with electronic media may lead to negative cognitive, emotional, and physical consequences for people. Under some circumstances, they affect people indirectly by infringing on other activities. Adult Internet users say that they take part in fewer activities, spend less time with family and friends, and read less newspaper because of the Internet. Compared with light viewers, people who are heavy TV viewers also have fewer hobbies and engage in fewer physical activities. It may be good for people to participate in some non electronic media events.
. 6 Lasting impact
violence has a lasting impact on people. Media violence does not need to affect adults directly in order to make adults more aggressive. More aggressive adults may have been affected years earlier when they were people. A study conducted by psychologists Dr. Leonard Eron and Dr. Rowell Hussmann continued for decades. It began in 1960. They took 800 eight-year-olds and found that people who watched many hours of violent television tended to be more aggressive in the playground and the classroom. They checked back with these kids 11 and 22 years later. They found the aggressive eight-year-olds grew up to become even more aggressive. [17]
4. Positive effects of media
researches describe people as helpless victims under the media s influence, while some other studies have shown that people are capable of talking critically and intelligently about the media and 68 people are able to make media literate productions themselves. Media violence may have some positive effects as well.
. 1 Catharsis Theory
violent media definitely has negative effects upon people, some scholars have asserted positive effects as well. One common theory, called the Catharsis Theory cites violent media as a potential outlet for aggression and decreased real-world violence as a result.effect originated with the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, who believed that the experience of watching tragedy is cathartic. That is to say, it purges the audience of certain strong emotions. As a result of experiments by Feshbach amp; Singer, this idea has been developed in media effects research. Watching aggressive media output is not proposed to make viewers more aggressive.the contrary, since the aggression experienced through the media gives the viewer a catharsis of aggression, watching violence leads to less aggression. Therefore, the catharsis theory suggests that violent video games channel a adult s aggression and stop them from being aggressive in real life.violent content might be good! If the catharsis theory is correct then violent media can relieve aggressive feelings and prevent aggression in real life. Media have both pro-social effects and anti-social ones. Therefore, media can not be completely blamed for aggression; there are other factors to be considered that could influence the person. The media alone can not be blamed for all aggression; other factors have to be taken into account. [19]
4.2 The caution function of media
people commonly believe in the negative influence of media violence, some effects of media violence can be positive, especially from the caution function perspective. If people are totally protected from media violence, they may imagine that the world is peaceful and perfect and people are always nice to each other. Such people may grow up to be naive and ignorant. They can not be fully aware of and cautious to the harsh reality of life.the contrary, people, who are exposed to media violence, learn from media how to deal with dangerous situations and are less vulnerable. In order to measure the media s caution function, a research was carried out to test people s reaction to strangers visiting. After a casual chat they asked the people to lend them some money. Different people reacted very differently. Some lent the money immediately, some hesitated, and some refused to talk to the stranger from the beginning., People tend to be more cautious about their actions or what they say to strangers after accessing, to some extent, violent media. In this way media violence can be useful. It helps people to better understand this imperfect world and accept violence as a reality of our society. In turn, this may help them to act appropriately in dangerous situations. [9]
. 3 The case of St Helena Island
Media Quotient research shows the different ways in which family media habits affect people. A child follows some models in their life such as parents, guardians and relatives to set up their own ideas, opinions and believes. If these people get involved in people s lives and pay attention to what kind of media people are exposed t...
