Introduction: Television is an important communication
medium in present time and helps to promote information, entertainment and
education. Booming up of new channels shows lots entertainment programmes like
daily soap operas, cartoons, sports, news etc. which are directly and
indirectly related to our daily life and left important effect on person to person.
It is assumed that all these television serials
entertained the public as well as aware them with the issues related to daily
life. But these serials either soap opera or cartoon programme left a great
impact on the adult, adolescent as well as the children on their behavior,
health, and psychological status. According to UNESCO report 1961 it is
necessary to study on the television programme require time to time to
understand the status of the programmes.
Present
study deals in details about the socio-psycho effect on children and
adolescent. For the study three hundrend samples form were collected from the children of age group
three to fifteen years and their parents, these children are not from the same
schools. Children are catagrized in three
groups and a group of parent either mother or father was included for the
study. First group include children 3-5 years, in second group children are
6-10 age group while in third group chiuldrens are 11-15 year age.
Material and method: A survey format was prepare and was filled by
the children and their parents for the evaluation on the Socio-psycho status of
the children. Survey format contains twenty questions as name, age, gender,
favorite serials, favorite advertisement favorite character, favorite cartoons,
reason for the character to be favorite, timing for the watching the
television, accompanied viewers to watch television, their wishes in young age
. The survey format was filled on the basis of the answers of small children
and their parents.
Results: After evaluation of the children replies results are as follows:-
Children
who yet start to go school age group 3yrs to 5 yrs watching television more
than six hrs regularly. In general they are watching cartoon on television but
along with their elders they are watching soap opera and all these children
know all about the soap opera and want to be part of them. Children response at
the same style whatever they are watching on television. All children wishes to
have their mother glamorus young and energetic as in the shows. Prefrence for
food is fastfood and choclate for the children. Behavioural characters (way of
communication and representation themselves) of children resembles their
fevorite cartoon characters. Children make a dream world where thay expect
super man or some alian helps them to solve their problem even from this age
children shows their affaction along their gadgets. The general response of
this group that when they will growup will become bride or groom because of the
reason of getting beautiful clothes, jewelry and other accessories.
Children
of second group are generaly watch the Cartoon. These channels are also serving lots of violence,
false dreeming and dependency on the alians, gadgets or other super powers.
Children lernt violence with the cartoon.
While
adolescent children are in favor of talet hunt shows along with daily soap.
Adolesent children treated themselves as the celebrity and make high ambition
without having practicle ground. These group of children are most aware for the
advertisement. To make themselves slim and trim and beautiful they uses lots of
cosmatics and regulary used to for the dieting. A large numbers of this group
is influenced with the soap opera and they like to deal themselves as the characters of these
serials. Lavish lifestyle making friends is main target of this group even to
maintain these thing this group ignore their real situatons. Curiocity of
sexual orientaion increase in this group and they are trying to get it.
After
the evalution of the parents it is found that to control the children it is
also necessary that parents should control themselves for watching Television,
Changing the channel is not the remedy of the problem because in the name of
entertainment all channels are showing almost similar things which may be
catagarize money, lavish life, eventhough channels are claiming that they make
the position of women strong but it is also necessry to think deeply if making
fun of women is humor then what is the standard of comedy.
Group
|
Remarks/
Comments
|
3 -5
years
|
Want
to be bride or Groom because will get beautiful clothes and jewelry. Will get
a friend to play. No need to study. Watching television with their mothers
whatever mother’s are watching same programme is watching by children.
|
6-10
years
|
May
be somewhere Doremon is present and helps their class mates. Tom and jerry
are the funniest characters. Fast foods are favorite food items. Health
drinks are favorite drinks.
|
11-15
years
|
With
the help of beauty products they will become beautiful even boys are also
attracted with these product. Boys don’t want to make bulky girl as their
friend. Friend should be beautiful. Curiosity about the sexual activities,
contraceptives can be used for maintaining sexual relationship. Cautious
about body weight, look and appearance.
|
Parents
|
Children
are becoming aggressive, demanding, and careless. Working parents don’t know
what their children’s are watching.
|
Discussion: American Academy of Pediatrics described in 2001
that “Children learn by observing, imitating and making behaviors their own”.
Children get influenced due to media and are subject to attention the parents,
teachers and communicators. Commercial media started a new era of media in 1941
where a toy maker company targeted to the children for the sale promotion of
the toys. Later on educational programmes were promoted through the television.
