Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai

Facultatea de Ştiinţe Politice, Administrative şi alea Comunicarii

Secţia: Publicitate

Children and the Media

Băbărelu Ivona
Mişca Cosmina
Orlov Ana
Sabo Bianca

Cluj-Napoca,2009
Table of Contents:

1. The Media. Definition.

2. Effects of the media on children
2.1. Positive effects
2.1.1.Improving the mindset
2.1.2 Getting informed
2.1.3 Enhance creativity and imagination
2.2. Negative effects
2.2.1 Inappropriate content in the media
3. Conclusion
4. Biography

1. The Media
 “The media” as we find it in the English dictionary refers to means of communication
as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely
The newspapers were the first form of the mass-media. They appeared in the XVIIth
century and they had a great influence in the public opinion.
The television is the mean of communication with the biggest impact on society.
Technically speaking, the television is defined like a procedure of decomposition,
transmission and recompose of images. Invented between the two world wars, it didn`t
develop like a public media until the late 40`s in USA, and then in Europe.

When it`s first presented, in the beginning of the 30`s, it caughts the attention of the
first viewers fascinated by the new technology.

If the XX is supposed to be one of the technology, the next one will be one of
communication. First, there was the Morse Code, and then the telegraph and after than the
telephone, then the Internet was invented, but what is the Internet?

Named “the network”, the Internet has its origins in ARPANET and in NSFNET. The
Internet is more than a bunch of connections.

In the 60`s the Department of National Security needed a communication network if a

nuclear attack would have happened. RAND, a military company, proposed gathering all the
information in one network. The Defense Departments Advanced Research Projects Agency
also known as DARP or ARPA, decided to extend this network.

Media technology has made communicating increasingly easier as time has passed
throughout history. Today, children are using media tools in school and are expected to have
a general understanding of the various technologies available.

One of the most effective tools in the media for communication is the internet. Such
tools as MySpace, hi5 , e-mail , Second Life have brought people closer together and created
new online communities.

Our way of thinking about ourselves or how we perceive the others is affected by the
media. Our living standards comes from the media ,too.

2. Effects of the media on children

 The media affects the children in different ways. It can create them a right or a wrong
image about the world and about themselves. Watching TV can be a good thing for a
child, but it can, also, influence him in a wrong way. That`s the difference between an
educational program and an action-movie.
A research Funded by the Department of Families in 2007 shown the followings:

The amount of time 3-4 year old children were reported to watch television was
categorized as: low if children watched less than 280 minutes per week (this equates to
approximately four and a half hours); medium if children watched between 281 and 570
minutes a week (between four and a half and nine and a half hours); and high if children
watched more than 570 minutes per week (more than nine and a half hours). Approximately a
third of the sample fell into each of these categories.
One in three children with high levels of television watching often turned the television on
themselves, compared with one in five children with medium or low levels of television
viewing (see Figure 1). A higher proportion of children with low levels of television
watching never turned the television on themselves (32%) compared with children with high
levels of television watching(19%).
As shown in the Figure , children with computers in their bedroom were more likely to
use the computer to play DVDs/CDs for entertainment than children who only had
computers elsewhere in the home (69% compared with 55%).

Almost all children with a computer in the home used this to play games, as shown in
Figure 5. Children with computers in their bedroom were slightly more likely to do so
than children who only had computers elsewhere in the home (97% compared with
93%).
2.1 Positive effects

Educational programs, cartoons , quiz shows , news channels are a source of learning
for children. These types of programs enhance creativity and make a child feel more
confident and they develop the brains of kids.
Parents are a major influence in a child`s life. They can keep their children away from
harmful programs, like violent cartoons or movies and they can help the children to get
in touch with the technology, like DVD`s or interactive pc-games. They have to set a
healthy example in their children life.

2.1.1 Improving the mindset

Television takes a great role in improving a child mindset. The child can learn new
languages just by watching the TV, he can learn new things by watching a documentary
and he can improve his vocabulary. In this ways, his general knowledge and IQ is raised.
Cartoons makes the child happy, relaxes him and some times it can be a fun way of
learning things. For example the Mickey Mouse Disney Club is a TV program ,specially
created for young children which contains spelling, Maths , object recognition and
logical thinking exercises.
This is a graphic made by National Longitudinal Survey of Children and
Youth 2006/2007 that represents the percentage attention of boys and girls from the 3th
grade and 4th grade in watching these type of interactive learning programs:
 Children learn form imitation, identification and modeling, motivation, observation
and practice. That`s why it is important for parents to chose strictly the programs that
their children are watching and to impose the right kind of models for them.

