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The Mass Media

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The Mass Media

The mass media, including Television, Video Games, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, the Internet and Advertisements, have a great influence in shaping peoples thoughts and ideas, sometimes in a better way, but most of the time in a unconstructive way. The purpose of mass media is to entertain, inform and persuade information to a large group of people, and it can affect how we dress, what we buy and how our society functions. Even though there are a lot of positive influences in the media, in my eyes there is still way more negative influence. The media is affecting children, the youth and society in general. According to the studies by the Kaiser Family Foundation there was a 400% increase from 1976 to 1996 in sexual references. Not to mention all of the television shows that influence crime, drugs and drinking alcohol. If children learn by observing, imitating and making behaviors their own, then why are all of these negative influences on the mass media? People are trying to understand why the crime rate is so high in the youth population, maybe they should take a look at what they are watching on a day to day basis. Now day’s children have an extremely easy access to the media. Sometimes parents will even hand their children the remote, or buy them a new video game to act is if it were a babysitter. What people need to know is; children learn by observing, imitating and making behaviors their own, so all of the things they are watching on T.V. or see in a movie have a very high influence on the way they will think or act. The media can affect children’s body image and self esteem through unrealistic expectations of beauty, body weight and physical appearance, especially in girls. This may result in eating disorders by some adolescents. When children fall short of their own expectations, based on media images, self esteem can

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