Influence of Media on Children - Essay Example

The media effects model of audience research and children. Introduction The nature of media research in reference to children and their viewing habits allows for cultural studies to frame the experience of media as it influences culture and society. The media effects theory pursues the idea that the media creates a paradigm in which autonomy is reduced through influential messages that train culture towards similar thinking. This can be observed through the globalization of a culture that is infiltrating the world through internet access that promotes consumerist ideologies, spreading them through exposure with an alignment of thinking patterns emerging. Children are considered particularly susceptible to these type of unifying messages, thus the exposure to media that is experienced can result in defined thinking without the expansion of human thought that has been experienced in previous history. Through exposure to media resources that promote an aligned consumerist pattern of thinking, children are being limited in the directions of philosophical discourse that can be learned. However, not all aspects of media are negative. Much of the research that has been done has focused on the negative, however, thus the general information suggests that media has a negative influence on children, thus changing society towards a detrimentally inferior state. The media effects model of audience research tends towards creating this negative balance between children and the media, however new forms of research, such as the gratification and uses theory, provide for a broader understanding of the influences of the media (Seiter 1999, p. 12). In doing research on children and the effects of media on their socialization, the media effects theory may be enhancing the negative effects without balancing the positive effects in such a way as to more fully understand the phenomenon. Children and Television Television and other easily accessible forms of media are an important part of life in modern society, thus the exposure of children to the messages that are imparted through the media has created a great deal of discussion and research on the topic. Much of that research has focused on the negative aspects. Buckingham (2003, p. 163) relates that children, in most homes, spend more time watching television than any other activity in their schedule. The influences of messages that relate to society that are imparted through literary methods of storytelling create a high impact on the socialization of children through their viewing habits. Buckingham (2003, p. 166) states that research “regards the relationship between television and children as one of cause and effect: the ’messages’ contained within the medium are assessed in terms of their quantifiable impact on viewers’ attitudes or behavior”. One can argue, however, that this is a limited point of view that influences research in a specific direction, assuming that behavior is a determinant of effect, thus providing for a negative regard to the results. Kelley, Buckingham, and Davies (1999, p. 221) created a study that focused on the influence of sexual representations on children, but used discourse analysis to further understand the phenomenon. It might, however, be important to realize that discussing where children get their messages might limit the observations. Although analysis of the linguistics used by children to relate their understandings might be central to understanding their experience, it is important to realize that despite how they frame their experiences, the messages that they receive are more complex, thus the research may only be hearing the easiest course of explanations, rather than flushing out the full extent of how information has been processed. Socialization Influences A primary concern in the study on the influence of media on children is that of sex-role socialization. The vulnerability of children to the influences of media have provided for characterizations of sex-roles to be created through messages that inform on how to evaluate the nature of gender and sex (Buckingham 1993, p. 91). How children identify themselves in regard to sex and gender is through the social messages that they receive through influences that powerfully create the identity at different stages of development. In early childhood, these messages were developed through influences from family, but with the intrusion of media in the home, the messages created outside of the centralized social setting, children can receive mixed messages, leaving them open to those messages that best serve their needs. This does not mean that they are always positive messages, and this becomes an issue for society as the disconnect between parental values and the perceived larger community creates a conflict as children go through maturation. However, Buckingham (2003, p. 169) quotes Durkin for his observation that in doing research on children and the impact of television on attitudes cultural values, using the ‘direct effect’ approach discounts the power of all other influences in a child’s life, thus placing the causality only within the influential range of television. The nature of research on these concepts provides a biased view, thus is difficult to assess for its importance on the topic. Where research that is done that focuses solely on audience responses, it is limited by a lack of knowledge in other aspects of life that help to form context. The influences of culture, starting with family, school, religious institutions, and through the power of models in real life that can be found in sporting centers of experience, educational groups, and through literary exposure, must be considered when observing the effects of a media influence. In addition, children will imitate each other in order to raise social status, thus the motivations and the context of learning and influence all provide important and informative balance. As well as sex roles, social grouping is often a topic of study where children are concerned. The concept of stereotypes and negative images of ‘racial’ types provides for a negative representation of people within a group, rather than an understanding of the existence of individualization within that same group. Characters that provide social role associations with stereotypes create an impression of how certain visual cues, most often skin color, inform about the social attitudes and behaviors of members of a group designated by the theory of ‘race’. The study of this concept is centered on the negative impact that stereotyping creates, thus influencing social attitudes and tolerances. Buckingham (2003, p. 168) suggests that there is a limited amount of research that supports a pro-social concept of television influences on the understanding that children have about gender and sex, which is even extended to social groups such as the elderly, teenagers, mothers, fathers, and so forth. Research has focused on the negative influences that these types of stereotypical groupings have created. Research and Theory According to Van Evra (2008, p. 3), the social learning theory was one of the first theories used in researching the relationship of socialization in children and the media. In this theory, “observational learning and imitation of modeled behaviour” were used to provide a critical analysis of the impact of television. One of the prime researchers using this theory, Bandura, was hesitant in relating absolutes in relationship to observations of imitation. Behaviour is related to other factors that provide for a greater context of presumed award for modeling behaviours. Social cognitive theory took this further in that behaviours were created through the observation of models (in reference to media). Observational learning has four processes that provide for the adaptation of behaviors and attitudes. These four processes are: attention, retention, behaviour production, and motivation. In other words, the behaviour is noticed, it is remembered, it is proven to be producible, and then a motivation is found that will provide the will for creating the behaviour. If one looks at these four aspects and critically evaluates them for understanding some of the ways that research misses the core mark sometimes in regard to influences that the media has on the behaviours and attitudes of children, it can be observed that outside influences will have a greater impact on the adaptation of behaviours where motivation is concerned. Seeing it, remembering it, and producing it have no consequential value unless there is a motivation to produce the behaviour. Thus, in context, behaviours and attitudes that are observed must be evaluated for greater context when researching the influences of media on children. Through audience response alone, the data will be incomplete, thus creating a deficit of probative value. Conclusion Gauntlett (1996, p. 11) suggests that media effects research “has not demonstrated that the media has had a direct impact on the behavior of the audience”. In fact, media might be concluded to have an indirect impact, taking the experiences and attitudes that are formative in children towards socialization and creating influences, rather than directly creating influences. Studying the nature of these influences through direct approaches limit’s the value of the research, discounting all of the more direct and experiential influences from which children form social constructs of understanding. Research has thus far been mostly biased, the nature of the information lacking context and slanted with the belief that television is the greater influence, thus the primary focus, rather than discussing it as a part of a larger conglomeration of influences. References Buckingham, David. (1993). Reading audiences: young people and the media. Manchester u.a: Manchester Univ. Press. Buckingham, David. Children and television: A critical overview of the research. Found in Virginia Nightingale and Karen Ross, eds. (2003). Critical readings: media and audiences. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Gauntlett, David. (1996). Video critical: children, the environment and media power. Luton, Bedfordshire: Univ. of Luton Press. Kelly, Peter, David Buckingham, and Hannah Davies. (May 1999). Talking dirty: Children Sexual Knowledge and Television. Childhood. Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 221-242. Seiter, Ellen. (1999). Television and new media audiences. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Van Evra, Judith Page. (2008). Television and Child Development. Hillsdale, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum Associates. Read More