Information Literacy Activity 5

I was very excited to start researching the USU electronic library.  I used Ebscohost to find the following articles.  Like the cell phone example, I was able to find quality references.

Meanness Appears to Rub off on Viewers

This article was in USA today that summarizes a BYU students study to see if violence or 'meanness' would rub off after having viewed violent material.  The study was set up so that 53 college age women, participated in the study were asked to take part of a study, where they watched a violent movie or video clip then answered a questionnaire.  After they completed that activity and left the room a different researcher that was rude in nature asked if they would like to participate in a study involving reaction times.  The students who watched violent scenes were more aggressive to the rude researcher.  The findings suggest that parents should pay more attention to relational aggression when viewing television. 

Toppo, G. (n.d.). Meanness appears to rub off on viewers. USA Today, Retrieved March 19, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Is Aggression in Children with Behavioural and Emotional Difficulties Associated with Television Viewing and Video Game Playing

This was a scientific Article that looked at different research done to see if their was a correlation between Children with Behavioral and Emotional Difficulties and viewing violent Television and video game playing.  Although this scientific study did not yield any results, the fact that it did not both intrigues and frustrates me.  Because of the results being contradictory or methodology being flawed, they could not find any consistent results.

 

Mitrofan, O., Paul, M., & Spencer, N. (2009, January). Is aggression in children with behavioural and emotional difficulties associated with television viewing and video game playing? A systematic review. Child: Care, Health & Development, 35(1), 5-15. Retrieved March 19, 2009, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2214.2008.00912.x

Media Violence:  The Effects Are Both Real and Strong

This article contradicts the previous article completely.  It states that over the past 50 years media violence has been of concern for parents, psychologists, and sociologists.  One fact that I was surprised to learn was that in 1992 (pretty dated), that prime time television had 5 to 6 acts of violence, will Saturday morning programs had 20 to 25 acts per hour.  I wonder how many their are now?  I liked how this article took into account many different types of research such as correlational research, case studies, experimental studies, over a long period of time (50 years). Murray found that in general there were three main classes of effects including; aggression, Desensitization, and fear.  The author included studies that showed which part of the brain were active while watching violent media in eight children.  This is what really got me, it showed that viewing violence appears to activate brain areas involving arrousal and attention, detection of threat, episodic memory encoding, and motor programming.  

This APA recommends that American society should teach media literacy to children, so they have the ability to evaluate media.  Encourage the entertainment industry to link violent behaviors with social consequences (fat chance).  Develop a content based rating system for video games and interactive media.  Finally to have a warning before playing violent video games, or watching violent movies that it may increase aggressive thoughts and behaviors in children and adolescents.  To conclude the author says it is up to the public the parents, educators, concerned citizens to demand action from the media industry's and government.  I was most impressed with this article, I think it was very comprehensive, and convincing.

Murray, J. (2008, April). Media Violence: The Effects Are Both Real and Strong. American Behavioral Scientist, 51(8), 1212-1230. Retrieved March 19, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

 Imitating Life, Imitating Television: The Effects of Family and Television Models on Children's Moral Reasoning

This article looks at the effects of TV on moral reasoning.  This article found that violent television viewing has a negative effect on a childs ability to reason.  It indicates that children have a tough time distinguishing between fantasy and real life.

Krcmar, M., & Vieira, J. (2005, June). Imitating Life, Imitating Television: The Effects of Family

and Television Models on Children's Moral Reasoning. Communication Research, 32(3), 267-294. Retrieved March 19, 2009, doi:10.1177/0093650205275381