IMPACT OF MEDIA ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

1. TOPIC 7 IMPACT OF MEDIA ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

3. GENERAL LAWS OF DEVELOPMENT • An infant child comes into the world perfectly good and only becomes other than perfectly good while growing into adulthood due to the influences upon him/her during their years of development. • The reason so much evil exists in today's world is not because human nature is basically evil, but because the influences we naturally encounter as physical beings in a material world tend most often to direct our development away from Allah. • The influences upon us come from three sources in our environment, the physical, the social(any influence coming either directly or indirectly from other people), and from inner speech(the influence of our own thoughts and feelings).

4. The overall impact upon our development of any single influence from any of these three sources can be either negative or positive. • Every individual is subjected to many thousands of influences every day, some of these influences being directed toward evil and some being directed toward Allah. • To overcome the influence of evil (movement toward the material) and move toward Allah (the spiritual) takes consistent and concentrated effort. • If we can recognize the affect of these influences upon our development we can use the laws of learning to limit the affect of the negative influences upon us and to increase the affect of the positive influences upon us, thereby moving continuously away from evil and moving toward Allah.

5. ALL MEDIA ARE SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS Mental Representation SYMBOL REFERENT It involves more cognitive complexity than direct experience.

6. TYPES OF MEDIA

7. Television music/games Reading Materials Radio Internet

8. A Kaiser Family Foundation national study of media use stated: “the typical American child” spends five hours and 29 minutes a day using media. That's one minute less than the daily minimum instructional time for Ohio secondary schools.” "This is a wake-up call. It says media use is a major force in an American child's development and socialization, and we don't know enough about it,"

9. THEORIES First theory Media provide a behavioral model. Second theory “Cathartic” or emotional release

10. Media provide a behavioral model • Young people engage in casual and unprotected intercourse • Eg: They do what they see the people on TV doing

11. “Cathartic” or emotional release • Has ancient roots – used by Aristotle to argue for the use of drama as a tool to prevent warfare. • Been used to justify the display of violence in the media. • Individuals were thought to obtain some understanding of the consequences of violence by seeing it enacted and therefore would not desire to participate in such behavior themselves.

12. Factors that influence media related outcome • Children with emotional or developmental problems are more likely to have difficulty understanding television and advertising in the same way as their peers. • Children up the age of 10 years are able to understand the full reality of television programs depends on their life experiences and knowledge of television techniques. • The growing perception that streets and neighborhoods are unsafe is likely to increase the degree to which parents encourage their children to remain indoors.

13. CHOOSING YOUR MEDIA

14. Positive influences of media • Choice of program makes a considerable difference to children’s skills and knowledge • Provide children with a broader range of life situations and possibilities to explore through their play • Teach positive social behaviors • Selective viewing can promote academic abilities • Video games involving information, academic content and problem-solving have been shown to accelerate children’s learning • The breadth of information available on the Internet is clearly able to broaden children’s knowledge and understanding of the world. • Media campaigns can change the knowledge and attitudes of parents.

15. Good Media Influences towards children:

16. SESAME STREET • toddlers can learn valuable lessons about: - racial harmony, - cooperation, - kindness, - simple arithmetic and the alphabet through an educational television format. • Some public television programs stimulate visits to the zoo, libraries, bookstores, museums and other active recreational settings, and educational videos can certainly serve as powerful prosocial teaching devices. • The educational value of Sesame Street, has been shown to improve the reading and learning skills of its viewers.

17. Bad Media Influences towards children:

18. The average child sees 12,000 violent acts on television annually, including many depictions of murder and rape. • More than 1000 studies confirm that exposure to heavy doses of television violence INCREASES aggressive behaviour, particularly in boys. Other studies link television or newspaper publicity of suicides to an increased suicide risk.

19. Negative influences of media • Violence Children who watched more violence on the media were more likely to: • Become emotionally desensitized to violence; • Avoid taking action on behalf of a victim when violence occurs; • Believe that violence is inevitable; • Believe that violence is an acceptable way of solving conflict; • Believe that world is a violent place, leading to greater anxiety, self-protective behaviors and mistrust of others; • Use violence themselves.

20. The following groups of children may be more vulnerable to violence on television: • children from minority and immigrant groups; • emotionally disturbed children; • children with learning disabilities; • children who are abused by their parents; and • children in families in distress • Physicians who see a child with a history of aggressive behaviour should inquire about the child’s exposure to violence portrayed on television.

21. Obesity Generally obesity results from an imbalance between calories eaten and calories expended through activity and exercise. Television (and media behaviors) upsets this balance through: • Reduced metabolic rate when watching TV and other media activities; • Reduced activity because of what they are not doing whilst they are interacting with the media. (Children who watch more TV play less sport); • Increased food and calorie consumption (that may be influenced by advertising or result from “snacking” opportunities).

22. Children sees about 40 000 ads on television alone The majority of which are for candy, cereal, soda and fast food. Some carry messages about nutrition and some link to the childhood obesity epidemic.

