Impacts of media and how it has affected society

There is much controversy regarding the presence of the new media, and its impacts on the society. These are most relevant to today’s teenagers, as they are very much affected by the things that media teaches. In this blog entry, I will attempt to explore 2 ways in which teenagers are negatively affected, namely teenage violence, body image; as well as 2 ways that they are helped. They are family concepts and benefits of education.

At the teenage years, where they possess the most amounts of time and energy to involve themselves with things going on around them, teenagers are exposed to a wide variety of media. Of which many are instilling the negative mindsets to them, causing them to have actions that they might regret in the future. This is probably because teenagers are generally more open-minded, as they have not collated enough life experiences to distinguish right from wrong. To them as long as something is commonly done by the majority, it must be right. They rarely consider the consequences of their actions.

In fact, the irony here is that, the theory on teenagers being violent is frequently suggested by media like newspaper and magazines. To make it more plainly, this is in itself, a form of controlling mindsets, making people believe that teenagers are violent. They have well-packaged that it into such a fact that, many will not think twice before nodding in agreement. More often then not, when I described the present day teenagers in the above paragraph, you were also accepting the data, as these ideologies are too neatly publicized, to an extend that seems factual. But according to statistics, teenage violence in Canada is actually dropping.

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/special_initiatives/toolkit/stereotypes/youth_stereotypes_news.cfm


Media has indeed caused much trouble. The way people perceive slimness, and beauty. Size zero models have haunted millions of minds for men and women alike. Women idolize these figures, and try means and ways to achieve what they think the society wants. Ranging from traditional methods like starving themselves, to the high end sliming technology. You name it and there is bound to be people who have tried it. What is worse is that they do it on the expanse of their health, and often, resulting in unnecessary deaths. The perception of beauty has already been corrupted. Curves are out, and adequately flat seems to be more appealing. And the more these ideas are promoted, the more number of innocent lives gets destroyed. Although many girls achieve their much desired weight, many of them end up sacrificing their precious lives as well.

http://thin-enough.blogspot.com/

http://www.media-awareness.ca/blog/index.cfm?catID=7

Recently on Channel 8, the nine o’clock show that is broadcasted, touches on issues like family and relationship. Basically, it is using the drama serials as a means of reaching out to the young adults of marriageable ages. By portraying the actresses’ and actors’ lifestyles, they are actually trying to get Singaporeans to realize the importance of marriages. Along with the show, also come tips on maintaining relationships, and even method to hook up the opposite gender.

By instilling positive notes on family, they are perhaps trying to boost the marriage percentages, and create more babies. In this way, the media is actually aiding the development of the society, as the population might be maintained or even growing healthily.

http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts.shtml
On the same note, media can also promote children to think, as suggested by the website below. This medium enables them to be independent learners, as they are able to do self studying like this. As a stereotype set by media as well, education is a good way to cultivate more civilized people, and as this motion is continued, more people will stand to gain. The beneficiaries are not just the people who read, but the entire community, as a better breed of people will lead to a more cohesive and understanding society.

http://www.mediafamily.org/mediawisecolumns/raising_readers_reading_aloud.shtml