Other Issues in Media and Society

I have visited most of my classmates blog and decide to share some of them with you. The reason why I have chosen those blogs, it’s because it somehow relates to my blog and provides a lot of useful information.

Firstly I would like to start with Anne’s blog. Her blog is about  Children and Media. In her website, she focuses not only on how media affects children’s, also, she touches parents responsibility.

The second blog is about our digital addiction.Iuliia’s blog on » The modern addiction» provides an information, how  people become addicted to the social media. Furthermore, she also mentioned about how high internet usage can lead to health problems.  The health problems caused by social media is discussed in the third blog. This blog about the correlation between social media and depression is written by Nadya.

The last 2 blogs are about, in my opinion, very important issues caused by media.  The first is about The impact of sexual content in media on children by Lisa. She provides good examples, even based on her own experiences. The last one is about TEENAGE ALCOHOL ADS IN THE MEDIA by Jessica. She provides an information how ads and media overall lead to underage drinking.

All of those blogs are about how media influences teenagers and children’s in a negative way. I think it worth to visit these blogs. Hope you will enjoy.

Reference List

Here is the list of website I have used:
[1] (2015). Retrieved 3 December 2015, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-twitt..)
[2] (2015). Retrieved 3 December 2015, from http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/03/instagra
[3] Depts.washington.edu,. (2015). Teen Health and the Media. Retrieved 4 December 2015, from http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=bodyimage&page=fastfacts
[4] (2015). Retrieved 5 December 2015, from http://www.indiana.edu/~telecom/people/faculty/wright/Mass_Media_Effects_on_Youth_Sexual_Behavior.pdf
[5] Impact of media use on children and youth. (2003). Paediatrics & Child Health, 8(5), 301. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792691/
[6] 2015). Retrieved 5 December 2015, from http://www.indiana.edu/~telecom/people/faculty/wright/Mass_Media_Effects_on_Youth_Sexual_Behavior.pdf

How I see it.

The MASS-MEDIA represent drugs, sexual, psychological and behavioural disorders that rarely coincide with reality. For example, on television often represent a scenario, when unshared love necessarily results in heavy depression and suicide, and one drink on an evening-party often appear in life fatal in a motor-car accident or becomes beginning of alcoholism or drug addiction. According to Steinberg L., consciousness of people considers the real these negative stereotypes that so often appear in mass medias, that teenage is always a very problematic time of development
I would like to start with citing an expert. Secondly, I will discuss the issues of media violence and sexuality. Lastly –conclusion, which will be my point of view regarding this issue.
“ In any formula for pop entertainment, the two most time-tested ingredients are sex and violence. Of course, purveyors must be careful. Too much of one or the other can attract unwanted attention and public outcries for restraint” ( O’Conner, 1990) [4]

Almost 1000 studies or more confirm the exposure to heavy doses of television violence leads and develops aggressive behaviour, especially this appears on boys. Another study shows that some particular groups of children may be more vulnerable to violence on television:
• Children from minority and immigrant groups;
• Emotionally distributed children;
• Children with learning disabilities;
• Children who are abused by their parents;
• Children in families in distress. [5]
Another issue is “Sex in the mass media”. The American Academy of Paediatrics (2001)
Has determined precocious and unprotected youth sexual activity as a “major public health problem”. Also, Wright’s (2009b) studies identified that “ popular films contain frequent references to depictions of sexual activity but feature very few messages about the risk and consequences associated with being sexually active” (p190). Besides, also reports that the magazines for teen girls send messages about sexual responsibility. Also a lifestyle magazines for boys ( e.g. Maxim)  does not provide a risk and responsibility messages. This and a lot of other studies provide a reason to believe that mass media have an effect on young people [6].

To conclude I want to say, even though a lot of studies carried out an effect of mass media on youth, I believe that everything is about a child and parents. In my opinion, every one of us has a choice to take what we need. It is our responsibility as humans to control the information we are receiving and it is our responsibility to find out what is good and what is bad. Regarding the children, we have to take care and control what they are watching and what type of web pages they visit. Likewise, most of the electronics (TV, PC’s and etc.) have a setting “ parental control” which is very helpful to block unwanted web pages. This is a common problem and I am pretty sure, that we have to do something to make a change.

For Further Research.

While I was looking for information to write in my blog, I found some useful web pages.

You can visit them and find out more about “Teenagers and The Media”.

Here is the list of them:

• (http://www.momjunction.com/articles/positive-and-negative-influences-of-media-on-teenagers_00107975/) in this website you will find out about positive and negative influences of media on teenagers. Also, the website provides a couple of quizzes. Besides, they have some more links to read.
• (http://www.extension.umn.edu/family/families-with-teens/fact-sheets/teens-and-social-networking-websites.pdf ) a website of “University of Minnesota Extension”. This is a guide for parents of teenagers. This guide discusses issues and attraction of teenagers to SNS. Furthermore, it provides an advice for parents.
• (http://www.childmind.org/en/posts/articles/2013-11-26-self-esteem-and-anxiety-digital-age ) This is an article from “Child Mind Institute” focusing on Teens and social Media. In this article, you will find out about the problems teenagers facing, which was caused by Social Media.