24. Harmfulsubstances Media exposure to level of alcohol use in teenagers. - In US alcohol, tobacco or illicit drugs were present in 70 percent of prime time network drama, 95 percent of top grossing movies and half of all music videos. • Suicide Reporting and portrayal of suicidal behavior in the media may facilitate suicidal acts by people exposed to such material. When suicide occurs in clusters it can be a result of young people imitating others who have recently committed suicide.

25. Sexual behavior -The primary source of information about sex for children and teenagers may be related to the media. - Effects due to potentially harmful messages about sex in the media may minimize any messages children receive from other sources (such as school sex education programs). - Teenage males with the highest rates of sexual behavior watched more television, and were more likely to watch television away from the rest of their family. • Sexual solicitation -19 percent of children and youth aged from 10 to 17 years who used the Internet regularly had been approached through the Internet (usually in chat rooms) for sexual contact. - 27 percent of adolescent Internet users reported being contacted by a sexual predator whilst using chat rooms.

27. How to overcome……… PARENTS COMMUNITY

28. Parents : • explore media together and discuss their educational value. • help children differentiate between fantasy and reality, • A central location is strongly advised with common access and common passwords. • Families may want to consider more active and creative ways to spend time together • Older children should be offered an opportunity to make choices by planning the week’s viewing schedule in advance

29. Community: • Provide parents with resources and information to promote media awareness programs in their communities and schools. • Express support for good media ( to write to stations that broadcast responsible and good television programs) • Support efforts to eliminate alcohol advertising on television with the same enthusiasm that led to the elimination of tobacco advertising. • to talk to parent groups, school boards and other organizations about the impact of media on children and youth

30. Limiting Media Exposure: • consider both dosage and content when planning their children's TV or computer time • Show examples of good exposure include interactive computer programs that teach academic skills. • David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family(US) Dr. Walsh recommends that children under 3 be limited to 2 hours of electronic media activity per week, in order to spend as much time as possible interacting with people and developing social skills. • "There's not a [computer-based] counting program in the world that will take the place of sitting on a bed and counting socks with Mom or Dad."

31. ISSUES

32. MEDIA ON RISE… • The Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent national health care philanthropy, surveyed 3,155 children ages 2-18 from last November to April. One of the foundation's goals is to examine the impact of media on society. The study defined media as TV, computers, video games, radio, books, magazines, audio tapes or compact discs.

33. FINDINGS … • Among children 8 and older, 65 per cent have a bedroom TV and 21 per cent have a bedroom computer. Of all children ages 2-18, more than half (53 per cent) have a bedroom TV. • Of all kids, 69 per cent have a computer at home, and 45 per cent have Internet access at home. • Of children 8 and older, 61 per cent live in homes with no rules about TV use. • The study also yielded a couple surprises: • Only 9 per cent of children spend more than an hour daily using the computer for fun. • 82 per cent of children read for fun daily, averaging 44 minutes a day (excluding school or homework).

34. MEDIA POLICY • Media Ownership Public has serious concerns about the negative impacts that increased concentration of media ownership can have on children's programming. • Digital Television Children’s Media Policy Coalition is trying hard in overcoming powerful opposition and securing new rules to improve children’s television as the nation’s broadcasters transition to digital television.

35. LegislationIn February 2005, Senators Lieberman, Brownback, Clinton and Santorum, re-introduced legislation that would fund a program to study the role and impact of electronic media in children's development. • InteractiveAdvertising As television transitions to digital, children will be able to view television and access the Internet from the same platform. We are concerned about new marketing practices that will target children when television goes interactive.

36. TV Ratings • Parents are encouraged to educate themselves about the content of the programs their children watch. • They should learn about the television ratings and the Television Parental Guidelines Oversight Monitoring Board.

37. Parental attitudes play a large role in determining what children watch. Parents’ attitudes were related to social, educational (level of parent education) and economic (level of family income) factors. • Parents’ understanding of the technology, and beliefs about the possible benefits and harms of different types of media. • Specific family factors also influence viewing behavior eg. : If there are more television, there are more television viewing. Children who are unsupervised are liable to watch a good deal more TV

38. CONCLUSION

39. CONCLUSION The development of adolescents is largely dependent on the environmental influences that are present in a child's daily life. Media is such a prevalent and influential presence in our society that it is important that we understand the impact it has on our youth. Hopefully, through a better understanding of the power of media, we can use it in a healthy and productive way to educate our children.

40. ISLAMIC POINT OF VIEW:

41. When we see an influence upon us that we know would push us away from Allah we can say things to ourselves using inner speech that can take away the power of that negative influence. • When we see an influence upon us that we know would help us move toward Allah we can say things to ourselves using inner speech that can add greatly to the power of that positive influence

42. On the authority of Abu Hurairah, radiyallahu 'anhu, who said : The Messenger of Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam, said : "Part of the perfection of someone's Islam is his leaving alone that which does not concern him." [Hadith hasan - Recorded by Tirmidhi]

43. The Soul of your child is like an uncut precious jewel entrusted into your care by Allah. To you is given the awesome responsibility of shaping that precious jewel into a beautiful form, pleasing to the eye of Allah.

44. Discussion • Can the mass media be used to promote responsible sexual behavior among youth?

45. THE END Presented by: Nur Hidayah Binti Yusuf Nurul Nisshak Binti Baharudin Sirajun Munira Binti Sahrudeen