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Jennifer Pineda
English 113
13 March 2015
Affects of Media
Many parents are concerned about what their children watch on a daily basis.
Furthermore, concerned parents wonder if the media has any influence in their childs
life. Everything that children see or hear in the media early on in their lives affects them
in some way. Therefore, media has an affect on adolescent development, which
contributes to sexual activity, rebellion, drug and/or alcohol use. Mass media has exposed
them to inappropriate behavior that any parent should be afraid of their children falling
into. Mass media has rapidly grown with their sexual content movies, shows, and
television shows that expose the use of drugs and alcohol to even profanity. Mass media
has an impact on everyone but the ones being affected the most are adolescents.
Teenagers tend to enter a stage of vulnerability that they do anything to fit in. The
department of Psychiatry and bio behavioral Sciences of University of California, Los
Angeles, states that at times they are in their developmental period when gender roles,
sexual attitudes, and sexual behaviors are being shaped. All this sexual content has gone
out of hand and has grown rapidly; University of California, Los Angeles found that 80%
of all movies shown on network or cable television stations have sexual content.
Television shows illustrate that it is okay to have meaningless sex if it helps them to fit in.
Thus, young adults learn by imitating what they see on television. Young teenagers
becoming sexualized sooner then average and it results in poor behavior. Rand health

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conducted a study of the influences of watching sex on television and the correlation of
sexual activity. Rand Corporation declares, Across all age groups, teens who saw the
most sex on television were twice as likely to initiate intercourse within the next year as
were those who saw the least(Does Watching Sex On Television Influence Teens Sexual
Activity?). Media that obtains any kind of sexual content has multiple effects on society.
Times have changed immensely. Whereas 50 years ago a teens family, friends, school
and church were the primary influences on his or her attitudes, values and beliefs about
sexuality (Steele). As stated, things have now changed, teenagers have accessed to wider,
powerful influence-the ubiquitous mass media. Mass media shows teens compelling
images of sex. Jeanne Rogge contributor of The Journal Of Sex Research adds, These
media windows of the world are part of teens lived experiences(Steel). Teens now live in
a media centered world. Mass media tends to leave out the crucial three Cs, which are
commitment, contraception, and consequences. By media leaving out the most important
Cs it puts adolescents at risk to have an unwanted pregnancy and get a sexual transmitted
disease. Volunteering to have sexual intercourse comes with great responsibility as well
as the acknowledgement of consequences that come with it.
Consider, a show that premiered on MTV called Jersey Shore from December
3, 2009 to December 20, 2012. Jersey Shore is an American reality television series in
United States that follows the lives of eight housemates spending their summer at the
Jersey Shore in the state of New Jersey. These eight-cast members go out and party
every night and influence premarital sex. This show was very popular and was a great hit
that aired for three years (Rader Online). These cast members engage in extremely
inappropriate behavior. Conversations about sex are endless; cast members are shown to

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hook up every time they go out. Both girls, and guys come back home to the Jersey
Shore with someone new they met that night to have a one-night stand. Is this what
teens were actually watching? An article in the McClatchy-Tribune Business News states
that MTV is the highest-rated basic cable network channel among the important
demographic category of people ages 12- 34(Keith). Jersey Shore is a group of people
going out, partying and bringing a stranger home to engage in sexual intercourse.
Consequently, having sexual relations with a stranger can increase your chances to get
infected by a sexual transmitted disease as well as have an unwanted pregnancy. Jersey
Shore proves that mass media influences a large range of people, some perhaps too
inappropriately young to watch it.
The pediatrics of child and health elaborate that, television that contains sexual
content is sending the message that because these behaviors are frequent everybody does
it (Pediatrics). Sexual intercourse between unmarried partners is shown 24 times more
often than sex between spouses, while sexually transmitted infections and unwanted
pregnancies are rarely mentioned. Television has succeeded in leaving out the basic
fundamentals of sexual activity that come with responsibility and consequences. In
addition, pediatrics of child and health explain that teens rank the media as the major
leading source of information about sex (Bar-on). Americans have blamed the mass
media for inciting youth to ostensibly inappropriate sexual behavior. The journal of sex
research, Laura Carpenter believes, That the media powerfully shape teens sexual lives
to generally deleterious effect is widely taken for granted by politicians, parents, religious
leaders, journalist and even teens themselves(Carpenter). Pediatric Mirim Bar-on
clarifies early sexual intercourse among American adolescents represents a major public

