Impact Of Mass Media On Adolescent Health: ”the Dark Side”
together they can help their children not to bias by the media content.
Participatation
Parents are role models for their children – sharing their reviews of TV programs, magazine articles etc. is a significant message for the child. Parents should know what their children watch, read.
Talk with Children
Help child appreciate the differences between reality and fantasy on TV programming.
Express Views
Parents should communicate their views of offensive programs with station managers. Don’t call or write just to complain – be specific.
Resist Commercials
The volume of ads for snack foods, toys, and candy are often “brainwashing” children. They should not let TV, advertisements make decisions for them.
Give youth the power to make healthy decisions
Not all kids are influenced by media messages in the same way. Nor are they passive dupes who are victimised by the media. Children bring different backgrounds to their experiences with the media, and they construct their own values and beliefs in active negotiation with these messages. It is the duty and responsibility of the parents and elder family members to realize their power to accept healthy media messages, challenge unhealthy messages, and make good decisions for them.
In summary, television-viewing has a significant impact on child development and behavior. The need for providing quality-oriented programming for children and adolescents is obvious. It is the responsibility of healthcare providers to be aware of the ‘hazards’ and to promote the benefits. TV-viewing does not require censorship of the industry, but, judicious control of its use by parents is essential. In the short term, we believe that media knowledge and literacy skills will better enable youth to make healthy choices, even in the face of the barrage of unhealthy messages they receive from the media. In the long term, those in the media literacy movement in the United States believe that if we become a media-literate population and thus change the way we respond to the media, the media will also change for the better.