Introduction
Among initial efforts to investigate the impact of mass communications, the most widespread are the reports forwarded by the eighth black bound volume published between 1933 and 1935 (Rupprecht, 2011). The pioneering work, “Payne Fund Studies,” was carried out when mass media comprised of solely the press, the radio, recorded music, as well as recorded movies. Out of all these, movies emerged as the greatest concern to education activists. This is because of their enormous attraction to children. The survey sought to establish the nature of influence movies had on the American youth. Children’s movies can be influential teachers. This is because of their high degree of exposure to new places and culture (Rupprecht, 2011). Their influence over children ranges from telling stories, motivating children to act, educating children on various vices and virtues, and other lessons. Various surveys have revealed the list of benefits acquired from watching children's movies. What is more, the benefits depend on the movies’ content. This analysis seeks to explore various literature on the nature and form of children’s movies and their influential impact of the process of growth and development in children. The paper seeks to present five points of view concerning the message in children’s movies and will use them to arrive at a substantial conclusion. The paper holds that children's movies are a critical learning points in the growth and development of young children.
Lessons from Children’s Movies
Comstock, G. & Scharrer, E. (2007). Media and Popular Culture. Handbook of Child Psychology, 3(2), 55-64.
Comstock and Scharrer (2007) organized a survey that sought to determine the cognitive value in children's movies. The psychology experts, through their quantitative analysis, that movie enthusiasts have experienced subtle political inspiration from children’s movies since 1937, when the film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released by Walt Disney in 1937. The analysis sought to determine whether children's movies offer any inspiration to children or whether they are simply for entertainment. Some Hollywood liberals have admitted inserting political messages into their movies at times. Other movie makers have proposed the insertion of aspects of conservatism propaganda with the aim of influencing the masses. Movies have been seen to unlock incredible riches through gesture, music, and movement, conjuring up the invisible to animate the imagination of children through imagery. This has worked to establish towering works of fiction, command, and fact through songs. This survey showed that there are many benefits of watching movies including learning vocabulary and prosocial behavior. The studies went ahead to prove that children can easily learn vocabulary from another language through watching children's movies. Children can also learn prosocial behavior and skills like problem solving, sharing, and sensitivity to various cultures through watching the movies . Another crucial learning point in children's movies is learning health implications. The survey by Comstock and Scharrer (2007) established that most movies campaign against drug abuse by showing the negative influence of the vice. Some movies contain thematic issue that touch on vices like alcohol abuse and promiscuous sexual behaviors. Children movies charm and offer entertainment to children, but they also inspire and extend powerful lessons to the young population. From Disney’s classic film of yesteryear to present CGI masterworks, children’s movies have presented cinematic storytelling in many ways. They have promoted the bridging of generational variations in inspiring both the old and young population with timeless lessons of courage, hope,and love .
Subliminal MessagesTop of Form
Ravitch, D. (2003). Kid stuff: Marketing sex and violence to America's children. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press.
Ravitch (2003) has drawn on his 30 years experience to present a startling picture of entertainment violence and sexual instances in subliminal form. The author relied on his analytical experience to carry out an investigation into the subliminal content in children's movies. Ravitch (2003) discovered that subliminal messages have been applied everywhere and in everything, from Macdonald’s advertisement campaigns to children’s movies. He identifies the most notable application is where they have been used to enhance the film’s appeal to the suite children’s tastes. Subliminal messages can be defined as messages that are hidden in the media and strives to appeal to the subconscious mind (Ravitch, 2003). Disney is highly reputable for inserting subliminal messages into some of their cartoons. Ravitch’s (2003) analysis determined that most of the subliminal messages are of an erotic nature. Upon public outcry and government regulative intervention, the cartoon production house has gotten rid of most of their subliminal content. Most of the edited copies are old scripts that were made a long time ago. The literature condemns child movies with subliminal content, for instance, in the movie series “the Rescuers”, there is subliminal content on the movie’s cover page. The film attributed short frames of a naked lady . Many critics question the presence of the female in the Disney movie. Their action of displaying sexual content within a film that is aimed at the young population has come under sharp criticism from a wide section of the population. Disney proclaimed a recall of the home video description of their 1977 vivacious feature “The Rescuers” becase it comprised of an “offensive backround image.” After an approximated 38 minutes into the movie, as heroe Bernard and Bianca fly through the town in a sardine container strapped to the back of Orville, Proprietor of an air charter service, the photographic figure of a topless lady can be viewed in a building’s window in the background in two distinct non-consecutive casings. The first is in the bottom left corner and the other one at the top center portion of the casing. As opposed to numerous rumors of risqué words images unreeled in Disney’s children's movies, this particular movie was vividly true . The images under analysis were undeniably objectively inserted into the film.The two “topless lady” frames had supposedly been present in the children's movie ever since its original release in 1977 in theatres . This fact was confirmed by Disney’s spokesman who reiterated that the tampering was carried out more than 20 years ago. However, Disney claimed they were not included in the 1992 home video release . This is because the specific version was created out of a different print. Moreover, Disney further claimed that the images were not placed in the children's movie by any of their movie makers, but were included during the post-production procedure. The firm settled on recalling 3.4 million copies of the children’s video in their promise of keeping their promise to families of trust and reliance for the provision of the greatest in family entertainment (Ravitch, 2003).
Children Movies and Ethics
Carol, N.(2010). Movies, the Moral Emotions, and Sympathy. Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 34 (1), 1-19.