2.1.2 Getting informed

Children can be I the know with all that is happening in the world by watching TV
news, by reading news papers, by listening to the radio and so on. By a click of the
mouse a child can be aware of the main events that happened lately.
An informed child is a child with a higher rate of General Knowledge and IQ.
A child that watches the news becomes aware of his place in the world and gets eager
to change things, he may get the desire to do things differently or exactly the same as his
model on TV.

2.1.3 Enhance creativity and imagination

Imagination has a very important role in childhood. According to Dorothy Singer,

professor of psychology at Yale University and co-author of The House of Make Believe:
Children's Play and the Developing Imagination, children who actively use their imagination
reap a host of benefits, such as playing cooperatively and being successful in school. The four
benefits that come from developing the imagination discovered by the professor are:

 Imagination helps school-age children solve problems by helping them think through
different outcomes to various situations and role playing ways to cope with difficult or new
circumstances.

 Imagination allows children to practice real-life skills. From shopping at a pretend

grocery store to assigning roles and dialogue to dolls or puppets, children's pretend play helps
them practice and apply new learning and better understand how those skills are used in the
real world.

 Imagination encourages a rich vocabulary. Telling and hearing real or made-up stories,
reading books and pretend play help children learn and retain new words.

 Imagination helps children grow up to be adults who are creative thinkers. Adults who
were imaginative children often become problem solvers, innovators and creative thinkers.
2.2 Negative Effects

2.2.1 Inappropriate content in the media

Parents are very concerned about the amount of sex and violence in the media. Here are some
statistics of the Kaiser Family Foundation about Parents, Children and Media about this topic:
 Two-thirds of parents say they are “very” concerned that children in this country are
being exposed to too much inappropriate content in the media, and a substantial proportion
think sex (55%) and violence (43%) in the media contribute “a lot” to young people’s
behavior. A plurality of parents continues to cite TV as the medium that concerns them the
most (32%), but the proportion who name the Internet has increased over the past two years
(from 16% to 21%). Two-thirds (66%) of parents say they favor government regulations to
limit the amount of sex and violence on TV during the early evening hours, a proportion that
is virtually unchanged from 2004.

But despite their overall concern, most parents don’t think their own children are
exposed to a lot of inappropriate content in the media they use. And the proportion who say
they are “very” concerned about their children’s exposure to sex, violence and adult language
in the media, while still high, has gone down consistently over the past nine years. Only one
in five parents (20%) say their own children are exposed to “a lot” of inappropriate content in
the media they use (another 32% say “some”). And while many parents say they are “very”
concerned about that exposure, the level of concern has gone down over the past nine years.
About half (51%) of parents say they are “very” concerned that their children are being
exposed to too much sexual content in the media they use; 46% say the same about violent
content and 41% about adult language. While these numbers are still fairly high, the decline
from previous years has been noticeable and steady.
 That was the report that the foundation made in 2007, and according to it violence,
sex behavior in the media are the most important negative effects of the media.

The internet isn`t a safe place for children, either. They can be expose to large
amounts of violence and inappropriate behavior and as we all know “children see, children
do”. That`s why parents should oversee closely what programs and what websites their
children are watching.

Another negative effect might be the bad seeing of the children. Watching too much
TV is bad for the eye. Focusing your eyes too long on any one thing can cause eyestrain, a
temporary (but irritating) problem.

3. Conclusion

The Media influences children both negative and positive. Children can learn new
languages, improve their vocabulary, learn new things about the world, be in touch with the
world and the technology, improve their IQ, have role models, develop their creativity and
have fun due to the interactive media.

The negative effects are what parents are concerned the most. A child learns things by
imitation, but if he sees in media a lot of violence and improper behavior would they be able
to tell right from wrong?
 In our opinion the parents have the most important role in keeping the “bad” media
affecting their child. A parent has to teach his children the difference from reality and
fantasy, right from wrong, bad models from positive ones. And by imposing their one
behavior as a good model , the child will follow it.

4. Biography:

1.Maria Ehsan, Maryam Arshad, and Hina Qamar (2008). Effects of the Media on Children
2. Victoria Rideout, M.A. (2007). Parents, Children & Media . Washington , DC, Kaiser
Family Foundation
3. INVESTOPEDIA , http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/media_effect.asp ,
19 nov:
4.HELIUM, http://www.helium.com/items/573945-the-effects-of-media-on-american-society
19 nov;
 5.Ezine @articles, http://ezinearticles.com/?Effects-of-Media-on-Children&id=352358 ,
19 nov;
6.Rana, Vinay "Effects of Media on Children." Effects of Media on Children
EzineArticles.com. http://ezinearticles.com/?Effects-of-Media-on-
Children&id=352358