Can Violence on Television Influence Children
Mass Media is a well-known term and is used widely by many people tttttttttt, the plural of media is medium and the actual definition of media is any way in which we communicate with one or more people. We can communicate in many different ways from a conversation on the telephone between two people, to a speech on television that is watched by many people. When we are listening to the radio someone is communicating a message to us, even when it is just music we are still being sent a message. When you are listening to music it can change your mood and you may be able to relate to the story it tells which may influence you to think in a certain way. Mass, when used with media is referring to communicating with groups of two or more people. Television or newspapers are a more obvious example of mass media but everyday we will see examples of mass media adverts on posters as we travel to college is also an example of mass media as is a newspaper or magazine.
Most people would say that they choose to what they watch on television and therefore choose how they are influenced by the media, but in many cases this is in fact not true. In today’s society it is near impossible to escape mass media on a day-to-day basis, many people are a secondary or tertiary user children especially as they will often have to watch what the adult of the household wants to watch rather than their own choice. Programmes such as Eastenders have to be very careful as to what they show because it is before the ‘watershed’ and is part of a lot of households’ daily viewing. But the media is not always influencing people in a bad way. Eastenders showed a story line that depicted the reality of domestic violence. This story helped a lot of women realise that it was a common occurrence and when developing the story line the writers worked very closely with Women’s Aid, a domestic violence charity to ensure that they had all their facts correctly and that they were portraying the story correctly. But this is still violence on television and although the story helped those few who were affected it was still showing violence to children.
