Media and Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Media and Society - Essay Example In the case of children Chaves describes that children who have a greater exposure to violent movies choose to play violent games whereas others who do not watch television do not follow the same pattern. This clearly indicates that there is a very strong relationship between a person's behavior and his exposure to media. To further evidence this Wilson's researches are also very useful. Wilson in his research has referred to the Social cognitive theory according to which a child learns and absorbs whatever he sees and is exposed to and modifies his behavior accordingly. Wilson supported his statement by saying that children are really impressed by the super heroes and they try to act like them and as the super heroes have an aggressive behavior hence the children also do. These findings are even more supported by the experiments carried by Hussmann who collected two groups of children exposing one of them to violent movies whereas the other group was not. It was then analyzed that t he children exposed to violent movies developed an aggressive behavior whereas the others did not (Wilson). Media not only affects the behavior of a person but also his habits. Attractive advertisements of different foods attract a person and hence drive a person to eating different types of junk foods. Hence according to chaves such exposure has led to greater instances of obesity. According to chaves experiments media has also played a role in the increased number of smokers belonging to all age groups. The different promotions in magazines, internet and the televisions have grabbed the minds of many viewers and especially children who easily get fascinated while watching people they adore smoking and hence develop such habits themselves. In a similar manner this has also led to an increase in alcohol consumption and use of drugs. Though there is not much evidence to support the fact that media has also driven into early sexual activity but Chaves believed that this is also one of the negative impact that the media has created. Things that were considered to be difficult to talk about are now more easily communicated and talked about because of the exposure to media. Apart from obesity media has also led to other medical problems. Women who become obsessed with models try to become like them and the drive to become slim like them makes them psychological patients pushing them towards anorexia. Heroines and models have started to make females more conscious of their physical appearance than before and this can be harmful for many of them leading to many psychological problems. Wilson gave strong evidences that violence is very common in today's world. Wilson observed that news is the most common mean of media which exposes violence. This argument clearly shows that according to the writer our society is full of violence and aggressive behaviors since the news exposes the real but exaggerated picture of our society and crimes. The exposure of such crimes and violent behaviors are resulting in violent and aggressive attitudes of youth and is continuously harming our