User:E2polom

Media Literacy and Blame

People are constantly blaming the media for the deaths of children who try and recreate what they see in movies, play in video games, and hear in their music. Because children don't have a large enough grasp of reality they tend to believe that they can do all of the things they see, play, and hear as well.

If a child dies attempting to recreate what they saw, played, or heard, there are three things to blame:

Parents - for allowing the child to view the movie, play the game, or listen to the music, and having whatever weapon was used available to the child Media - for putting out the message and possibly without advisory The Weapon - for simply being a weapon

All three of these factors as well as many others are to blame because influences wor k in combination. A child won't necessarilly be able to attain a gun if one isn't present in the house. The media can't put out a message unless there is an audience. The weapon can't be made if people didn't have a use for it.

With media effects, "many factors about the media portrayal, factors in the life of people involved, and factors about the real-world situation all contribue to a probability that an effect will break through the manifestation level."

The key to understanding media effects is to "recognize that multiple influences and not allow any one of the influences to be absolved simply because it was not the only influence."