Introduction
There is a wide range of media resources in the modern society, including television, radio, and advertisements, which are probably the major media manifestations present in a rich diversity. The most popular and consumed type of media is the television due to its easy access. Moreover, television does not require additional knowledge or skills such as reading, which is necessary for magazine advertising.
Television content is highly varied meaning that it has different shows, films, programs, video games, and many more. The TV shows, which promote violence and horror, is considered the main impact because it spreads antisocial behavior.
Violent movies influence children negatively, especially boys who are usually obsessed with particular militaristic characters. Video games provoke a sense of self-identification hence encouraging children to emulate particular behaviors. It is considerable to discuss media influence on the behavior of children, with particular focus on violence and pornography.
It is impossible to declare that media content should be concerned only with the context of negative influence on children and adults’ behavior. There is a wide range of TV shows and programs dedicated to the clarification of individual roles in the contemporary society. Thus, in contrast to earlier trends, modern media portray women and girls as self-confident, intelligent, and assertive human beings.
One of the most popular commercial networks referred to as Nickelodeon, provides a vast amount of television, internet, and video production, which emphasizes the powerful position that women occupy in civil and consumer worlds. This article looks at the various effects of the media on individual behavior regarding violence and sexuality.
The role of the media in spreading violence and horror and pornography
In the study of the relationship between the media and violent behavior, two issues crop up. These issues must be defined clearly in order to understand to what entails violence. A difference between media violence and violent behavior exists whereby media violence refers to the visual exposé of acts of physical assault by one individual against the other.
The media has continuously portrayed violent material that affects the normal behavior of individuals, particularly the young persons. Violent media content encourages the youth to be violent. Violent behavior on the other hand refers to the aggressive behavior that might be dangerous to the existence of others in society.
Violent behavior is usually acquired through the process of socialization meaning that the media plays a role in transferring this kind of behavior from character to the other. A number of studies show that when individuals are exposed to violent behavior, there would be a high likelihood that the individual will behave aggressively just after some time.
Research further suggests that not all violence in movies take place in fictional formats meaning that even real life events in current news are usually filled with descriptions of violence. One of the studies conducted by Prabu, Boyne, and German (72) revealed that violent video content encourages the occurrence of aggression related crimes, but not other forms of crimes, such as property crimes.
Subsequent studies proved that when people watch movies that show incidences of suicide, the rates of homicide go up in any given society. It is therefore true that coverage of suicide plays a negative role of encouraging anomy in society.
A number of scholars have also conducted adequate studies to establish the effects of violent video games on the behavior of individuals. All studies confirm that violent video games contribute significantly to aggressive behavior among individuals. Some analysts and parents are concerned with the current trend whereby children spend considerable time watching video games, which are mostly violent.
A study conducted in the US showed that over 83 percent of all American homes have video games meaning that children can easily access them. A different study conducted in 2004 concluded that at least 52 percent of all children in the US aged between eight and eighteen years spent an average of forty-nine minutes watching video games. The video game industry rates over 94 percent of all games as violent.
Regarding the spread of pornography, the media has played a critical role in intoxicating people’s minds with sexual content, particularly the youth. The rising cases of rape, child molestation, sexual abuse, and homosexual behavior are attributed to the media. Pornographic message suggests to its viewers that human bodies are simply objects that can be used to fulfill sexual needs.
The spread of pornography is attributed to a number of reasons, one of them being moral emptiness. However, the immediate cause includes economic reasons whereby individuals would want to make a lot of money out of the sale of sexual material. In fact, pornography is a lucrative business that has attracted so many companies around the world.
Some countries term it organized crime because it results to exploitation of women and children. The spread of pornographic content is on the increase because many countries do not have properly constituted laws that can bar criminals from exploiting the media to spread unwanted material.
Role of Selective Processes
Selective process is a concept that refers to a certain tendency whereby an individual chooses the media content to view. The theory suggests that an individual has the right and freedom of deciding what to watch. In this regard, an individual would be tempted to select the media content based on his or her perception, the belief system, attitude, and personal decision.
