From: Daene Luna <[email protected]>
Date: Tue Dec 27, 2005 2:18 pm
Subject: a request to hear your thoughts (especially those in the media) =)
Hello! I am Daene Luna, an Integrated Marketing Communications student at University of Asia and the Pacific and I am currently doing a paper on media accountability and children for UNIV, a worldwide project which gives students the chance to write about various societal issues and if chosen, will have the great opportunity of meeting the Pope and presenting their study to him in Rome. Below is a very brief case study and a few questions for media practitioners that, if it's not too much of a bother, hopefully you might provide me with your opinions on. Thank you so much, happy holidays. =)
Daene Luna
Case:
In interviewing roughly 5,000 international 12-year old school children, the results confirm that the Terminator character from two movies of the same name, starring the actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is a cross-cultural hero. About 88% of the world children population (if the sample of the study is representative) knows him.
In the comparison between high- and low-aggression areas it is remarkable that 51% of the children of the high-aggression environment would like to be like him as compared to 37% in the low-aggression neighborhoods. He seems to represent the characteristics which children think are necessary to cope with difficult situations. [From the UNESCO Study on Media Violence (1998)] The movie Terminator garnered a rating of R in its release.
A study (Huesmann, et.al., 2003) showed that there is an increased risk of adult aggressive and violent behavior when they view violent shows in early childhood.
Questions
Occupation:
Do you think that as a media practitioner, you are accountable for this ill effect?
Given this case above, who is responsible for the ill effect that media violence has on children?