Running head: IMPACT OF MEDIA EXPOSURE

Media Theory Research Paper:

The Impact of Media Exposure on Children and Adolescents

Allison Larkin

Rutgers University

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Abstract

In a technological era, research has shown that there are both negative and positive aspects of
media exposure in children and adolescents daily lives. This research paper will focus on the
media exposure prominent and readily available to children and adolescents as well as the impact
and influence of the public sphere and social networking. Today using social networking,
watching television programming and playing video games are among the most common
activities of children and adolescents. Its been reported that American children spend about six
and a half hours a day with media technologies (Wan & Gut, 2008). There are many potentially
negative consequences and aspects of media exposure that should be recognized but there are
also many positive aspects for children and adolescents that werent always readily available to
their counterparts. As technologies continue to advance, children continue to have less and less
face to face interactions and therefore it is vital that we understand the implications of such
media usage and its effects on young people today.

Keywords: public sphere, social networking

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The Impact of Media Exposure on Children and Adolescents

In the age of social networking, media exposure and the public sphere have a significant
impact, both positively and negatively, on the development, well-being and collective identity of
children and adolescents. Children today live in a world where many of their experiences are
mediated by screen technologies (Wilson, 2008). This is thought of very negatively but
research has shown that there are also positives aspects for children in this digital era. The
negative aspects of media consumption include different risks, dangers and health problems as
well as negative influences. Other negative aspects include the social consequences linked with
social networking and the public sphere as a result of inappropriate information, photo, text and
video sharing. However, we must also recognize the many benefits of media exposure for
children and adolescents including social development, collective identity, connectedness and
cognitive and educational development. Media exposure today can be problematic for young
people, but if educated by both parents and school systems, the positive aspects of interactive
technology can outweigh the negative aspects.
Media has a very powerful influence on health and behavior amongst youth. The U.S.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified six critical types of adolescent
health risk behaviorsphysical inactivity, poor eating habits, smoking, alcohol use, sexual
behaviors and violencethat contribute to the leading causes of death and disability in the
United States among youth and many observers have raised questions about whether one
important source of the risk behaviors highlighted by the CDC could be adolescents escalating
exposure to electronic media, (Escobar-Chaves & Anderson, 2008). Liliana Escobar-Chaves,
Professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Craig Anderson,

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Distinguished Professor at Iowa State University, investigate the problematic aspects of

American youth engaging in constant media use. This study provides modest to strong evidence
that media consumption contributes to the problems of obesity, drinking, smoking and violence.
The growing epidemic of childhood obesity has focused attention on the possible role that
media consumption and food advertising may play in influencing body weight and eating
behaviors (Escobar-Chaves & Andersen, 2008). Additionally, children and adolescents are
flooded more than ever before with promotional messages about drinking and smoking.
Research strongly suggests that exposure to alcohol advertising and to electronic media that
portrays alcohol use increases adolescents alcohol use, (Escobar-Chaves & Andersen, 2008).
Lastly, research shows clear evidence that media violence is a causal risk factor for aggressive
and violent behavior. (Escobar-Chaves, Andersen, 2008). These are all very negative aspects of
media exposure, but there is a solution to these issues. We need to understand and recognize
medias impact on children and adolescents health and well-being and send out positive media
messages to influence children and to help reduce these health risks.

Another major negative aspect of media exposure, the public sphere and social
networking is that its very hard to monitor what your children and teens are being exposed to.
The public sphere is an area online where individuals can come together to freely discuss and
communicate any topic and the public sphere can have major influences over children and teens.
Beth King, Professor at Columbia University, points out how digital media creates challenges for
parents in terms of their childrens development because children now have ready access to the
Internet. Adolescents ready access to the Internet makes limit setting and appropriate
supervision of teens much more challenging and offers teens qualitatively different dangers and
opportunities for acting out than previously existed (King, 2008). Kings study focuses on the

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case of a sexually acting out adopted teen who uses the Internet as a central vehicle for sexual
exploration. With the dominant forces of new media today, parents need to find and establish
appropriate limits and restrictions for children and teens media use. King points out that for the
first time, information shared by teens can establish a life of its own and its becoming
increasingly difficult for parents to supervise the transmission and viewing of their childrens
actions on new media (King, 2008). Children and teens need to understand that a digital
picture/digital message can be spread everywhere; we need to educate young adults on how
important it is to keep their private lives private. Children and young adults need to be educated
in how detrimental social networking and the public sphere can be to ones own identity. In this
digital era, children and young adults are growing up too quickly and are being exposed to too
much. It is evident that this is definitely a negative aspect of new media.