In the modern society, an individual can access unlimited information, but he or she chooses what to view or listen. Violent, horrific, and sexual media content are appealing to the eye since they contain scenes that raise an individual’s ego. Cognitive dissonance theory is usually employed in explaining the tendency whereby an individual decides to view some media material while neglecting others.
Cognitive dissonance theory posits that consumers of any media material tend to select information that would result to cognitive equilibrium. In this regard, an individual chooses a media material that is in line with his or her perspective or belief. Alternatively, an individual may decide to reinterpret a media material in order to attain cognitive equilibrium.
Even though an individual would take a stance on a certain issue, selective exposure theory suggests that he or she will continuously seek information to satisfy the ego. This explains why an individual would wish to view violent, horrific, or pornographic media content. An individual is constantly involved in information searching until his or her ego is satisfied.
The media’s Role in Changing the Negative & Positive Trends
Music shows and programs about music celebrities occupy a considerable position in the broadcasting sector. According to Monnot (290), the role of female pop singers is crucial in the process of development for girls in the age span of nine to eleven years. Female singers are associated with standards of the contemporary femininity.
In contrast to the radio, which provides only sound perception of music, television is filled with physical visions of modern singers. As a result, adolescent girls make much effort to move and look like their idols through wearing similar clothes that are inappropriate for their age. Besides, they start dieting to achieve the same body proportions as female singers who are mostly thin, tanned, long-legged, and longhaired.
Thus, video media resources produce a significant impact on the social life and the development of their sexual identity (Monnot 293). Such self-perception as objects of physical attractiveness and desire provoke sexual stereotypes and wrong life values. In fact, this leads to the development of unwanted sexual behaviors.
The great role of forming perception regarding society and its values is attributed to the TV shows, films, and animated movies. For instance, Disney production promotes the concept of thin beauty. The findings of Northup and Liebler (268) revealed that most of the media content is focused on emphasizing physical beauty as a symbol of success. Preschool children spend approximately 3.5 hours in front of their TVs per day.
During this time, they are introduced to a number of TV shows, films, and programs where thinness and physical attractiveness are promoted as main female qualities. In advertising, children are introduced to another portion of information, which leaves them speculating on physical beauty and sexuality.
It is necessary to admit that television content is also filled with information that promotes such behavioral traits as drunken driving, smoking, and nutritional habits. This influences the behavior of boys, particularly regarding aggression. However, the main emphasis is on physical appearance as a formula for success, recognition, and health (Schutz, Paxton and Wertheim 1922)
It is obvious that the media influences girls more than it influences boys. Nerveless, it is impossible to eliminate its impact on the violent behavior of boys. Ryan and Morrison (220) analyzed a number of publications, which revealed that recent increased interest on masculinity is a result of the expansion of media resources.
Contemporary television shows and advertising promote masculine male beauty, which is a traditional approach to the physical appearance of men. The ideal man should have broad shoulders, narrow waist, and muscular arms, legs, stomach, and chest. Men of all ages, nationalities, and sexual orientations desire this ideal masculine physique.
Though the muscular beauty of men is associated with thinness, some extra fat is not demonstrated as the major obstacle. Thus, media production introducing a standard male physical attractiveness emphasizes muscle development as a symbol of strength and health.
No much attention is paid to the issue of slenderness hence men and boys are less vulnerable to the obsession with body image than women and girls. However, the need for muscles, as the media suggests, promotes violence and aggression among school going boys.
The major illustration of standards of body fitness promoted by the modern media is fashion models. Their perfect body proportions are seen on television, magazines, and advertisements. Thin and long-legged models represent the world of fashion and beauty, which are so intriguing and desired by many girls and women.
In the modern media, thin females are used to glamorize different beauty products while average-sized women are employed to promote household products. The research of Prabu, Boyne, and German (76) discovered that weight difference does not provoke any purchase drop among consumers.
