RESEARCH PROJECT OF ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC WRITING

Media Effects on Juvenile Delinquency: A Study on Adolescents at Raudhah Rehabilitation Centre

Prepared by: Ahmad Zaim Md Noor (0816003)

Course Code: LE 4000

Course Title: English for Academic Writing Lecturer: Emelia Effendy Semester: 2 (2010/2011)

Title: Media Effects on Juvenile Delinquency: A Study on Adolescents at Raudhah Rehabilitation Centre

Name: Matric Number: Kuliyyah:

Ahmad Zaim Md Noor 0816003 Kuliyyah: Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences (Communication)

Abstract The main purpose of this study is to investigate the major factor that affects an increased number of juvenile delinquency and propose the solution probably effective in iron out this problem. In addition, the main objective of this study is to test the relationship between negative media content and the juvenile delinquency. This study which is conducted by the student of IIUM appeals to use multiple methods in conducting our research process. The major method being adapted in this study is quantitative study specifically conducting the survey technique in collecting data. The sampling procedure being practiced in this research is simple random sampling whereby 10 respondents being choose randomly from the population of Raudhah Rehabilitation Centre. Therefore, the data had been collected reveals that the main factors that make the teenagers incline to involve in juvenile delinquency is the negative contents relayed by the media.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION.......................................................................1

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...............................................4 FINDINGS....................................................................................6 DISCUSSION...............................................................................11 CONCLUSION............................................................................13 REFERENCES............................................................................14 APPENDIX..................................................................................15

Media Effects on Juvenile Delinquency: A Study on Adolescents at Raudhah Rehabilitation Centre

Introduction Mass media plays a crucial role in forming and reflecting public opinion, connecting the world to individuals, reproducing the self-image of family institution and society, and effecting how the audience think and behave. The mediums of media such as, television, newspapers, internet, and others, have different effects on society because of an ability to reach a wide audience with a strong and influential message. By analyzing the media content, it is comprehended that most of the media content nowadays are incline to relay the negative message instead of positive ones. The expansion of internet and innumerable channels of cable television generally bring more harm than goods towards adolescents if the elder family members such as parents did not have the surveillance function on these facilities. This study also can play a crucial role in order to arouse the spirit of parenthood in monitoring the flow of media content being absorbed by their children in their household. Parents should realize their responsibilities towards their child in order to build up the prevention of their children to involve in juvenile delinquency.

In this study, the prime objective is to discover the media effect and influence on adolescents in term of juvenile delinquency cases commit by adolescents. To be more specific, the objectives of this study are to test the relationship between negative media content and juvenile delinquency and to predict specific negative elements of media content that affects juvenile delinquency. Generally, this study will proof that the negative media content have the 5

vital effect on shaping the perception of adolescents about the world around them. In the past study, there are several studies made pertaining to this topic. Marby (1997) asserted that, television has served as a valuable social and educational tool in the lives of post -adolescents, despite the years of negative rhetoric and aspersions that have been cast on the medium".

(Polce-Lynch, Myers, Kliewer, and Kilmartin, 2001) in their study related to the time of adolescent they asserted, Adolescence is a time of extreme introspection. And more than their male counterparts, females look to media to help them define and explain the world around them". Durham (1999) asserted, Because they tend to see most everything as realistic and attainable, adolescent are more likely to emulate the images portrayed in the media. They will attempt to model themselves, both physically and through their actions, after the images viewed. They look to the media to define how they should look, act, and feel. Pop culture, more than current events, is what adolescent females look to in the media to help them define their role in the world around them. Therefore, the negative media content such as the elements of violence can mislead the adolescents to interpret the actual role of them. They tend to imitate all the actions portrayed by the media and make a simple assumption that life is totally similar with that.

Another study conducted by Granello (1997) found that adolescents at the ages of 12, 17 and 21 looked to the media to help them define social meaning in different ways. All three age groups looked to television programs to help them construct meaning into their lives. How this meaning was created varied at each developmental level. They looked to characters on television as role models and strived achieve the same experiences. Thus, the adolescents might construct the wrong meaning into their lives if they are being influence by the negative content of the media.

Murnen & Smolak (2000) found that television, more than any other form of media, plays an important role in shaping adolescent attitudes and views about society and social interactions. It is through television that adolescents are given a connection to the expansive social world. Unforgettable, Patti & Peter (2007) asserted that the concept of a sexualized media environment, then, suggest that adolescents may currently be confronted with an unprecedented amount of sexual media content, which is pervasive and not limited to a single medium. The internet, in particular, has sexualized adolescents media environment by extending the explicitness of sexual content available.

