Unfortunately, many of today’s television programs are violent. So does TV influence kids that violence, drugs, alcohol and sex are ok? How much violence, drug references, alcohol usage, and sex references does the average American child come across? How much of this do they take in? Hundreds of studies have found that children and teenagers that watch television may: • Become “immune” or numb to the horror of violence • Gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems • Imitate the violence they observe on television; and • Identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers Also, Extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness.
It is when broken people in a broken world get involved that the system itself becomes broken. Social media has the capability to connect worlds away to people we have never met, yet we choose to use it to post things with little to no meaning, only checking to see that streaks are kept and selfies receive the same amount of likes they always do. Social media has the ability to help us do things never before possible. We take that possibility, crumple it up into a ball, and throw into a trash can like a “baller”. We have better things to do, like catching up on that Netflix series, making sure we never miss and episode of our favorite show and keeping up the newest trends.
There is a wide variety of reality shows, which covers a very large area and all different aspects of daily living. Throughout the wide variety of all of these reality shows all of them has one major thing in common: the people starring in the shows are supposedly all, “real” people going through “real” situations, rather it be day to day living, competition, or informative based news shows. There are several reality type shows out there that are sending out the wrong messages to teenagers and even some adults. It might inspire them for violence, teen pregnancy, and many more habits and or mannerisms that are not acceptable on a day-to-day basis. Teenagers could even be trying some of the stunts shown on a few of the shows at home resulting in injury.
Many people outside of the industry believe it affects teen’s sexual activities and violence tendencies. A recent study in the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested that the display of sex on television can contribute to preadolescent sex. Rebecca Collins et al Ahmed 2 argued in their article that sex in entertainment can lead to teens having sex. She argues that when teens start to become sexually curious, the programming on television showing sexual content influences their idea about sex, specifically in regard to gender stereotype. The amount of sexual content on television is huge.
VIOLENCE IN THE MEDIA In recent years we have witnessed an alarming increase in the crime rate, especially among young people. We have been left shocked and at a loss to find explanations for why teenagers rob and blackmail, why young people commit physical violence, why children become murderers. Some people place the blame on the way violence is represented in the media and, as a consequence, demand that there should be stricter controls, or even censorship, put in place. However, this way of dealing with the problem is not undisputed. It is necessary to take a closer look at whether or not violence in the media really is responsible for this development and then to examine what censorship may entail before taking such a far-reaching decision.
Does reality television depict reality? The seemingly endless stream of “reality” television shows, along with their rampant popularity, would suggest that the genre lives up to its name. The appeal of this genre is a supposed window to the “back stage” of the lives of interesting individuals. However, the actors and production staff are constantly manipulating the situation to promote a storyline. This essay will use the concepts from Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) to analyse whether two specific television shows accurately reflect reality: Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Big Brother.
Andrew Mackenzie is Head of factual entertainment on Channel 4 and he sees no reason why Channel 4’s new show should be considered unethical, and states that “Reality television show on children did not pose a hazard to their welfare”. Mackenzie assures that the children’s well-being was the top priority during the whole program, the children were at all times being watched by both chaperones and their parents. A parent could at all times talk to their child, and even pull them out of the show if they felt that it had gone too far. Mackenzie states that the children not was in a protected environment, but was also before the casting screened and tested to make sure that they could cope with the whole experience. Doctor Richard House is a Psychotherapy lecturer at Roehampton University, and has answered Mr Mackenzie’s attempt to calm down the critics.
This is because video games are much more interactive then movies and television which gives teens a more real control of a character that is committing these violent and crime based acts. While there have been endless hours of research and hundreds of studies done some argue that it is still not clear if there is a correlation between anger driven teen behaviors and video game violence. I think that teens learn from these violent behaviors and take the violent acts that are portrayed in these games and transfer them into their everyday life. With technology over the past 20 years developing like it has it’s no wonder why our children are learning things like their ABC’s and counting from video game consoles or other forms of hand held electronic devices. Today’s youth would much rather communicate using texting or social networking cites such as Twitter and Facebook rather than talking on the phone or hanging out in a common area such as a mall.
These days there is a growing trend towards reality TV shows that are based on external shallow values. With the appeal of junk food, it has a powerful hypnotic effect even on the strongest minds. But while reality TV may seem like a harmless form of entertainment, the damage (which is done so subtly) is very powerful and therefore it deserves a closer look. Reality television has become one of the biggest revenue makers for television channels and is one of the most popular genres of media provided by television, with pay TV now having niche channels just for reality TV. One of the biggest reality TV shows to hit the world in recent years has been Big Brother, in 2008 Australia had it’s 8th season and other countries clocking up to 16 series.
The youth are then influenced by observing these behaviours and mimicking the actions of these so-called heroes. Eventually, this will cause one to be obsessed with the violent actions. The national association for the education of young children (NAEYC) reports that violence in the media has increased since 1980 and continues to increase. The majority of these studies conclude that children who watch significant amounts of television and movies are more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior