The media - positive or negative effect on teenagers?

Question

Do you think that the media (meaning newspapers and television in this senario) has a positive or negative effect on teens? Why do you think this?

Answer 1

On anyone in general I would say the media is having a negative impact...no "in depth reporting"...the wave of sensationalism and teasers being generated by the media is sick...basically the media has now become a big tabloid exploiting any gossip or anything of that nature that comes down the pipe...I have also heard that CNN is actually making up the reports of food riots in Johannesburg...jeez the media lying...who'd a thunk it? ..

Answer 2

I think the media has both positive and negative influences on just about every area of children's lives. In regard to Body Image: The Positive is they see well groomed, nice looking, polite people, conducting themselves in a positive manner. The Negative: Gives them a stereotypical image of what successful people look like. Perhaps, making them feel inadequate, thus causing them to have a poor self image, which could result in bad posture, lack of self esteem, etc.

Answer 3

I believe it depends on how people were brought up. Because if parents watch TV WITH their children and discuss the item, then children learn to question and find right and wrong easier to separate.The problem occurs when they believe everything they see on TV and take it as gospel. Adults learn to read between the lines and also to weed out soft talk. On the whole YES I think any media has an impact on teens / young people.News travels so fast now, that the media sometimes has to fib, just to cover a story and make it interesting. You will also find that different channels / papers report a story quite differently. Whom are we to believe?

Answer 4

I would say the media has a wholly negative affect on teenagers,and often leads to anorexia and other mental disorders,even makes casul sex seem o.k.I am not saying every teenager will become these things,but when i was a teenager there was pressure to look like the latest models..thin with thier pelvic bones showing.Having children myself now i am worried at the impression they get from t.v etc..which is why i limit t.v and trun them towords the more tradtional type of books,magazines of the 60,s 70,s..Enid Blyton..Animal Annual for girls etc.

Answer 5

This is just my opinion, but I don't think teenagers care that much about what the media has to say. They are more involved with their own worlds and with finding out things in their own ways - things they are interested in.
Teenagers are in a space of their own. Younger kids and young adults are much more likely to become depressed by what the media shows; and it is always negative. When you become my age, you avoid the hype altogether because you know that "No News Is Good News" really makes sense.

Answer 6

Negative all the way I'm afraid...I think the evidence (ok use the word cautiously in all contexts but..what the hey) is in ther surveys they keep doing with teen and pre-teen kids asking what they want to do with their lives and the depressing answer is always be famous - above all else..when do they want it? Now! Worse was the survey among pre-teens who thought Jordan and glamour modelling were ideals to aspire to...hmmm

Vacuous and inconsequential and failing to engage in any positive way. Television relegates seruiousness (ie documentaries and current affairs to dead slots) and promotes inane television where hectoring and bullying rule - How Clean Is Your House, Your or the Dog, Wife Swap etc etc ad nauseum alongside programmes littered with Z-list celebs - Love Island, Big Bother (sic), Celebrity Strictly Dancing etc etc. depressing as hell to find anything that even begins to inspire.
The papers - well if they were softer cutthem into squares and hang on a peg for immediate use...celebrities in the tabloids ensure news as in UK and world including war, famine and issues of imprtance are relegated to one page on page 2 - right next to the glamourous **** that teens aspire to. Fame anyone?

Answer 7

Mainly negative I'm afraid sexual morality is treated as being to judgmental and bad language is a joke. This i believe is to do with the overwhelming control of left- liberals in the media (BBC BIAS) who believe in moral relativism.You only have to view the soap operas to see this the excuse they use that it reflects reality y but the truth is teenagers want to belong and look at these characters as idols and mimic them in real life.We should be encouraging positive change by turning of until they get the message.

Answer 8

Media has a negative effect not only on teenagers but on all population who ever has a contact with it. And at present times we are overloaded with that contact. What kind of news are the most often appear in the news papers, TV ext? scandals, crime, sex appeal. it is really difficult to keep sanity in that situation. music industry with appalling sex coverage... I am not against all that but life is so much better without media

Answer 9

The problems is not the medias it's the children who is having problems being unable to differentiate between fantasy and reality or ghost stories.
So they follow what pictures is as the real thing that taste like coke.
Got themselves lost in the real world in planet of apes.
The dirty old men in office were at loss they were mass producing the little children from the faulty production lines in planet of apes.
That is why the monkey is making a mess in planet of apes.

Answer 10

Yes the TV does but the newspaper doesn't. Because there are so many things that look interesting on the TV. But teenagrs mostly like to go out n hang with mates.