Take a peek on the main purpose of this study, obviously it is deliberately conducted in order to iron out the problem about the involvement of adolescents in the crime and analyze the effect of negative media content towards society. Regard to the significance of the study, since media especially television has powerful effects on the whole society, especially adolescents, it is very important to pay attention to these effects by studying them and their consequences on adolescents. This study will help to determine the factors that influence adolescents lifestyle and get involve in juvenile delinquency. It is hypothesized that the relationship between negative media content and delinquent behavior are significantly high. For example, adolescents who are exposed frequently to the negative media content are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior rather than adolescents that being protected by the parents in filtering the negative media content being exposed to their children. The second hypothesis is sex and violence is the most influential elements of negative media content that totally affects juvenile delinquency.

Research Methodology First, the most important point indisputably must be include in the methodology part is the instrumentation being applied during our research process. For instance, each of the operational definition being used must be included, the way data is gathered, the number of population, the sample and sampling procedure being adapted, the dependent and independent variable, the advantage of using this type of methodology, the design of the research process and finally the data analyzing as the most crucial step in determining the final result of the research. Research design The main instrumentation that involves in this research is conducting a survey process containing questionnaire distributed randomly to the representative sample. The methodology being practiced in our research is cross sectional studies. Cross-sectional studies may involve the data collection including their demography, questions about the personal opinion and experience of the respondents regard to the issue. By having a deep comprehension on the respondents background, an accurate hypothesis can be made based on the experience and cognizance of the respondents on how the negative media content can lead to the delinquent behavior of adolescents. This method is useful because it provides a researcher with a better understanding on the problem and allows large cross-sectional studies to be accomplished at the low expense beneficial for the short time period research contradicts with the case-control or longitudinal studies which may take longer period for the series of observations.

Sample and Sampling procedure The random sampling procedures is the crucial procedures that involves in this research in order to provide the population an equal chance of being selected. The significance of the random sampling procedures in this research because it is only the main path to get an equal balance response from the sample and in the same time it incline to have high possibility to avoid bias. The topics in this research are closely related with the contemporary issues which are commonly occurring among the youth population. Thus, the main target of the population is among the adolescents who are commonly involved in juvenile delinquency. The adolescents population will be divide into two groups depend on their gender which is males and females. The selected number of teenagers is ten and will be dividing equally based on their gender half per group which is five males and five females. The different role among these two groups of population can provide disparity and make easier to identify the cause and effect relationship that might be occur in each group. Data collection In collecting the data, the questionnaires were distributed randomly among adolescents in Raudhah Rehabilitation Centre but based to equal number of respondents between male and female. The questionnaire contains three sections which each contain three, four and six questions. The respondents need to answer the questions appropriately based on their experience.

Data analysis The collected data will be analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software for testing the hypothesis. Result in details will be providing in the findings.

Findings

Gender Frequency Percent Valid Male Female Total 5 5 10 50.0 50.0 100.0 Valid Percent 50.0 50.0 100.0 Cumulative Percent 50.0 100.0

Figure 1 (a)

There are 10 valid respondents in our research with zero missing cases, which fall under adolescents with range of 13 years old to 21 years old. The total of 10 respondents is equivalent to 100 per cents. To be more specific, by referring to the gender table, it indicates that all the respondents being selected equally which are both male and female. Male respondents at the equal percentage with the female respondents entitled for 50% with frequency of 5 followed by the female respondents with 50% with frequency of 5 also.

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Do_you_have_family_problem Frequency Percent Valid Yes No Total 2 8 10 20.0 80.0 100.0 Figure 2 (a) Valid Percent 20.0 80.0 100.0 Cumulative Percent 20.0 100.0

The data in figure 2 (a) indicates that only 2 respondents have the family problem compared with the other 8 respondents which have no family problems. Therefore, it can be assumed that family problem is not the major cause for the adolescents to get involve in juvenile delinquency instead of another factors.

Watch_tv_with_family Frequency Percent Valid Yes No Total 2 8 10 20.0 80.0 100.0 Valid Percent 20.0 80.0 100.0 Cumulative Percent 20.0 100.0

Figure 2 (b)

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Do_parents_monitor_tv_content Cumulative Frequency Percent Valid Percent Percent Valid Yes No Total 2 8 10 20.0 80.0 100.0 20.0 80.0 100.0 20.0 100.0

Figure 2 (c) The data in figure 2 (b) and (c) also support the arguments that family members need to play their role in filtering all the negative media content. The data shows that most of the respondents consume media or watched television without the surveillance of their parents meanwhile they probably being exposed to the high level of negative media content.