Carol (2010) carried out a survey on school children to determine the relationship between children's movies and the ethical debate. The survey was carried out on school going children between the ages of 12 to 19. The qualitative survey expected the young people to express their view with regards to a sample of collecting children's movies (Booker, 2010). The researchers ran for two weeks and concluded that movies are one of the most available tools that can be used to teach students concerning ethics. Movies have the benefit of distance. This can be confirmed by the fact that it is simpler for children and young adults to discuss the happenings on screen than to converse about their experiences and daily happenings. Talking about the plots of children movies presents itself as a powerful technique for the young population to communicate and connect. carries out an investigative analysis on the impact of children movies to the emotional and moral influence on children. She categorically states that some children movies are ethical because they instill ethical thinking in the young population. In other words, they make children to think ethically when faced with ethical situations. This happens when childen identify with good choices a movie character makes while in a tricky situation or in a dilemma. Some children movies poses ethical and moral dilemma over their young viewers. They present a mixture of film genres, and arouses various sorts of philosophical inquiries linked to daily life forchildren to ponder about. Some of children movies make children think about important subjects like their role in society, the implications of the choice between good and bad, and other philosophical related values. Viewing children movies in class are a great way of beginning conversations involving the way values influence choices and their repercussions.
Behavioral Influence
Linder, R., J. (2012). Relationally Aggressive Media Exposure and Children’s Normative Beliefs: Does Parental Medition Matter? Family Relations, 61(3), 488-500.
Linder (2012) inquires whether the exposure of young adults and children to violent content is reason for aggression and violent behavior. She carried out a qualitative analysis on a sample of school growing children in her investigation. Her survey concluded that some children movies with religious background have come under criticism for some of their content. This is because the movies have provoked considerable degree of both positive and negative behavioral trends among children. The 20th century has witnessed various other instances, from Harry Potter offering guidance on witchcraft, to the concern that was largely evaporated, which insinuated that playing Dungeons and Dragons would result to mental illness or Satanism, to the Hays Code “interference” of Betty Boop (which, by compelling her to wear more clothes, pronounced the fate of the comic strip) . Linder (2012) confirmed that concerns have been raised and have pointed to the fact that children’s movies are responsible for the waves of rebelliousness, moral degradation, and violence. . Claims on the issue of children's movies violence effects range over a wide area. Some analysts have claimed that media violence impact has been concluded and has been illustrated to such an extent that the pressure equals that of lung cancer and smoking campaigns. In contrast, proponents have claimed that the whole children movies research discipline has been mishandled in the wake of weak, inconsistent results. Other weaknesses associated with the phenomenon include inferior measures of aggression, a misconception between the theoretical frameworks and actual crime statistics, as well as failure to failure to search for optional causes of aggression like family violence, evolution, and personality implications. Linder (2012) sought to question the statistic behind the proposed similarities between violence in children’s movies research and research on lung cancer and smoking. Indeed, the effect sizes for lung cancer and for violent children’s movies are all on opposite sides of the spectrum. One is left to wonder where the truth really lies. Linder (2012) suggested that in such cases, the best position is that which views truth as subjective. In this sense, this section has offer a blunt and direct discussion relating violent behavior among children to some children movies. Linder (2012) used the popular method used to analyze behavior implications with respect to violent imitations from children's movies (as used in most pedagogical surveys) is the use of Taylor Competitive Reaction Time Test (TCRTT). After being exposed to a children’s movie (either a non-violent or a violent one), survey participants were informed that they should play a reaction time game with a human opponent. Towards the end of the survey, participants who made longer and louder noise explosions for their supposed opponent are seen as highly aggressive.
Theories of Media Violence
Gentile, D. (2003). Media Violence and Children: A Complete Guide for Parents and Professionals, Western Connecticut: Praeger.
Gentile (2003) argues out that there has been two fundamental approaches to understanding the potential impact of children’s movies. These include the social learning framework and the catharsis framework. In recent times, the majority of researchers has chosen to work from the social learning framework. This model provides that individuals are bound to imitate what they see. For instance, if a child views a movie with a struggling hero who emerges victorious in the end, he/she is likely to develop more resilience in future endeavors. A child is likely to first watch the attempt and later on attempt to replicate the viewed phenomenon. Social learning frameworks of aggression, like the General Aggression framework provides that viewing violent content results to the development of violent scripts. Children who view more violent movies develop more stronger violent behavior as compared to those who do not consume violent content .
Conclusion
This analysis has presented five points of discussion in its aim of analyzing the impact of children's movies to the life and development of children and the young population.. Children movies have simple content but can contain sublimal message, which presents negative implications to the psychological and mental development of children (Rupprecht, 2011). As such, this analysis recommends that the government should introduce regulative policies to moderate the negative impact on children (Booker, 2010).
References
Comstock, G. & Scharrer, E. (2007). Media and Popular Culture. Handbook of Child Psychology, 3(2), 55-64.
Ravitch, D. (2003). Kid stuff: Marketing sex and violence to America's children. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press
Carol, N.(2010). Movies, the Moral Emotions, and Sympathy. Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 34 (1), 1-19.
Linder, R., J. (2012). Relationally Aggressive Media Exposure and Children’s Normative Beliefs: Does Parental Medition Matter? Family Relations, 61(3), 488-500.
Gentile, D. (2003). Media Violence and Children: A Complete Guide for Parents and Professionals, Western Connecticut: Praeger.