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health problem. Although early sexual activity may be caused by a variety of factors, the
media are believed to play a significant role.
According to a new study published in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics,
Teenagers between 12 and 14 years old use media with high sexual content and are 2.2
times more likely to have sex by the time they are 16 than those who watch less media
(Pediatrics). Many agree that television programs have increased the number of sexual
content a show has. By teenagers watching television shows that contain sexual content it
is opening the doors to do as they see. Sexual talk and displays are increasing rapidly.
Jane Brown from the Journal of Sex Research explains, One content analysis found that
sexual content that ranged from flirting to sexual intercourse had increased from slightly
more than half of television programs in 1997-1998 to more than two- thirds of the
programs in 1999-2000 season (Brown). There has actually been a 270% increase in
sexual interactions (Brown). Mainly what television does is expose children to adult
sexual behaviors in different way that portray these actions as something normal, and risk
free.
As a result, parents notice their beloved children beginning to rebel and they
wonder why. A lot of televisions content our children see contain a lot of bad influence
among those watching these shows. Researchers target the impact on television violence
and the results are astonishing. Decades of research, which include many recent studies,
Marianne Hurts a notable researcher on Target Impact Of Television Violence says, heavy
exposure to television violence can lead children to think it is appropriate to act in the
ways that violent TV characters do (Hurts). Hurts explains, if parents and children are
watching television together including violent content and the parents allow it without

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saying nothing regards to the violence seen on television its an implicit endorsementwhereas if a parent says something, it makes their values clear to the child (Hurts). This
all starts when you are a kid, these television shows can start when they are younger and
it slowly builds to be normal to children and how they view things. Just by simply
watching cartoons that contain minimal violence, it is already conditioning our children
to see and act what they see. Hurts recognizes we can safely say that viewing violence
does lead to more aggressive behavior, noting some estimates that nearly 10 % of all
violence can be explained by the viewing of televised violence (Researchers Target
Impact Of Television Violence).
Douglas Gentile, an assistant professor of psychology at Iowa State University
and the director of research for the national institute on media and the family points out
there is multiple risk factors that integrate to aggression, but one of he most important
cause of aggression is television violence (Gentile). Their was a study conducted by the
Santa Barbara, California- based center for Communication and Social Policy named
National Television Violence Study that explained that most violent television shows
dont emphasize the type of consequences that the violent acts have. There was a recent
study released in 2003 by the Parents Television Council, a Los Angeles-based group for
improved programmings on TV concluded similar results (Gentile).
This study included 400 hours of prime time programming on all major broadcast
networks from the years 1998 to 2002. This study concluded that violence viewed during
the 8 pm family hour increased by 41 percent during those years (Gentile). The per-hour
rate of deaths also doubles, with multiple violent programming becoming more graphic
and detailed (Hurts). Hurts reports, Studies estimate that the average child watches 23 to

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28 hours of television a week, and that by the age of 18, a child will have witnessed
2000,000 acts of TV violence, including 40,000 murders(Hurts). Teenagers that watch
violent television programs are more likely to become aggressive, as they interpret the
mildest of slights as provocation, researchers have found. The Telegraph reporters states
The international society of research on aggression (IRSA) concluded that the evidence
shows that media violence consumption can act as a trigger for aggressive thoughts or
feelings already stored (Researchers Target Impact Of Television Violence). Television
and violence results have been a debatable topic for years now. One hundred forty-six
articles in behavioral science journals represented 50 studies that involved 10,000
children and teenagers from every conceivable background. All the 10,000 showed that
violence viewing produces increased aggressive behavior in the young. The amount of
television is on a non-stopping rise. An average child sees around 12,000 violent acts on
television annually, which include depictions of murder and rape. More than 1000 studies
confirm that exposure to heavy doses of television violence increases aggressive
behavior, mainly in boys (Researchers Target Impact Of Television Violence).
Unfortunately, violence is one of the most popular forms of entertainment, states
Dr. Christopher L. Heffner. Over sixty percept of television shows being shown in prime
time contain some form of violence. Violent media is associated with aggressive
behavior, confirms Dr. Christopher L. Heffner. Even the academy of pediatrics says,
more than one thousand scientific studies and reviews conclude that significant exposure
to media violence increases the risk of aggressive behavior(Heffner). To children,
violence makes them believe that the world is meaner and scarier place then it really is.

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Many shows portray having fun as something that includes alcohol, tobaccos
and even drugs. I have came across shows that show young adults consuming unclean
substances including MTV, ABC family, and prime time. Teenagers see what is depicted
in these shows as something fun to do without seeing the consequences. Teenagers
become reckless and see everything as being young and living the dream life but they
dont realize the reality of things. Of the many media options we have, television
programming was voted one of the most