Hours_spent_watch_tv_and_surf_internet Frequency Percent Valid 4-6 7-9 10 and above Total 3 6 1 10 30.0 60.0 10.0 100.0 Valid Percent 30.0 60.0 10.0 100.0 Cumulative Percent 30.0 90.0 100.0

Figure 3 (a) Figure 3 shows that the average hours spent by the respondents consuming media especially watched television and surfed internet. Based on the results computed, 3 of the respondents spent 4-6 hours watched television and surfed internet while most of the respondents spent 7-9 hours and only 1 respondents spent 10 hours and above. Therefore, it can be comprehend that high level of media consuming can increase the probability for the adolescents to get involve in juvenile delinquency. 12

Do_u_watch_tv_program_or_internet_content_for_adult Frequency Percent Valid Yes No Total 8 2 10 80.0 20.0 100.0 Valid Percent 80.0 20.0 100.0 Cumulative Percent 80.0 100.0

Figure 4 (a)

Elements_that_u_watch_frequently_in_adult_tv_content Frequency Percent Valid Violence Sex Love Total 4 5 1 10 40.0 50.0 10.0 100.0 Valid Percent 40.0 50.0 10.0 100.0 Cumulative Percent 40.0 90.0 100.0

Figure 4 (b)

As shown in figure 4 (a) (b), 8 respondents watched television program or surfing website that contain adult oriented content which are totally not suitable for the adolescents viewers. As the percentage are quite high which is 80%, obviously the exposure for unsuitable media content for the adolescents make the tendency for them to involve in delinquent behavior. In particular, the most adult media content watched by the respondents are sexual and violence elements. Therefore, the data proved that negative media content of media can affect the adolescents emotional development to involve in juvenile delinquency.

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Do_media_affect_the_way_u_perceive_something Frequency Percent Valid Yes No Total 9 1 10 90.0 10.0 100.0 Figure 5 In order to get more supportive evidence, the data being collected in figure 5 explain on the personal confession of the respondents whether the media content affect their perception developing process. Majority of the respondents admit that media have the powerful impact on their socialization process. This is basically suit with the study conducted by Granello which found that adolescents at the ages of 12, 17 and 21 looked to the media to help them define social meaning in different ways. Valid Percent 90.0 10.0 100.0 Cumulative Percent 90.0 100.0

Negative_media_content_contribute_to_juvenile_delinquency Frequency Percent Valid Yes 10 100.0 Figure 6 Finally, the data indicates in figure 6 describe on the personal opinion of the respondents regard to the issue whether negative media content contribute to juvenile delinquency or not. As being shows by the data, all the respondents agreed that negative media content can contribute to juvenile delinquency if the adolescents unable to identified the pro and cons of the media. Valid Percent 100.0 Cumulative Percent 100.0

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Discussion The findings will be discussed based on the objectives and hypotheses developed for the study. First objective of this study was to test the relationship between negative media content and juvenile delinquency. Based on the first objective being introduced, the result from the data computed by SPSS software indicates that there are high relationship between the negative media content and juvenile delinquency. Therefore, the first hypothesis is supported where there is high relationship between negative media content and juvenile delinquency. In addition, based on the findings of this study as indicated in figure 3(a) and 4 (a) (b), it is totally consistent with the study conducted by Murnen & Smolak (2000) found that television, more than any other form of media, plays an important role is shaping adolescent attitudes and views about society and social interactions. The second objective of this study was to predict specific negative elements of media content that affects juvenile delinquency. By analyzing the data being gathered in the figure 4 (b), it is comprehended that sex and violence is the particular elements of media content that affects juvenile delinquency. Therefore, the data also support the second hypothesis which is sex and violence is the most influential elements of negative media content that totally affects juvenile delinquency. In line with the assumptions made by the Patti & Peter (2007) asserted that the concept of a sexualized media environment, then, suggest that adolescents may currently be confronted with an unprecedented amount of sexual media content, which is pervasive and not limited to a single medium. The internet, in particular, has sexualized adolescents media environment by extending the explicitness of sexual content available.

