For many years now industries apart of the mass media have been prompting and profiting off of products being sold by different companies to the general public. In many cases, these products have been negatively influencing different age groups of people living in cities of America, like in becoming more violent, more sexualized, or in wanting to buy more and more products. Based on much research and analysis, many studies have proven and proven again the influence of media and how it affects children, teenagers, and adults in large cities of California. Viewing consistent media on TV influences individuals of all age groups because media tends to send signals to your brain that causes you to act, talk, and even think in a certain way. These signals can be anything, from violent images in cartoon shows signaling young children to act aggressive, from sexual tendencies teenagers view on sexualize television shows that signals them to act provocatively, or from large amounts of product placement in TV shows and movies signaling adults to buy more and more products. Whether it is based upon magazines articles, newspapers, books, movies, TV shows, or any other form of media, negative effects can arise influencing any specific groups or individuals.
Effects, like violent and aggressive behavior in children, can appear in any form of media. In Children, Adolescents, and Television, the journal article describes the possible negative health effects of television viewing on children and adolescents, such as violent or aggressive behavior. In the article we learn that for the past 15 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has expressed its concerns about the amount of time children and adolescents spend viewing television and the content of what they view. Many children, especially the children from cities like San Francisco, are frequent TV viewers. “32% of 2- to 7-year-olds and 65% of 8- to 18-year-olds have television sets in their bedrooms” in San Francisco based on this study (Education, C. 2001). Many children watch TV and copy the behaviors and mannerisms they see being portrayed on the TV screen. Many researchers conducted studies on the influence mass media has on children because of the large amounts of violence children see in movies, cartoons, and TV shows. Violent shows like South Park have been influencing children since its first episode airing in 1997. In another journal article, Adults watching children watch South Park by Helen Nixon (Nixon, 1999), she “had first-hand evidence of the extent of children’s take-up of South Park’s language and mannerisms when [she] was recently entertained… by a friend’s 8- and 12-year-old daughters” (Nixon, 1999). Her friend’s daughters were both establishing signs of characteristics from the show, saying things like, “holy crap, dude!” and “kick ass!” just like what the characters would say on the show. Through this article I can conclude that children in San Francisco, California can become influenced by violent shows like South Park because children pick up on harmful behaviors and mannerisms they see in television shows.
The view of mass media producing and distributing products is a controversial topic that most people have no idea exist. Although there are many views of media, Walter Lippmann has surpass among the most. Lippmann understands media to be “pictures in our heads.” Lippmann’s view is that when you view an image, that image is what you will forever use to describe the culture or cultures you see in that image, which is called a pseudo-environment. Through this concept we establish Public Opinion, which is a “triangular relationship between the scene of action, the human picture of that scene, and the human response to that picture working itself out upon the scene of action” (Lippmann 1922). Through Lippmann’s view of mass media, your Public Opinion is the influence of mass media because we are influenced by the images we see and choose to act or not act upon them.
In a study done by RAND, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, teens were asked to view different kinds of sexual activities on TV for a year. Researchers measured different kinds of sexual activities in three ways. Firstly, sexual behavior, such as kissing, intimate touching, and implied or depicted intercourse. Secondly, through sexual advise said by professionals, and lastly, by talks or behaviors showing risks of sexual activities. After a long twelve months of viewing sexual content, the researchers involved asked the teen viewers specific questions relating to the study. The result of the study was “that heavy exposure to sexual content on television related strongly to teens’ initiation of intercourse or their progression to more advanced sexual activities (such as “making out” or oral sex) apart from intercourse in the following year. Youths who viewed the greatest amounts of sexual content were two times more likely than those who viewed the smallest amount to initiate sexual intercourse during the following year or to progress to more-advanced levels of other sexual activity” (Collin, 2004). This issue is important to all kinds of teens living in large cities, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco because in large cities teens are consistently exposed to an overwhelming amount of sexualized media. By understanding that what you see can influence you, like Lippmann’s point of view, than teens can take it upon themselves to stray away from such provocative medias. Like the series Skins that highly publicizes and influences its audience in showing many uncalled for acts of sexual behaviors done by young teen minors. And with the study, I can conclude that teens who watch Skins can get influenced by the sexual actions done by the characters of the show, so teens should stay away from these kinds of medias.