What the experts Say

Media and Health. According to one of the articles from a university of Minnesota: “Media effects on our body image”. Media shows us a thin body as ideal for women, this way young ladies are dissatisfied with their body. This leads to hunger strike and unhealthy diet.
The survey in this article, which was taken by National Institute on Media and the Family, shows that 53% of girls in the USA are “unhappy with their bodies”. Furthermore, this growth 78% by the time when they reach their 17th birthday.
A Kaiser Foundation study by Nancy Signorielli found that:
In movies, particularly, but also in television shows and the accompanying commercials, women’s and girls’ appearance is frequently commented on: 58 percent of female characters in movies had comments made about their looks, as did 28 percent in television shows and 26 percent of the female models in the accompanying commercials. Mens’ and boys’ appearance is talked about significantly less often in all three media: a quarter (24%) of male characters in the movies, and 10 percent and 7 percent, respectively, in television shows and commercials.
Also, this page provides facts about “Eating Disorders”. Here is a link (http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=bodyimage&page=fastfacts) check it out. [3]

Current Event II

Social media is not real life
Recently Instagram society was shocked by the claim of a young Instagram celebrity Essena O’Neill to quit this social media who has 612,000 followers on the platform (http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/03/instagra..). She was very popular by posting good-looking pictures with herself and marketing clothes and accessories. “2000 per post EASY” she says (ibid). One day Essena claimed that she quits Instagram because “social media is not real life”. The girl deleted most of the photos in her account and changed the captions for the remaining ones revealing the truth. She told that most of the photos were “contrived perfecting to get attention”. In fact, she was sad and miserable person as a result of the affecting of social media. She measured her popularity in numbers (amount of likes and followers). Essena O’Neill is a brave young woman who decided to change not only her life but also the life of the others by promoting that social media is not real life and people should also quit it.
It is going much debate that social media is misused nowadays. Its primary purpose is to connect people who is in the long distance or make friends all over the globe. However, social media has become extremely popular among youngsters because they can improve their self-esteem by gaining likes and getting more followers. Although most of the users of such platforms as Instagram conversely are becoming less confident as the result of the small number of followers. It strongly harms young psyche of children and teenagers preventing them from living sterling life among fellows. In my opinion this issue should be considered by parents of teenagers who are obsessed with social media. Parents should explain to their children that life cannot be measure by people who are displayed by digits on the Internet, they also should explain that social media is developed to connect people in purpose of communication not in purpose of being ignorant to each other. [2]

Current event I

Twitter polls rating teens are nasty online bullying, Winnipeg students say

Social media Twitter brought in polls which have become a new trend as so many people like to use them. Young people are using them mostly for fun however, there is a debate going around offensive polls created by Winnipeg polls account. Most of the universities and schools have accounts in social media which are ruled by students. Students of Winnipeg schools crossed the line, they created polls that make people compare one another. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-twitt..) To illustrate this: “Who is more ugly” it was a question for two sisters; “this is disgusting. We`re sisters, stop comparing us”, “big shout out to Winnipeg polls for letting me know that I am the ugliest sister. Thanks a lot” writes user @cassidybesson (https://twitter.com/cassidybesson). This is only one example of what is going on. A large number of students have complained that Winnipeg polls account promote online bullying by making abusive polls which are hateful and harmful. There is a number of students who is against that and do not want to be involved in the polls. For instance, Hugh Clarke, 18, says students are being put in a bad light by the polls, which can ‘ruin a person’s reputation or job opportunities.’ (Marianne Klowak/CBC). Students are disquiet by these problems because they do not how to stop it when the bullying has gained the internet scale.
Cyber bullying is an issue which is gaining huge scale. The worst thing is that it cannot be prevented because the Internet is considered as “open space” which means that you can tell what you think anonymously so you will not get the response face to face. It is the one-sided fight when bully always wins. In my opinion, the solution for this does not pay attention to the polls at all, not only for students who are being bullied but also for people who is asked to answer the polls. Everyone should remember that one day they can find their names in the poll. [1]

Medias influence on Teenagers.

Hello there!

Let me introduce myself.  My name is Laura and this is my blog.

Today’s discussion is “ Mass media’s influence on children and teenagers”.

Youngsters nowadays are growing in mass media era. There are  positive and negative  influences of mass media on them. By the way, the first and main function of the media in a society is to provide news and information to people. People need news for many reasons, not only to their entertainment.  Education is another important function of mass media as well as socialization.  Besides, media has become part of their lives. So, this is the reason why I assume it a very interesting subject for discussion. Everybody has its own reaction  and opinion for everything that’s going on Earth at the present. My aim is to invite attention to the issue and see some good changes after. I hope you find it very useful and worthy of notice. Enjoy!