Influence of Movies on Children
Literature Review
Mass media comprised of specially 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 review sought to establish the nature of influence movies had on the children. 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 reviews have revealed the list of benefits acquired from watching children's movies. Moreover, the benefits depend on the movies’ content. This analysis seeks to explore various literatures on the nature and form of children’s movies and their influential impact of the process of growth and development in children. As well, the paper seeks to present four points of view regarding the message in children’s movies and will use them to realize important conclusions. The paper shows that children's movies are critical learning points in the growth and development of young children.
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 state 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 allowed 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 mysteries through gesture, music, and movement, rising up the invisible to animate the imagination of children through imagery. This has worked to establish high 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 of health implications. The survey by Comstock and Scharrer (2007) established that most movies campaign against drug abuse by showing the negative influence. Children’s movies offer entertainment for children, but they also inspire and extend powerful lessons to the young population. From Disney’s classic film of the past to present 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 Messages
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 McDonald’s advertisement campaigns to children’s movies. He identified the most notable application is where they have been used to enhance the film’s appeal to suit children’s tastes. Subliminal messages can be defined as messages that are hidden in the media and try to appeal to the subconscious minds (Ravitch, 2003). Disney is highly reputable for inserting subliminal messages into some of its cartoons. Ravitch’s (2003) analysis determined that most of the subliminal messages are not appropriate in nature. Upon public disagreement and government regulative intervention, the cartoon production house has got rid of most of their subliminal content. The literature criticizes children’s movies with subliminal content, for instance, in the movie series “the Rescuers”, there is subliminal content on the movie’s cover page. Their action of displaying inappropriate 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 of “The Rescuers” because it comprised of an “offensive background image.” As opposed to numerous rumors of words and images in Disney’s children's movies, this particular movie was vividly true. The images under analysis were undeniably objectively inserted into the film. Inappropriate frames had supposedly been present in the children's movie ever since its original release in 1977 in theatres. 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 movies 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).
Behavioral Influence
Linder (2012) inquired 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’s 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. 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 movie violence affects 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. Other weaknesses associated with the phenomenon include inferior measures of aggression, a delusion between the theoretical frameworks and actual crime statistics, as well as 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 offered 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 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 (2003) argues out that there have 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 have 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 in the development of violent characters. Children who view more violent movies develop stronger violent behavior as compared to those who do not consume violent content.
Methodology (Survey)
Participants
Since this subject of my research is to study the power of movies on children; I decided to conduct a relevant survey of students from Zayed University. A survey is very relevant to study this issue so it can create a covered analysis on the subject of how movies influence the children in many individual point of view. The sum of the participants was 28 female Zayed University students from the UAE, 23 single students whereas 5 married students.
Material
Procedures
First, I used Free Online Surveys to design my survey. I managed to approach people by sending emails for students from the university. I respectfully asked students to fill out the survey using the attached link in the email. I intended to modify my survey with direct questions that are easily approached to avoid the boredom of the participant. Unfortunately, I expected to receive more than 28 participants, as I had to send the survey of more than 50 students, nevertheless 28 students was a good amount of people to create an effective analysis.
Findings (Survey)
The results of this survey have shown the importance of examining the influence of movies on children especially here in the UAE. The first 7 multiple-choice questions were about general information about the participant while as the rest of the questions were general and direct about my study. The study shows that approximately 63% of the participants answered that their children or siblings often watch TV more than twice a week. Along side the effects of the content shown on the TV, I have learned that if 63% of children watching TV more than twice a week then there is no enough awareness about the issue. Few of the participants used the cable TV (ShowTime), which indicated a good aspect of this area. To know how families are aware of this area, I requested participants to give me their opinion on the approximate age that children should watch movies; the average reaction was from 6-12 years old. Almost all participants agreed that there were many behavioral influences behind movies, whether targeted for children or normal movies. Participants also agreed that children very often imitate what they saw from different kinds of movies. In this survey, I wanted to examine the amount of people who could have noticed the hidden messages behind children's movies, yet I surprisingly discovered that a huge number of people do not have any idea of hidden messages in movies. Besides, a few participants understand the hidden messages and explain that movies can carry religious or sexual messages. The United Arab Emirates is an educated society, individuals in this kind of society should be further aware of what their children are experiencing while watching movies. After conducting this survey, I realized that people might not be aware of the hidden messages behind movies, but they are surely aware of the influence movies having on children. I conclude that many parents do not understand how much those movies can be influential teachers, families in the UAE are not aware how movies can shape the attitudes of their kids, however, they like to think that kids could not be affected very highly because they are simply young to notice. It is shocking that the USA where all the movies are made have better regulations and parents are more aware of the influence movies have on their children, while here in the UAE society the families are less conscious about when and what their children should be watching.
