipresent obsession with body image.
Woodard, E.H. & Gridina, N. “Media in the Home 2000, The fifth annual survey of parents and children.” The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, PA. Feb 2001. 20 Mar 2008 .
Media is a powerful phenomenon that inevitably infiltrates our lives, influences our perceptions of the world and constructs the way we understand social reality. The concept of celebrity is expedient in demonstrating how this media power works in the influence and construction of contemporary life. Media industries have the ability to turn real people into celebrities and keep them in the spotlight by integrating them into media narratives for the purpose of media industry and entertainment (Ruddock, 2013). The phenomenon of celebrity also demonstrates the role of media through its power to influence the lives of youths. These ideas can be further explored through the discussion of reality television star Snooki and American rapper Eminem.
Parents need to know when their child is exposed to media parent involvement that includes positive guidance on appropriate use of all media that includes internet, music, television, and video games. All media has the possibility to develop positive and negative effects on children and adolescents. Depending on the child’s developmental stage determines if the effect will be
Children can be influenced and impacted in many ways whether it is from their parents, peers, and even strangers. One thing many people don’t realize is that many children, nowadays, are actually being influenced by the media, meaning they are being affected by different media sources, such as television and the internet. The question is whether the sources of media, television and the internet has a positive effect or a negative effect on children, and which source of media has a bigger effect.
“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses” (Thinkexist, 2010). The mass media, including news, movies, magazines, music, or other entertainment source has become a part of daily life for many people. As the quote mentions mass media and its power are capable of influencing people’s mind and behavior. Contents in the media introduced to young people make it difficult for them to distinguish between what is real and what is not, as a result stimulating confusion and blind imitation. The mass media plays an important role in the increase of violence, sexual activity, and risky behaviors among teenagers.