Negative Impact of Television on Youth

1513 Words7 Pages
Media has a great impact on many children and adult’s lives. Its impact is not only present in our society today, but also in the past. In the past, watching television and films was a family event. The children and parents alike would snuggle up on the couch and wait in suspense for the opening scene. Now, children and parents rarely watch movies together. The children watch their own films, while the parents watch their own films. No matter how much movie watching changes, there is one thing movies have always had in common. They all portray prejudice in some shape or form in the movie. Films, throughout the past couple of decades, depict prejudice in society and how it has changed with time. Some of the examples of prejudice are towards African Americans, women, and even overweight people. There are many movies which include prejudice against African Americans. Some examples are To Kill a Mockingbird and Hairspray. These all show depictions of racism in different times in history. To Kill a Mockingbird portrays racism in the 1940’s from the eyes of those in the 1960’s and Hairspray presents racism in the 1960’s from the present day perspective. One major way people approach blacks in films is through their social conditions. Many are portrayed as poorly educated, poor, and work in the service and laborer occupations (Aguirre 105). To Kill a Mockingbird was created in 1962. In this film, Tom Robinson, a black man, is accused of raping a white girl. The girl clearly has just created the rape incident. The completely white jury find the man guilty even though it is obvious he is innocent. When Tom tries to escape jail, he is immediately killed (To Kill). This movie shows how little respect white men had for blacks in the 1930s/1940s. Colored men were not even given a fair trial and were automatically depicted as guilty. Since the movie was created
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