With media filling the daily lives of many Americans thought should be put into how we interpret that media. At least one television can be found in most American homes. The cellphone and other devices have placed the media at the tip of every citizen’s fingers.
The television is arguably the most invasive form of mediated communication in the home. Since its introduction in 1928 the TV has grown in popularity to virtually one in every household. Note that there are some homes and communities that choose not to have them.
With this phenomenon of mediated communication saturating the lives of Americans thought of what that does to the public has been studied. Multiple studies have shown positive and negative effects of viewing television and other mediated content. Media literacy classes are being taught at the college level in the U.S. today.
These classes need to trickle down to the grade school, middle school and high school levels. Some of the most damaging negative effects happen at the developmental stages. Children 3 years-of-age or younger do not process stories, plots, or even characters. However, children this age and older will conduct imitation behavior.
In a famous study conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961 and 1963 children imitated aggressive behavior. The behavior was imitated after watching adult models acting aggressively. Some watched in person and some watched a video it did not make much of a difference. Other aspects added to the studies validity. The study was conducted with an empirical approach to test Bandura’s social learning theory.
With the decades of research that support claims of behavior learned from media, one would think thought has gone into teaching children how to intake media. With lower level media literacy classes some of the negative social behaviors learned could be mitigated. The overall effects on society could be measured in a relatively short time. Studies also support that mediated viewing of the media can curb the negative effects.
American Dream: Overland Expedition 