However, such weight-based distinction of female roles creates proper perception of body image and the role of physical attractiveness in the life of women. Regular observations of slim models arouse dissatisfaction, with body proportions possessed by girls and women of average/normal size due to their inability to achieve impossible beauty standards.
Apart from the beauty standards presented by the television and adverts, video games produce a significant impact on the behavior of children. Characters in video games reflect trends existing in society meaning that they contain many violent scenes, which are popular in other media resources.
Male characters are mostly illustrated as strong and muscular warriors while female characters are also frequently involved in fight scenes. At the same time, they wear immodest clothes on their fashion model like bodies. Research shows that children playing video games identify themselves with game characters through temporal adoption of their properties (Klimmt, Hefner, and Vorderer 363).
Video games are a kind of entertainment exercised by children in a regular manner. The performance of game characters is based on individual social-psychological models of self-concept and self-perception. Therefore, contingent acting out of game behavioral traits, mostly aggression and obsession with physical attractiveness, arouse untimely or exaggerated development of sexual identity and negative manifestations of conduct.
In the modern world filled with technological advancements such as computers, game devices, and varied software, it is essential to consider the impact of video games on the behavior of children.
Theories to explain the media televised violence
Social Leaning Theory of Albert Bandura
Bandura proclaimed that observational learning is an integrated component of learning. Through his studies and observations in this field, Bandura discovered that children imitate behaviors seen in other people. One of Bandura’s experiments concerned a Bobo doll expressing aggressive behavior. Being asked to play with this doll, children started imitating its aggressive actions and behaviors.
On this basis, Bandura determined three models of learning through observations, including a live model, a symbolic model, and a verbal instructional model. The first involves an actual person demonstrating some behavioral traits while the second is applied to fictional or real characters acting out behaviors in films, TV shows, or books. The third model entails elucidation and depiction of different actions.
Therefore, media resources are the subjects of basic model of observational learning. It is possible to conclude that characters and individuals in the media provoke some behavioral norms, which affect the behavior of children.
Another concept of Bandura’s Social Learning Theory concerns intrinsic reinforcement. In this regard, such mental states as satisfaction, pride, and sense of accomplishment produce a considerable impact on the learning process. Through this concept, Bandura connected learning studies with theories of cognitive development.
In the context of media influence on children, one may assert that positive attitude towards media content and personal desire to be and look like beloved media characters touch upon cognitive processes of children. Thus, the media influence the perception of children in different life concepts, not only through eyesight, but also through mental states.
Wilbur Schramm’s theory on Violence
The talks about basic communication model, which is an expansion of the Shannon-Weaver model. It puts much emphasis on encoding and decoding processes meaning that the process of communication is a two-way circular process. The theory discusses communication in the context of human behavior. Schramm added feedback to the previous communication theory.
He observes that an individual responds to the message received to confirm that the message is internalized. Therefore, individuals become violent as one way of confirming that they understand the message.
Works Cited
Klimmt, Christoph, Hefner, Dorothée, and Vorderer, Peter. “The Video Game Experience as “True” Identification: A Theory of Enjoyable Alterations of Players’ Self-Perception.” Communication Theory 194.1 (2009): 351-373. Print.
Monnot, Catherine. “The Female Pop Singer and the “Apprentice” Girl.” Journal of Children & Media 4.3 (2010): 283-297. Print.
Northup, Temple, and Liebler, Carol. “The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful.” Journal of Children & Media 4.3 (2010): 265-282. Print.
Prabu, David, Boyne, Natalia, and German, Tom. “Thinness Portrayals of Fashion Models.” Visual Communication Quarterly 16.2 (2009): 67-78. Print.
Ryan, Travis, and Morrison, Todd. “Factors Perceived to Influence Young Irish Men’s Body Image Investment: A Qualitative Investigation.” International Journal of Men’s Health 8.3 (2009): 213-234. Print.
Schutz, Helena, Paxton, Susan, and Wertheim, Eleanor. “Investigation of Body Comparison among Adolescent Girls.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 32.9 (2002): 1906–1937. Print.