Mass Media Influence On Youth

George Gerbner’s cultivation theory suggests that mass media influence audiences by the cultivation and acculturation of repeated exposures (Roxanne Hovland, Joyce M. Wolburg). Young viewers are cultivated by the mass media in the long run and will start to believe things that are portrayed in the media as a norm and reenact them in real life. Mass media influences youth without a hitch, hence youth culture is easily shaped, and is affecting youths’ moral, their principle of right and wrong. Mass media contributes largely to youth culture in recent years, and is causing moral decay in youths due to its portrayal of violence and sexual content. However, parents also contribute to moral decay in youths. Media violence leads to youths losing

Reasearch indicates that sexual messages are becoming more explicit in dialog, lyrics, and behaviour. In television programmes targeted at teens, more than 90% of episodes had at least one sexual reference in it with an average of 7.9 references per hour. (Aubrey, J. S., 2004) Sexual content has increased in frequency and explitcitness over the pass two decades, but the use of contraceptives was hardly included in the depiction. (J Homosex, 1991) When youths grow accustomed to media portrayals of sex without protection or consequences, and when these portrayals are not balanced out elsewhere with examples of what prevention looks like, the concern is that young people will belive such risk taking is expected and appropriate, and applying those norms in their sexual lives. (Amy B. Jordan, Daniel Romer) Mass media often portray casual sex as acceptable and it has slowly become a norm for youths, and lesser youths are choosing to abstain from sex till marriage. 35% of America high school students were sexually active and 47.8% of them reported having had sex ( ), youths may still decide to have sex even if their internal moral standards proscribe against it because of heavy mass media influence. The moral and religious symbolism so often attached to sexual behaviour may inhibit the enactment of myriad casual sexual behaviour among some youths, but exposure to sexual media predicts premarital sexual behaviour even after the effect of variables such as religiousity and parental disapproval of unmarried sex are considered (Wright, P. J.). Lifestyle magazines for youths such as Seventeen and FHM often send mixed messages about sexual responsibilty or may be totally devoid of risk and responsibilty messages (Wright, P. J.). With internet becoming more widely