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In addition, based on the figure 5, it must be said that the data had been collected is consistent with the research done by Durham (1999) who is asserted, Because they tend to see most everything as realistic and attainable, adolescent are more likely to emulate the images portrayed in the media. They will attempt to model themselves, both physically and through their actions, after the images viewed. They look to the media to define how they should look, act, and feel. Pop culture, more than current events, is what adolescent females look to in the media to help them define their role in the world around them. Undisputable, this finding is totally in line with the concept introduced by Granello (1997) who was found that adolescents at the ages of 12, 17 and 21 looked to the media to help them define social meaning in different ways. All three age groups looked to television programs to help them construct meaning into their lives. How this meaning was created varied at each developmental level. They looked to characters on television as role models and strived achieve the same experiences. Thus, the adolescents might construct the wrong meaning into their lives if they are being influence by the negative content of the media.

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Conclusion In conclusion, it must be said that all the objectives and hypotheses tested in this study are in line with the results from the data gathered. The findings show that the relationship between negative media content and juvenile delinquency are significantly high. Unforgettable, this study also proved that violence and sex are the specific elements that affected juvenile delinquency compared to the other elements such as comedy and love. In addition, all the objectives and hypotheses tested in this study are also consistent with the findings done by the previous research. Therefore, these research findings may be used to the benefits of the media practitioners to improve the quality of the programs to satisfied audience needs and interest. Another important point is this research findings can also purposely being used to create the cognizance of the parents and society members on the important of surveillance function on the media consuming by their children. Another suggestion for further research is to include the different level of age instead of adolescents merely. Further researcher may expand the scope of the study by focus on the children development process from the cognitive stage until the age of puberty. Thus, further researcher may able to compare the negative effects of media on the different age level of the children.

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References

Durham, M. G. (1999). Girls, media and the negotiation of sexuality: A study of race, class, and gender in adolescent peer groups. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. Marby.J.E. 1997, How Selected Post-Adolescents Perceive That They Use Television in Their Lives, Howell Information Company. Granello, D. H. (1997). Using Beverly Hills, 90210 to explore developmental issues in female adolescents. Youth & Society. Polce-Lynch, M., Myers, B. J., Kliewer, W., & Kilmartin, C. (2001). Adolescent self-esteem and gender: Exploring relations to sexual harassment, body image, media influence, and emotional expression. Journal of Youth and Adolescence. Murnen, S. K. & Smolak, L. (2000). The experience of sexual harassment among grade school students: Early socialization of female subordination? Sex Roles, journal article. P, Joechen. & Valkenburg, P,M. (2007). Adolescents Exposure to a Sexualized Media Environment and Their Notions of Women as Sex Objects.

Conger, J. J. (1991). Adolescence and youth, 1991: Psychological development in a changing world. New York: HarperCollins Publications. Jack, E. B., & William, E. T. (1989). Juvenile Delinquency: A Sociological Approach. USA, Viacom Company, 1989-1999.

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Appendix

KULLIYYAH OF ISLAMIC REVEALED KNOWLEDGE AND HUMAN SCIENCES

MEDIA EFFECTS ON JUVENILE DELINQUENCY The objective of this study is to investigate the media effects on juvenile delinquency among adolescents at Raudhah Rehabilitation Centre. There is no right or wrong answers and all information will be treated as confidential and will be used for the purpose of this study only.

Section 1: Demographic background 1- Gender: Male Female 2- Age: 13-15years old 16-17 years old 18-21 years old 3- Races Malay Chinese Indian Others (Please specify..)

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Section 2: 1) How many hours that usually spent watching television and surfing the Internet? A) 1-3 hours per day B) 4-6 hours per day

C) 7-9 hours per day D) 10 hours above

2) Are you spent time watch television with your parents or family members? A) Yes B) No

3) Do your parents monitor the television content when you watch television? A) Yes B) No

4) Do you have family problem? A) Yes B) No

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Section 3:

1) What type of media channel that you consume most? A) Television D) Magazine B) Internet C) Radio D) Newspaper

E) Others (Please specify)

2) What kind of television program you prefer to watch most? A) Movies B) Drama/Soap opera C) Talk shows

D) Reality shows E) Others (Please specify.)

3) Do you watch television program or surfing internet that is specifically for adults? (18sg, 18sx) A) Yes B) No (If yes, please answers question no 4)

4) What kind of elements that you watch frequently in adults content of television program and internet? A) Violence B) Sex C) Comedy D) Love

E) Others (Please specify..)

5) Do media in somehow affect the way you perceive about something? A) Yes B) No

6) In your opinion, it can be said that negative media content contribute to the juvenile delinquency among teenagers? A) Yes B) No

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