American Academy of Pediatrics 2001 considered
that influence of television should be calculated on the basis of educational part
as well as other parameters like social issues, violence and aggressiveness
behavior, sexual images, self esteem etc and school performance of children. In
the history of media initially all the programme were targeted to the male now
a days all programme are targeted to female and children. Small kids need
attention of the mother or their elders. No one is bothered to see about
quality and content of the video programm.
Programmes and advertisement develop eating disorder
in children. Adolescent children are cautious about their body weight and
unnecessarily doing dieting.
Television
and behavioural problem
Children,
who are watching television more in excess shows critical behaviour like
angriness, hitting to others, wants attention at home as well as school and
other public places so behave just like the favourite character of television.
Now a days most of the children speak like cartoons. In their study Ray, et al 2006 reported that children
having exposure to violence through media had poorer school performance and its
impact on their psychosocial health. While in other study on the same issue
done by Ray M, Malhi P. ,2005 Thakur Y, Khokhar C.P. 2001 and
Geeta MG, Krishnakumar P. 2005;found that some of the fears, tensions, bad
dreams and tendencies towards
delinquencies of children are a result of frequent and a regular
exposure to murder-mystery movies, and stories filled with violence and torture
that children viewing TV and movies. Association between TV viewing and
suicidal behavior has also been reported from India. Hoarer shows makes week to
the children and affect their thinking power, which took them under
depression.
Health Issue
Christakis
DA, Zimmerman FJ, Di Giuseppe DL, McCarthy CA. 2004 found in their study Early
television exposure and subsequent attention problems in children that
excessive TV viewing in adolescence is a risk factor for development of
depression in young adulthood. TV viewing may play an exacerbating, if not
causal, role in the development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD). This hypothesis is consistent with evidence indicating that children
with ADHD watch more television than their peers and experience significant
impairments in comprehending stories, a crucial skill in achieving academic
success.
Social
Isolation
TV viewing time of the children make them isolate of
family and friends. In modern days as the concept of single child or two
children they expend more time with television. Children isolates from the
family and society. The children who are expending more time with the family
and friends their tv watching time is less and these children shows their
creativity and skills.
Television
and food habit
Dietz
and Gortmaker 1985 reported that each
additional hour of TV viewing per week increased the risk of obesity by 2%. The
experimental study by Robinson found strong evidence of a causal link between
TV viewing and children being
overweight.
Dietz
WH Jr, Gortmaker SL. 1985, Robinson TN
200, 1Kuriyan R, Bhat S, Thomas T, Vaz M, Kurpad AV. 2007, Wiecha
JL, PetersonKE, Ludwig DS,KimJ, Sobol A, Gortmaker SL. 2006 Boynton-Jarrett R,
Thomas TN, Peterson KE, Wiecha J, Sobol AM, Gortmaker SL 2003 Epstein LH,
Roemmich JN, Robinson JL, Paluch RA,Winiewicz DD, Fuerch JH, et al.
2008, Vaughan KK, Fouts GT 2003,Van den Berg P, Neumark-Sztainer D, Hannan PJ,
Haines J. 2007; Field AE, Cheung L, Wolf
AM, Herzog DB, Gortmaker SL, Colditz GA. 1999 and found that during the
watching of television children consume more food which caused obesity and
imbalance their body mass index. Psyche of the hero and heroines is glamorous
for the children and children attract them and doing unnecessary dieting.
Advertisement of weight control pills attracts to children and without any
concentration of any person or doctors these pills are consumed by the children
which affect their heath.
Television and beauty product
Children
are influence with the beauty product during watching television their more
focus is on beauty product and cosmetics. For
branded and expensive cosmetic material children try to do anything and
many more time this crisis of money make them aggressive against their parents
and elders.
Television
and consumption of alcohol and smoking
In general to get rid of any sorrow or tension all the
heroes are using alcohol and even many times females are also consumed alcohol
and smoking. Children make the assumption that alcohol and smoking are good for
the forgotten the sorrow. And even after getting less mark in examination and
breakup with friends children are trying to consume the alcohol and
cigarette. Sometimes consumption of
alcohol and smoking is status symbol and not a single child wants themselves as
a backward.
India
faced a lot of controversy with the ban on on-screen smoking in films and television programs but till now its going
on. Initially, ban was imposed from
January 1, 2006 and then on January 23, 2009, Delhi High Court lifted the
smoking ban in films and TV.
In
the advertisement of alcohol children watch that alcohol makes them macho man
therefore they go forward for it. And according to girls consumption of alcohol
and smoking makes men strong so if she will use it will become powerful. Connolly GM, Casswell S, Zhang JF, Silva PA. 1994
done their study on Alcohol in the mass
media and drinking by adolescents: a longitudinal study and found that girls
who had watched more hours of TV at ages 13 and 15 drank more wine and spirits
at age 18 than those who had watched fewer hours of TV.
