Essay Example on Media and Aggression in Young People

Introduction

Today there are various media platforms including print media, social media, and broadcast media. All these platforms use different ways to ensure they deliver their intended information to their target audience. They are very influential in our societies today, and this means they either have the power to educate and they can also mislead people based on their information. However, in recent years these media platforms have been associated with different ethical issues in the society. Most people believe that people are influenced by the information they are fed, and the media plays a crucial role in this role. Besides, the information issue their image also plays a vital role in reflecting the beliefs of people. Some of these images can be created based on their workers or even their work ethic and how they handle these workers. The media is so influential and based on the number of their followers, and they can impact the lives of people either positively or negatively.

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Aims

Aggression is one of the negative impacts the media could cause among people based on the information the young people get from the media (Anderson, 2016, p. 75). However, there have been questions as to whether social media influence can influence aggression among people. Some people feel like people can always consider what to follow and choose what not to follow from what they get from these platforms. In short, people should be responsible for their actions, and they should not blame the influence of the media for their actions. The research aims at establishing whether media can influence aggression of the people in the society. It will identify the most popular media platforms and determine whether these teenagers act violently merely because of these platforms. It will determine whether teenagers are concerned with the influence of the media on their lives considering they are prone to brainwashing. Lastly, it will recognize some of the regulations put in place to ensure the content that reaches to the people is by the society's norms and does not promote issues such as violence.

Design

The experiment used matched pairs design which was aimed at establishing the effect of media on one specific group of teenagers. This focused on ensuring that they were exposed to the different media platforms meaning they were exposed to different information. One group would be allowed to access social media only, while the other would access print media, the third one accessed broadcast media and the last pair was allowed to access all the platforms. Each group had six members, and they were classified by different basis, and each group had their distinct differences. In short, their environment would be totally different and this increases the chances of studying the impact of this exposure in their lives. Moreover, this is an excellent way to identify the differences in regards to aggression among them although they are exposed to more or less the different environment in regards to these media (Anderson, 2016, p. 75). This would also be an excellent way to identify the media platforms that are more likely to cause aggression among these teenagers. On the other hand, the last group would show the impact of being exposed to all these platforms and how it determined their aggression.

The dependent variable, in this case, would be the time these teenagers spent on different media platforms, and this would be analyzed to identify how each one of them reacted to different situations compared to the others. The independent variable, on the other hand, is exposing the teenagers to various media platforms to establish how each one of them regarding violence. This will show the media platforms that are likely to increase aggression among these groups of young people compared to the others.

In order to identify precisely whether the media influenced the aggression, a control group would be significant. Besides the three groups that were in place it was important to start the fourth group, and in this, the teenagers were not allowed to access any of the three platforms. This aimed at establishing whether aggression was indeed facilitated by the media or it would even be present among the teenagers who did not have access to these platforms.

Matched pairs would provide adequate information regarding the effect of the condition since each group of teenagers was exposed to specific platforms (Coker, et al. p. 83). This way the participants would not be bored since they would participate only have to compete in one condition. Moreover, it was also an excellent opportunity to get the best results considering they were not under a lot of pressure. Secondly, the method was reliable since it reduced the participant's variables and ensured that every group had people with different abilities and characteristics. Lastly, the process was suitable for repeated measures design especially when they could not work due to the order effect that affects the results. The method was also challenging considering it was time consuming especially to identify the teenagers with similar traits who would be most suited for the experiment. Secondly, it was too difficult to ensure that every participant was not exposed to other media platform which could have an impact on the expected results. Thirdly, the sizes of the groups used for the experiment was small in size since it was difficult to find people with matching skills. Lastly, it was difficult to group the people for similar traits was difficult since people are unique and there will always be significant differences.