Media saturation is also a major implication for children and adolescents. Guofang Wan,
Professor at Ohio University, and Diane M. Gut, Associate Professor at Ohio University,
examine how children currently use media, the influence of media in their lives, and implications
for media literacy education. Adolescents in both the United States and China are living media
saturated lives, spending an average of 6.5 hours a day using media, and are exposed to media
more than 8.5 hours a day, (Wan & Gut, 2008). Today there are many concerns about the
media saturation in childrens lives including concerns about medias effects on education and
social development, as well as the digital divide it can cause. With increasing use of new media
and technologies on a daily basis, children and adolescents need to be educated about
information overload, what to avoid online and privacy issues. Wen and Gut state that we need to
incorporate critical media literacy, which,

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incorporates three stages that lead to the empowerment of citizens of all ages: (a)
becoming aware of the importance of making good choices and managing the amount of
time spent with television, videos, electronic games, films and various print media forms,
(b) learning specific skills of critical viewing and surfinglearning to analyze and
question what is in the frame/on the screen, how it is constructed, and what may have
been left out. And, (c) exploring deeper issues of who produces the media that people
experience and for what purposes. (Wen & Gut, 2008).

The United States has lagged behind in formal media education (Wen & Gut, 2008) and it has
come to a point that media literacy should be considered mandatory in school curriculum.
Through media literary education, people help children deal with information overload and find
ways to steer them away from less desirable content and uses of media, (Wen & Gut, 2008) and
this will be very beneficial to young adults.

There is little to no control over the nature and quality of online relationships and this is
also a major concern. Today, teens are heavy users of new communication forms (instant
messaging, text messaging, photo and video sharing) as well as communication oriented Internet
sites (blogs, social media, video games and online gaming), leaving questions and concerns as to
how such media is affecting adolescents social interactions and development. Kaveri
Subrahmanyam, Professor at UCLA and Patricia Greenfield, Distinguished Professor at UCLA,
examine the particular concerns over social development including adolescents relationships
with friends, romantic partners, strangers and their families in the context of their online
communication activities (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008). Unfortunately, there are many
negative aspects of the public sphere; for example, children and adolescents can encounter

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racism, hate messages, cyberbullying and sexual predators online. The news media are
increasingly reporting that adolescents are using electronic technologies such as cell phones, text
messages, instant messages, and email to bully and victimize their peers, (Subrahmanyam &
Greenfield, 2008). Cyberbullying is an incredibly negative aspect of new media. Another major
concern is that adolescents are developing sexuality and their construction of their sexual
selves, online (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008). Given the connectedness between the
physical and virtual world, the challenge is to keep adolescents safe (both physically and
psychologically) while at the same time allowing for the explorations and interactions that are
crucial for healthy psychosocial development, (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008). Privacy
controls on networking sites are helpful but children and teens find ways to hide their virtual
lives from parents. A focus group study revealed that some teens may go as far as to have
multiple MySpace profiles, some of which their parents can access, others of which they cannot,
and still other that they do not know exist, (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008). For these
reasons, it is very critical that parents explore these social networking sites so that they can better
understand social networking and have discussions about the dangers and consequences with
their children.

On the other hand, Subrahmanyam and Greenfield point out that the major benefits of
exploring identity and intimacy online should be weighed against the harmful effects of viewing
sexual content and being bullied online. Research shows that media exposure and use helps to
relieve social anxiety and helps children feel connected. Additionally, it allows them to explore
and gain their collective identity. Collective identity is feeling or having a shared sense of
belonging to a group and for many young people this is very beneficial to their well-being and

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happiness. For these reasons, media use and exposure is important and helpful for children and
teens.
Its hard to recognize that, young people now spend more time with media than they do
in schoolit is the leading activity for children and teenagers other than sleeping, (Pediatrics,
2013). The American Academy of Pediatrics is concerned by evidence about the potential
harmful effects of media messages and images but also recognize that the positive and prosocial
effects of media use. The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly supports the use of new
media for children and adolescents because evidence shows that media literacy and prosocial
uses of media may enhance knowledge, connectedness, and health. For instance, positive
information about adolescent health is increasingly available through new media, including
YouTube videos and campaigns that incorporate cell phone text messages, (Pediatrics, 2014)
which is all very helpful to teens. The American Academy of Pediatrics found that in a recent
study two-thirds of children and teenagers report that their parents have no rules about time
spend with media, and because of this, The American Academy of Pediatrics encourages
parents to establish a family home use plan for all media.
Historically, the United States has reached a point where most of childrens social
experiences no longer consist of face-to-face interactions with other people, (Wilson, 2008).
Barbara Wilson, Vice Provost of Academic Affairs and Professor at University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaigne, explores how exposure to screen media, such as television and gaming,
affects childrens development and well-being. Today, childrens daily activities are mediated by
screen technologies. Wilson reviews evidence on the link between media and childrens
emotions, finding that violent television programs and video games contribute to childrens

