Mass media plays an important role in creating awareness, sharing of knowledge and views thus serve as mirror of society which greatly affects how its people view a variety of things where they live. It encourages every individual to seek for the truth but not everything we need, hear or see in any forms of mass media expresses the truth. And most of the time children are the viewers of the most popular form of mass media-television.
Television can make or break the character of every child as if can entertain, inform and keep a company. Thus TV can influence a child to possess desirable or undesirable attitudes . Studies have shown that television and media in general , can also have a very negative influence. Some studies indicate television can shorten attention span, create fear and increase aggressive and anti-social behavior if exposure is un-monitored and unlimited.
Time spent watching television takes away from important activities such as reading, school work, playing , exercise , family bonding and social development. Children also learn information from television that may be inappropriate or incorrect. They are influenced by the thousands of commercials seen each day many of which are for alcohol, junk food, fast foods and toys. Those who watch too much of television tends to have lower grades in school , read fewer books, exercise less and thus be overweight.
However, television can be a powerful entertainment and education tool for children given the right programming with healthy viewing habits and parental supervision. Parents should guide their children in watching television especially now that the MTRCB (Movie and Television Review and Classification Board) are serious in reclassifying and regulating the various TV programs being aired. Television can prove to be a very good tool, especially in the field of education. In fact TV can help kids learn about a variety of subject, explore and discover places, animals or things that they couldn’t see otherwise and learn more about what is going.
Its about time young people become aware and careful of the TV programs they are watching. Learn to scan and scrutinize the shows to watch and parents must guide their kids in choosing value laden programming. Save the next generation from violent and valueless television programs.
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