The Effects of TV

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the impact that the media has on children and society. The paper also discusses the idea that due to television and the media, childhood has disappeared.

From the Paper:

"Gauntlett (1998) disagrees. He believes that researchers go about their studies the wrong way. Instead of looking to the media as influencing and encouraging violent behavior, we should be looking at social factors like poverty, unemployment, and abuse. He cites a study of young offenders who watched the same TV programs as non-offenders. When they were asked to name someone on TV they would want to be like, they were unable to name anyone, and according to Gauntlett, this shows they were not very involved with television watching, yet they engaged in violent behavior. He believes the "effects model" of research treats children as though they were unable to think for themselves. Researchers often view children, he says, as other. They define children negatively in terms of what they cannot do, while research that seeks to establish what children can do shows that children are really sophisticated about the media and therefore not that influenced by what they see. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Gauntlett, D. (1998). Ten things wrong with the media "effects model." On line full-text accessed 5/10/06: http://www.theory.org.uk/david/effects.htm.
• Grossman, D. (1999). We are training our kids to kill. Saturday Evening Post, 271 (4) July, 64-72.
• Levin, D. E. (2003). When the world is a dangerous place. Educational Leadership, 60 (3), April, 72-75.
• Lipelt, K. (2001). Brainworks: Birth to kindergarten--The aggression component. Stockton, CA: ICA, Inc.
• Postman, N. (1983). The disappearance of childhood. New York: Delacorte Press.

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