youth

How Media is affecting today ‘s youth with sex Mass Media plays an important role in socialization , social development and acquisition of cultural and social norms of a person . It has become an important socialization agency in determining the attitudes of young people from different countries , races and the like . And among the mass media , television is said to be with the greatest potential for transmitting information and beliefs from one group to another (Wimmer ,1997 , p .484 ) It has undeniably taken all other mediums of communication in reaching and influencing people . It has offered the novel concept of “being there , of immediacy which gives telecasts authority and significance possessed by no other medium of communications .Through continuous innovation in television programming , people learned to appreciate what has been shown in their TV screens what is obviously shown and eventually lead to imitation and social influence when dealing with other people .All of this means that under certain conditions TV will be an influential force in shaping what children think about certain topics .Complicated though the task is , some researchers have identified some of the conditions , the topics , and the children to which the social learning theory applies . Moreover , they have specified some of the effects that may result when television does the socializing (Dominic ,1996 .p528 ) For some people they think TVs are heaven sent and is one of the best human achievements , but things we see on them may have corrupted our society or has it benefited us . One good theory on this topic is the Social Learning Theory by A . Bandura where he considers vicarious experience to be the typical way that human beings change . He believes that the ability to use symbols sets humans apart from the limited stimulus-response world of animals . “Humans don ‘t just depend to stimuli , they interpret them ‘ He says that learning through modeling is more a matter of abstracting rules than mimicry . It is not simply “monkey see , monkey do ‘ Concerned with mass communication , Bandura used the theory to explain media specifically the effects of the television . He believed that it is a major source of behavior modeling and through this medium one can acquire attitudes , emotional responses ,and new styles of conduct (Bandura 1972 ) There is reason to believe that media presentations including those adult and other entertainment programs are important sources of information on topics such as occupations , crime , law enforcement ,alcohol and drug usage , the environment and the minorities . Many people believe that media can be both the cause and solution to problems regarding behaviors and prejudice , sex intolerance and violence which are significant problems in the youth of today .The young viewers tend to have more faith in the television version of reality and believe that what they see on television is the manifestation of reality . As they were heavily exposed to the show , they create in themselves attributes presented by the television shows being watched .