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aggressive behavior (Wilson, 2008). This study reports that media influence on children depends
more on the type of content that children find attractive and not on the amount of time spent
watching screen technologies (Wilson, 2008). If children spend time with educational
programming and educational games, media exposure can increase childrens altruism,
cooperation, and even tolerance for others (Wilson, 2008) which are all very beneficial for
childrens well-being.

Another positive aspect of new media use is that research shows links between various
types of electronic media and the cognitive skills of children and adolescents. Marie Evans
Schmidt, Research Associate at the Children's Hospital Boston, and Elizabeth Vandewater,
Associate Professor at The University of Texas-Austin, found that high-quality educational
television programs seem to have positive effects for childrens learning, academic skills, and
academic engagement whereas viewing entertainment television programs is linked negatively
with achievement (Schmidt & Vandewater, 2008). Video games can enhance visual spatial skills,
and help improve problem-solving skills (Schmidt & Vandewater, 2008). Empirical evidence
also suggests that electronic media such as video games, interactive websites and multimedia
software programs, are no different from any other teaching tool (Schmidt & Vandewater, 2008).
This study shows that if children and adolescents are engaging in the high quality, educational
programs the effects are very beneficial.

In conclusion, new media exposure on children and adolescents can be both beneficial
and problematic. Though there will always be dangers and consequences, technology, the public
sphere and social networking allow for children and teens to gain interpersonal connections,
social development skills, collective identity and cognitive and educational development. All of

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these aspects are very important and beneficial to adolescents. Unfortunately, television, cable
television, video games, computers, the Internet, cell phones, and iPods have each been regarded
with dismay and sometimes downright panic by adults, (Schmidt & Vandewater, 2008) but
social research evidence shows that this should not be the case. As technology will only continue
to advance, studies should continue to explore new and developing technologies designed to
enhance student learning. The challenge for schools is to eliminate the negatives uses of the
Internet and cell phones in educational settings while preserving their significant contributions to
education and social connection, (Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008). One major implication
for the future of media exposure on children and adolescents is to enhance the benefits offered by
new media and to mitigate some of the dangers. For the negative aspects to be outweighed by the
positive aspects, parents need to discuss the dangers of the public sphere and social networking
with their children and also set rules about media use. School systems need to support media
literacy education for students of all ages. And lastly, we need to understand and recognize
medias impact on children and adolescents health and well-being and send out positive media
messages to influence young adults and to help reduce health risks

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Work Cited

Children, Adolescents, and the Media. (2013). Pediatrics, 132(5), 958-961.

doi:10.1542/peds.2013-2656. Retrieved from the Academic Search Premier database and also
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/132/5/958.short

Escobar-Chaves, S. L., & Anderson, C. A. (2008). Media and Risky Behaviors. Future Of
Children, 18(1), 147-180. Retrieved from the Academic Search Premier database and also
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21338009

King, B. (2012). How Much Is Too Much? Limit Setting and Sexual Acting Out in a Digital Era.
Journal Of Clinical Psychology, 68(11), 1196-1204. doi:10.1002/jclp.21919. Retrieved from the
Academic Search Premier database and also
http://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/22996797/How_much_is_too_much_Limit_
setting_and_sexual_acting_out_in_a_digital_era_

Schmidt, M. E., & Vandewater, E. A. (2008). Media and Attention, Cognition, and School
Achievement. Future Of Children, 18(1), 63-85. Retrieved from the Academic Search Premier
database and also http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21338006

Subrahmanyam, K., & Greenfield, P. (2008). Online Communication and Adolescent

Relationships. Future Of Children, 18(1), 119-146. Retrieved from the Academic Search Premier
database and also http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21338008

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Wan, G., & Gut, D. M. (2008). Media Use by Chinese and U.S. Secondary Students:
Implications for Media Literacy Education. Theory Into Practice, 47(3), 178-185.
doi:10.1080/00405840802153783. Retrieved from the Academic Search Premier database.

Wilson, B. J. (2008). Media and Children's Aggression, Fear, and Altruism. Future Of Children,
18(1), 87-118. Retrieved from the Academic Search Premier database and also
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/foc/summary/v018/18.1.wilson.html