The Positive Impact of Media on Children and Young men
The essay addresses a very important topic about media and its impact on children and young man. It deals with the potentially positive effects of media on children. While nobody would deny the need to protect children from negative or harmful effects, it is possible that in doing so one may also prevent them from experiencing a range of positive consequences. Indeed, in some circumstances negative and positive effects may be impossible to separate.
For the reasons I have identified, research on children and media has been very much preoccupied with the search for negative effects. Nevertheless, a range of potentially positive effects can also be proposed, as follows:
• learning – in relation to specific educational content or health messages, as well as general knowledge
• language – language acquisition, and the development of skills in reading and written communication (for example, via the internet)
• development of cognitive skills – for example, skills in spatial awareness, hypothesis testing or strategic thinking (for example, in computer games)
• development of pro-social behaviour and moral values – tolerance, cooperation, and so on
• awareness of social issues – for example, knowledge of current affairs, social problems or other cultures
• social interaction – the role of the media as a basis for discussion within the peer group or family, as well as interaction through the media (for example, via the internet)
• civic participation – the media as a means of promoting social awareness, volunteer activities and political action
• creativity and self-expression – the use of the media as a means of
creating and distributing one’s own media products
• cultural value – as with books or other cultural forms, media offer the
satisfactions of narrative, of pleasurable images, and of meaningful representations of the real world
• identity development – like reading, media may help to develop imagination, empathy and a sense of one’s personal tastes and values
• entertainment and relaxation
• developing the ability to sustain attention – for example through concentration on a computer game
• the encouragement of creative activities – play, ‘make and do’ activities, hobbies, reading, and so on.
Compared with the list of potential negative effects above, several of these
appear rather more nebulous: for example, what I have labelled entertainment and relaxation’ or ‘cultural value’ are hardly best defined as ‘effects’ of the media, and they would certainly prove difficult to measure. One of the problems here is that we often seem unable to identify the beneficial aspects of what children do in their leisure time without constantly relating this back to some kind of educational benefit: children are often defined here, not as ‘beings’, with their own identities and experiences, but as ‘becomings’, to be judged solely in terms of their progress towards some imagined goal of mature adulthood (Lee, 2001). This can make it harder to justify children’s right to pleasure, entertainment and relaxation, although few would dispute the importance of such things for adults.
Most of the research in this field has also focused on outcomes in terms of
learning – primarily in relation to explicitly educational media, and to a lesser extent in relation to more general entertainment media. This may also reflect the fact that such effects are more easily measurable; although the process of measuring educational outcomes is often itself somewhat reductive. Broader arguments about the cultural and entertainment value of media have been made in relation to children’s television in particular, although claims for beneficial ‘effects’ in this respect are difficult to prove – just as they would be if one were to attempt to measure the same effects in relation to reading books, for example. (Indeed, it is notable in this respect that arguments about negative effects are hardly ever applied to another potentially influential medium – literature – because prevailing cultural assumptions focus so strongly on its benefits.
Conclusion
From this paper, we conclude that media has a very important role to play nowadays. It can shape a new community with new ideas and culture. It has the ability to raise nations to the top and get other nations down. The influence of media on people’s minds is innumerable. Some media can raise the fame of people who are not well qualified and can deteriorate people who are so smart and creative. From this and that, we should finally recommend using media in a good way for the good of people and it has to be true, real and targeting.
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