Television
and sexual influenced
Open
sexual issues intimate relationship affairs rape etc open the source to think
and get sexual relationship. Adolescent children well know about the
contraceptive method and have no objection to use it. In a report
published in 2009 in India, research results demonstrate that TV programs
watched by adolescents contains high levels of sexual content, include little
information about sexual risks, and are an important source of information
about sex.
Conclusion: In the era of
television channel boom it is necessary to parents to monitor and guide the
children. Therefore, it can be say that televison is leaving a
great effect on children and adolescent to change their social and psychologial
status. It is also necessary to make some policy decision for the development
of the programme specialy length and content of the programme where directors
themselves forget the story lineup in their own serials and to maintaint length
unnessary scenes are incorporated which left their bad impact on the children.
References:
1.
Arya K. Time spent on
television viewing and its effect on changing values of school going children.
Anthropologist 2004; 6: 269-271.
2.
Boynton-Jarrett R, Thomas
TN, Peterson KE, Wiecha J, Sobol AM, Gortmaker SL. Impact of television viewing
patterns on fruit and vegetable consumption among adolescents. Pediatrics 2003;
112: 1321-1326.
3.
Bushman BJ, Huesmann LR.
Short-term and long term effects of violent media on aggression in children and
adults. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2006; 160: 348-352.
4.
Dietz WH Jr, Gortmaker SL.
Do we fatten our children at the television set? Obesity and television viewing in
children and adolescents. Pediatrics 1985; 75: 807-812. 22. Robinson TN.
Television viewing and childhood obesity. Pediatr Clin North Am 2001; 48: 1017-
1025.
5.
Epstein LH, Roemmich JN,
Robinson JL, Paluch RA, Winiewicz DD, Fuerch JH, et al. A randomized
trial of the effects of reducing television viewing and computer use on body mass
index in young children. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2008; 162: 239-245.
6.
Field AE, Cheung L, Wolf
AM, Herzog DB, Gortmaker SL, Colditz GA. Exposure to the mass media and weight
concerns among girls. Pediatrics 1999; 103; e36.
7.
Geeta MG, Krishnakumar P.
Television and suicidal behaviour. Indian Pediatr 2005; 42: 837-838.
8.
Hopf WH, Huber GL, Weiss
RH. Media violence and youth violence. J. Media Psych 2008; 20:79-96.
9.
Influence on children media-history of media for
children, general consideration, Studies of media influence, Domains of
influence, recommendations.
10.
Joanne Cantor : the psychological Effect of media
violence on Children and adolescent. www.bicp.org
12.
Kuriyan R, Bhat S, Thomas
T, Vaz M, Kurpad AV. Television viewing and sleep are associated with
overweight among urban and semi-urban South Indian children. Nutr J 2007; 6:
25-28.
13.
Livingstone S, Lemish D.
Doing comparative research with children and young people. In: Livingstone
S, Bovill M, eds. Children and Their Changing Media Environment. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates; 2001: 31-50.
14.
Munni Ray and Kana Ram Jat
(2010) Effect of Electronic Media on Children. Indian paediatrics 561 Volume
561-569.
15.
Ray M, Malhi P. Adolescent
violence exposure, gender issues and impact. Indian Pediatr 2006; 43: 607-612.
16.
RayM,Malhi P. Reactions of
Indian adolescents to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Indian J Pediatr 2005;
72: 217-221.
17.
Thakur Y, Khokhar C.P.
Mass media and children. Psycho-lingua 2001; 31: 135-138.
18.
The Effect of television on children and adolescent.
Reports and papers on mass communication. By UNESCO 1961
19.
Times Now. Delhi High
Court lifts smoking ban in films, TV. Available from: URL: http://
ZZews.bollysite.com/bollywood/hc-lifts-ban-onsmoking-in-films.html. Accessed
November 14, 2009.
20.
Van den Berg P,
Neumark-Sztainer D, Hannan PJ, Haines J. Is dieting advice from magazines
helpful or harmful? Five-year associations with weight control behaviours and
psychological outcomes in adolescents. Paediatrics 2007;119; e30-e37.
21.
Vaughan KK, Fouts GT.
Changes in television and magazine exposure and eating disorder symptomatology.
Sex Roles 2003; 49: 313-320.
22.
Wiecha JL, Peterson KE,
Ludwig DS, Kim J, Sobol A, Gortmaker SL. When children eat what they watch:
impact of television viewing on dietary intake in youth. Arch Pediatr Adolesc
Med 2006; 160: 436-442.