With Lippmann’s view of mass media, we can study how it influences another age group. Adults are influenced by mass media through the process of product placement. Product placement is a process in which shows and movies publicize products in order to boost sells or popularize its products to the general public. Although you may feel this isn’t a huge issue, you will be surely mistaken because in the research paper As Seen on TV: Brand Placement and Its Influence on the Identity of Emerging Adults by Brittany Rowe-Cernevicius, argues “the prevalence of the connectedness aspects of Fashion and Paraphernalia speak to behavioral influences that brand placement [or product placement] can have on individuals. They are behavioral in nature because they involve a variety of actions from the way one dresses to the items one chooses to acquire and display” (Rowe-Cernevicius 2011). In this study, Rowe-Cernevicius suggests that the fashion of characters on TV or in movie programs influences how people dress because people see what others are wearing and want to dress that way. She also suggests that adults in large cities want the products they see being used by character in a TV or movie programs because adults want to have or use what they see on TV or in movies. This negative example of mass media can influence any adult living in large cities of America because mass media force feeds them large amounts of product placement in media. Although I believe this topic to be true, there are also other scholars who have disbelief with this issue. Scholars like Jason Mittell, a well known media scholar and author of Media violence and debating effects & influences, argues the falseness of the influence of mass media. In the article Mittell states, “If violent media were such a major cause of violent behavior, then Japan, whose media are as violent as or more than ours, would likely match or exceed America’s violent crime rates, rather than trailing the U.S. by a huge gap in nearly every category” (Mitell 2009). Though I don’t agree because I have proven that children are influenced by the actions they see others say or do, Mitell does have a point. I say this because not everyone is a murder/serial killer! If you only known how much violence is capitalized in mass media products. Games like Grand Theft Auto V, a game that is originally sold to adults, is probably in every household I’ve been to in SF. Almost everyone here has either a Play Station or Xbox and in each of those households has a new addition of the latest GTA franchise. Although I think the game is very fun and yes, I do have GTA Vat my house, it also is very violent and influentially damaging. Mitell argues that because not everyone who play GTV V are murders, not everyone is negatively or violently influenced by the game.
Mass media is a leading factor for influencing the thoughts and actions of our people’s culture because many times, people are negatively influenced by the products of mass media. Ultimately, I wanted to prove the negative influences of mass media by sharing and analyzing different studies proving the negative influences in different age groups of people living in cities of America. Furthermore, by sharing my findings I will helped stop this issue from happening in the first place because people will know that mass media has harmful effects. I want to challenged everyone reading to understand the harmful effects of mass media and to work together to try to stop these negative influences. By doing this, our future looks more educated and healthy because there will be hardly anymore harmful media, I’ve perviously talked about. Hopefully one day, violent, uneducated media will seize to exist.
Work Cited
Education, C. (2001). Children, adolescents, and television. Pediatrics, 107(2), 423-426.
Nixon, H. (1999). Adults watching children watch south park. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 43(1), 12.
Collins, Rebecca L., Marc N. Elliott, Sandra H. Berry, David E. Kanouse, Dale Kunkel, Sarah B. Hunter and Angela Miu. Does
Watching Sex on Television Influence Teens’ Sexual Activity?. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2004.
Lippmann, Walter. The world outside and the pictures in our heads. Public opinion 4 (1922), 1– 22.
Rowe-Cernevicius, Britney (2001). As Seen on TV: Brand Placement and Its Influence on the Identity of Emerging Adults. Bowling
Green State University. Hilary Harms, Ph.D: Bowling Green, OH (1-162).
Mittell, Jason. Television & American Culture (Oxford University Press 2009), chapter 9, “Viewing Television”
THE MASS MEDIA 