A major portion of television images directed specifically at children is in the form of animated cartoons. Saturday morning blocks of network programming are dedicated to cartoons. The Disney organization, having grown from the creation of 1930s animated movie shorts and features into a giant multimedia consortium, now has its own cable channel devoted to "family entertainment" relying upon fifty percent cartoon programming from its sixty year film library - in addition to supplying blocks of programming in non-cable "syndication" to independent stations. It can be easily remarked, then, that cartoons fill a major portion of a child's time when watching children's and family television programming.
Research suggests that children who view violent programming on television will behave more aggressively with peers (Bandura, 1977). It is also true that children who view prosocial behaviors on television are more likely to exhibit those types of behaviors themselves. Young children will imitate and repeat behaviors they see on television. Young Children are visual learners; they model both the positive and negative behavior that they see. By watching violent television programs, a child learns that fighting and violence is the way to resolve a problem. Not only does a child learn that violence is acceptable, they also become immune or numb to the horror of violence itself. Television standards have evolved to the darker, more violent side in the past several years. Critics of television violence say that when children watch an endless stream of violent acts, they become desensitized to the damaging effects of aggressive behavior and feel less sympathy for the victims of aggressive acts. One of the most noted being a series of “bobo doll” studies conducted by Bandura. In a 1965 Bandura study, children saw aggressive behaviour of a model being either rewarded, punished or suffering no consequences. Children who observed a model being punished subsequently had fewer imitative aggressive responses than did those who saw the model rewarded or treated indifferently. Later, however, each child was offered a reward for performing the response carried out earlier by the model. The addition of this incentive cancelled out the effects on imitative aggression of reward and punishment of the original model. Children in all three treatment conditions had apparently learned the model’s behaviour equally well with reward acting as a facilitation for performance of these learned responses. Other studies also illustrated that children are more likely to model behaviour if they identified with the model and if the model had an admired status and the behaviour expressed had a functional value. (Bandura, 1969) These findings have direct bearing on the implications for the effect of violence shown on television.
According to Neil Postman’s book ‘The Disappearance of childhood’ (Postman, 1983) it is the electronic media responsible for the decline of modern civilization. He argues that television undermines the capacity to thinking critically and reduces politics, culture and morality to mere entertainment. In the past there was a time when alcoholism was seen only among adults, and not at all among children. Today it is common to see child alcoholics. The same situation exists among children for drugs and it is quite common among children. The same situation exists for sex and sexual disease and this is seen from the total crime statistics. There are a number of figures that show the young being involved in crime today while this was not the situation even in 1959 as the figures for crime by people under the age of 18 shows. Thus it is clear that television is making the concept of childhood as being different from adulthood and childhood is disappearing.
In coming years the level of access of technology will increase significantly as price fall; yet there is also a polarization between the ‘technology rich’ and technology poor’ both within societies and global terms (van der Voort et al., 1998). In the early decades of the US commercial system, programmes for children would be provided at minimum cost only. And at times other audiences were not available to view (Melody, 1973). Even in the UK children’s television has been comparatively underfunded where the public service tradition has been very strong. But now in the contemporary era of niche market children have suddenly become more valuable. They are now seen to have significant influence on parents’ purchasing decisions, as well as substantial disposal income of their own. Thus there has been a significant increase in the amount of provision for children, if not necessarily in its quality or diversity (Buckingham, 1999).
“The internet has given children a range of new tools to think with, speak with and play with” Tapscott (1998). Postman and others see children as vulnerable and in need of protection from corrupting influence of media technologies; while Tapscott and others see children as naturally wise and as having an innate thirst for knowledge which media technologies satisfy. According to Postman children to return to the situation where they should know their place; whereas according to Tapscott adults should try and catch up with the children. Sometimes these contrasting arguments can be seen as the two side of the same coin. Joshua Meyrowitz (1985) argues that unlike older media, television makes ‘backstage’ behavior visible to all. It reveals the facts that contradict dominant social myths and ideas. In this process it is impossible for the powerful groups to keep secrets, and hence undermines much of the basis of their authority. In this way the television has blurred the boundaries between men and women, between individual citizens and their political representatives and between children and adults.
Thus the television and media have consequences for children that include access to the information that was previously forbidden, children being discovered as a valuable new market and the polarization between the digital divides of rich and poor. For example Pokémon appears to be the kind of commercial manipulation of children of which Kline (1993) and others complain.
Television has a huge impact on children in various ways. Incorrect information told on TV, which is accepted as true. In such way people form wrong idea about the events and the world in general that leads to misunderstanding and problems with other people. In such a way television can manipulate people giving us the wrong and incorrect information. Great number of pornography, violence and horror in the screen can cause depression and provoke violence in the real life. Buckingham suggests that children’s television defines children and childhood in particular ways; as such it is a reflection of adult perceptions. The media are important in changing the meaning of childhood, at one and the same time blurring and fixing the boundaries between adults’ and children’s cultural world. If children are constantly brought up in front of a television then reading habits are not instilled in them, and they are not encouraged to participate in outdoor activities. Only the world of television is their private world. Of course when television replaces human companionship there is also a good chance of the child being influenced by it. Young children cannot process the information which they are impacted by the television, same way as adults. They think that whatever they are watching is true and this may lead to the corruption of their minds if too much violence is viewed by them.
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References:
Book 3 Kehily, MJ and Swann, J (ed 2003) U212, Multimedia Childhood, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Book 3 Study Guide and Audio Visual Notes, unit 20, Multimedia Childhood, Milton Keynes, The Open University.
Video 3, Band 7, ‘Children’s telivision’