Participants

The participants were randomly selected, and their selection was based on their ages, gender, similarities, and their different environment. This way it was easy to establish the differences in these teenagers and establish how media affected their aggressiveness. Based on ages the teenagers selected were aged ten, fourteen, eighteen, twenty-two and twenty-six respectively. This was an essential aspect of the experiment since it determined whether the influence of the media would be different on teenagers of different ages. This would create insight into the level of influence media on young people based on their ages. It is expected that the young teenagers especially those aged between ten and fourteen would have different ways of making their decisions. This would probably be more influenced by the media since they were more likely to be affected by what they were exposed to in early ages (Coker, et al. p. 85). However, for those who were older could make their own decisions and it was, therefore, essential to determine whether their aggression would also be influenced by the media.

Gender equality was observed, and each group had the same number of young boys and girls. This would help to establish how media affected the teenagers based on their genders. It is also essential to consider the environments of these teenagers (Kem, 2018, p. 56). As much as most people would consider the media to be influencing the aggression of the teenagers, the atmosphere would also play a significant role in determining how they react to different situation. As a result, it would be possible to establish the relationship between the environments of the teenagers and the influence of media. Moreover, it was easier to determine the extent to which the situation contributed to the violence in these teenagers. In regards to the environments of these teenagers, those considered shared the same environments, and this was an excellent way to identify whether there was an aspect of violence that could be attributed to the backgrounds of these teenagers.

Procedure

Each member of the four groups would be only allowed to access different media platforms for about three weeks. During this time they were not allowed to access any other media, and it would be easier to identify the extent to which these platforms contributed to their aggression. The first group was only allowed to access various social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. The significant factors considered here were their respective reactions to how the other people treated them on these platforms. For instance, the responses of people to the photos they uploaded as well as the conversations they were having with their friends were considered crucial. Moreover, the news they were exposed to in these social media were considered, and the role they played in affecting their aggression (Kem, 2018, p. 70). The second group was given a choice to access the materials they use as usual, and the impact of their aggression was considered. Some of the materials they were using included newspapers, magazines, and they were to feel free using any of those. The third group was allowed to access broadcast media only, and in this case, they could only access the televisions and the radios. As a result, the young people were monitored on some of the programs they preferred to watch in these media platforms. Besides the programs in the media platforms, advertisements were also considered to be very crucial in influencing the lives of these teenagers. The advertisements that were common in these media platforms were analyzed, and their influence on these teenagers was identified to investigate if they had an impact on their violence. Lastly, the control group was not supposed to be exposed to any of these media platforms. This would help to identify the extent of media in influencing the violence of people and how they reacted to situations. This would be an excellent way to determine the other factors that would lead to violence among these teenagers.

Discussion

Violence among teenagers can be attributed to various factors including the environment as well as their upbringing. However, the media can also impact how these teenagers react to different situations and make them more violent. This could be attributed to what they are exposed to and how they respond to when they are exposed to the media. It would be expected that this influence would be different based on the ages of the people although in some cases this could not be the case. The media could influence people, young people, regardless of their age just because some of them find it hard to make their decisions. Lastly, the influence of the media could be different based on different platform since they expose their users to separate content and information.

Conclusion

Media plays a crucial role in educating people and in some cases it could affect the lives of the people negatively. This is very common especially in the fact of the young people who can be easily swayed by what they are exposed o in their daily lives. Therefore, it is essential for young people to be careful with all they are presented to in the media since it could shape their lives in the right or wrong direction and make them violent. It is difficult to control such people as long as they are exposed to these platforms since it will make them more violent. It is therefore necessary to educate the youths on how to handle these situations and how to avoid such misleading information.

References

Anderson, C. A. (2016). Media violence effects on children, adolescents and young adults. Health Progress, 97(4), 59-62

Coker, T. R., Elliott, M. N., Schwebel, D. C., Windle, M., Toomey, S. L., Tortolero, S. R., & Schuster, M. A. (2015). Media violence exposure and physical aggression in fifth-grade children. Academic pediatrics, 15(1), 82-88.

Kem, D. (2018). Media Violence and the Effects on Children. research journal of social sciences, 9(9).