When I was a child media seemed to be just starting to be a big
thing for children my age. When I did watch television it was normally a Disney
movie such as Pocahontas or The Lion King.
The other times that I watched television it was the Disney channel
which normally was the show Winnie the Pooh. The only other media that I
remember being a part of my life at a young age was the television show
Unsolved Mysteries which my mother watched a majority of the time from what I
remember. I do not remember really any other forms of media being a big part of
my life during the early 1990’s.
The sex and violence that was portrayed in my childhood was very
minimal from what I remember. However, my mother did not allow me to watch
things with sex and violence. The closest that I ever got to being allowed to
watch it was with the show Unsolved Mysteries, which still gave my nightmares.
I think that my mother sheltering my view of these things helped me in my
exposure to things that I didn’t need to be exposed to at a young age. However,
it also makes it hard for me to compare how sex and violence is displayed in
media today.
As I got older I can remember a steady increase of violence and
sex exposure on television. Now I am not sure if this is because I was allowed
to watch more as I got older or if there was more in media in general. However,
I remember one of my first exposures to sex on television was Titanic. Before
that I do not remember seeing commercials or any other television show that had
any “sex scenes”. This was also the times that I remember video games becoming
more violent. They went from super Mario brothers to shooting games and killing
zombies.
Fast forward to today and sex and violence is in almost every
commercial, television show, and other forms of media that you can imagine.
Even some children’s shows have sexual comments and violence in them. I am
pretty sure that this is an actual increase and not just an increase of
exposure on my part because I have seen an increase in sex and violence in
media in just the past couple years.
In more recent years people have started to study the effects of
violence in media and how it affects children. The shooting at Columbine High
School was one of the first violent acts that were viewed as a cause of
violence in media. The shooting that killed 21 students and one teacher was
vastly covered by media and it was the popular idea that the two boys that did
the shooting and then killed themselves were heavily influenced by the media. “Both
Harris and Klebold played violent "murder-simulation" video games,
and were fans of the controversial movie "Natural Born Killers" about
a husband and wife pair of mass murderers who received intense media coverage.
News reports said that the boys watched this movie many times and knew the
dialogue verbatim.” (, 2008,
para. 3)
These two boys were prime examples of the negative effects that
violence can have on children. However they were not the only ones that were
affected by the exposure they had to violence and sex in media. Many doctors
and pediatricians have been trying to encourage parents to control their
children’s exposure to violence and media because of what seems to be a strong
correlation with negative effects. “"The
evidence is now clear and convincing: media violence is one of the causal
factors of real-life violence and aggression," the American Academy of
Pediatrics' council” (NEALE,
2009, para. 2).
Violence and sex in media has not
only effected children it has also affected adults and the media industry
itself. The violence in media has made adults have to become more aware of what
their children are watching and therefore have made the media rate their
television shows, video games, and other forms of media. Not only are adults
having to come up with new ways to block information from their children, they
are also being impacted by the sexual content that is in the media today.
Many women today have been impact by
the sexual content in media today because they are constantly comparing
themselves to the women in media. They are compared to them in a number of ways
such as appearance. Many times in commercials the message that comes across is
that women have to look a certain way and be willing to be promiscuous to get
men’s attention. Promiscuity has become one of the main negative effects on
adults in regards to media. (Keith,
)
The problems in media can be reduced
in several different ways but this will take people outside of the media to
help as well. There needs to be more restrictions on people in television on
what they can and cannot show when it comes to advertisement. Also they need to
keep things none sexual and non violent while airing family friendly television
shows. Doing these two things will help children to not be exposed to sex and
violence by accident while watching shows that are appropriate for their age.
The biggest thing that needs to
happen is that parents need to educate their children on the dangers of sex and
violence before they become exposed to it in the outside world. It is when the
children are not educated on the subject that media and peers have a greater
effect what the child’s opinion and view of both sex and violence. In addition
to educating their children on sex and violence parents also need to limit what
their children watch and set up the available parental block on programs that
are not expectable for children. In doing both of these things as parents,
children will have a more educating view on the effects media can have and will
be able to make more educated decisions based on what they have been taught.
Another issue that media has caused
is societies perspective on immediacy and intimacy in regards to communication.
The way people communicate has change drastically with the invention of the
internet and cellular phones. People can communicate quickly and easily without
ever talking in person. This has effect the intimacy of communication
negatively because a person is no long forced to meet with someone in person.
These changes could be either beneficial or
detrimental depending on the way you look at it. The beneficial thing about
this new technology is that people can keep in contact with their family and
friends from all over the word with just a click of a button. It has made it
easier for people to get an education and find out information. However, the
detrimental part of having communication so easy is that people lose the face
to face contact that is more personable. It also is easier to connect with
people that you don’t know in person. One of the main issues that have come
about because of the convenience of communication is that people are starting
to lie about who they are on the internet. This ends up causing trouble for
both parties involve and can cause heartbreak. One can see this play in shows
such as Catfish that is now airing on MTV.
The
effects of technology and media on our lives are clear. With sex and violence
being two of the biggest negative affects that media has had. People must learn
to educate their children in the way that they want them to be and then the
media will not have as much of an impact that they do. When one is educated it
makes it easier to combat against things that are negative in our lives and
that include media. Media can have positive or negatives affects and it is us
as people that choose which it is. It starts with the individual; one person at
a time has to choose not to let media affect them in a negative way.
Eventually, everyone could look at it that way.
References
Bayarri, E., Ezpeleta, L., & Granero, R. (2011).
Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence, Psychopathology, and Functional
Impairment in Children and Adolescents: Moderator Effect of Sex and Age.
Journal Of Family Violence, 26(7), 535-543. doi:10.1007/s10896-011-9390-4
Walsh, J. L., Senn, T. E., & Carey, M. P. (2012).
Exposure to different types of violence and subsequent sexual risk behavior
among female sexually transmitted disease clinic patients: A latent class
analysis. Psychology Of Violence, 2(4), 339-354. doi:10.1037/a0027716
Ortiz, C. D., Silverman, W. K., Jaccard, J., & La
Greca, A. M. (2011). Children's state anxiety in reaction to disaster media
cues: A preliminary test of a multivariate model. Psychological Trauma: Theory,
Research, Practice, And Policy, 3(2), 157-164. doi:10.1037/a0020098
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