Methodology (Interview)
Participants
A 48-year-old male parent participated in contributing to the success of this research paper; he is a pilot at Sharjah Airport. In addition to the survey method for collecting data, I also chose to conduct an Interview to support my study on this topic because I believe that this issue should be taken in the eyes of mature parents.
Material
Procedure
This research topic is very important to recognize in the society of the UAE because it is a recent issue that children are facing. The influence of movies on children can be good as well bad, but which is more likely to appear, the positive aspects of movies or the negative aspects of movies for children? What the lessons could be learned from movies? How often do parents recognize that movies are influential teachers? This study sought to understand the various impacts of movies for children and how our families and the society dealing with those waves. On Monday, Jan 21, I interviewed the participant in his workforce. The participant was comfortable in answering all the questions related to this matter, as he was very interested in the topic. The interview required how much the participant is aware of this matter, also how much does he notice that children are affected by watching movies, and what is his opinion on this area. The participant did not only answer the questions put to him, but he was very cooperative in giving me more information and knowledge on how some parents think of movies, examples of his family members, and other interesting information.
Findings (Interview)
My Interview with a parent offered me the level of awareness the society the UAE is experiencing in various matters on this topic. The first question focused on the amount of influence movies have on children. He reasoned that at first children should not spend too much time watching movies because movies can have negative impacts on kids in the future; he also adds that even children’s movies can have undesirable power on the kids. As he explained that negative influences of movies for children are more than the positive influences because children can easily be controlled by what they see, as he continued to discuss a child has a fresh brain and he must fill his brain what he could carry along his entire life rather than wasting it on time-wasted movies. The participant was frustrated as he got more involved in the discussion; by his reaction I explained that this topic might be a concern for most parents out there. I completed the Interview by asking the next question about the level of awareness about this topic in our society. Sadly, he explained that there was very little awareness in this matter as he himself was not very much aware of the high impact of movies on his children, but he would like to be educated more to help the future generation. The participant reasoned that it was not only the role of the government to educate people, but it was also the role of the families to understand that children were the future and producers tried to target them because they could easily be used to deliver their messages. He added that parents should be more careful about what their kids were watching, by that, he said “I also refer to myself”, he admitted that local parents mostly knew that there was an issue behind that, but they choose not to see it as an explanation that kids were just kids and they were eventually going to forget. The participant was very supportive and eager to provide me with as much information as he could, but unfortunately, I had very little time with the participant because being a pilot was a busy man, yet I was able to gather as much information as I could.
Conclusions This analysis has presented four points of discussion for 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 sublime messages, which presents negative implications to the psychological and mental development of children. As such, this analysis recommends that the government should introduce regulative policies to moderate the negative impact on children (Booker, 2010).
References
Booker, M. Keith. (2010). Disney, Pixar, and the hidden messages of children’s films. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, LLC.
Comstock, G. & Scharrer, E. (2007). Media and the American Child. California: Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier.
Gentile, D. (2003). Media Violence and Children: A Complete Guide for Parents and Professionals, Western Connecticut: Praeger.
Linder, R., J. (2012). Relationally Aggressive Media Exposure and Children’s Normative Beliefs: Does Parental Meditation Matter? Family Relations, 61 (3), 488-500.
Ravitch, D. (2003). Kid stuff: Marketing sex and violence to America's children. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Rupprecht, Hosea M. (2011). How to Watch Movies with Kids: A Values-Based Strategy. Pauline Books & Media.
