Essay Sample on Media Influence on Society

Introduction

The media has a significant impact in the world; so much so that it is considered to be a reflection of society. The media has been a vital tool that has been used to help them understand how various issues within their region and around the world affect them. Further, it is essential in influencing and shaping people's opinions on these issues; therefore, dictating individual mitigate these issues. Amidst the various aspects that the current media is responsible for influencing is sexuality. Research has significantly proven that exposure to violent content in the media increases violent behavior in the viewer (Keller & Brown, 2002). Alternatively, it is essential to consider how sexual content in the media influences behavior in individuals of different age groups.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Sexual content on the current media affects people of different age groups differently; however, the adolescents and young adults are more vulnerable to negative implication on behavior. There is an increasing concern on the possible effects of constant exposer to sex and nudity in the media to youth's sexual attitudes, beliefs and behavior. This concern has increased in the study of sexual patterns on this demographic (Keller & Brown, 2002). The reviews are intended to understand better the challenges youths face and the media's influence as well as how to overcome them.

Researchers and psychologists agree that adolescents and young adults are more vulnerable to implications of sexual content on the media than any other age group due to an array of factors. First, adolescents and young adults alike have numerous challenges when it comes to an understanding of their bodies. This demographic is likely to be exposed to explicit content during the development stage. In this stage, sexual attitudes, gender roles, and behaviors are modeled. Further, their cognitive skills are still not developed enough for them to make decisions based on the possible future outcome (Stern, Handel, 2001). (Kalmuss et al., 2018). To put it plainly, they are too cognitively immature to make informed decisions.

Legislatures, health professionals and parents are have shown concern on the increasing rate of premarital sexual activities in teenagers and young adults. These sexual activities expose the youth the risk of teenage pregnancy and infections with sexually transmitted diseases including HIV and AIDS. According to reports, average Americans in this demographic are exposed to over 150 incidences in a week of explicit content on cable and network television during primetime hours (Grube & Gruber, 2018). These scenes are reported to depict couples fondling, kissing, and having sex. Further, the scenes portraying sexual content are more likely to involve unmarried partners than spouses and subsequently showing couples with more than one sexual partner.

Analysis of media content provides that teenage girls view television programs with sexual content more often than do teenage boys; moreover, they spend more time views these programs and often in the company of parents. Alternatively, adolescent boys are more oriented to the hardcore sexual content found in explicit music lyrics and pornographic films (Kalmuss et al., 2018). Interviews with numerous teenagers and young adults in the country expose the extent of how the media influences sexual behaviors in young adults and teenagers. According to these interviews, less than 5% of the candidates between the aged between 12 to 21 years old, who had been exposed to little or no sexual content on the media reported having ever had sex. In contrast, individuals in the same demographic who had been exposed to sexual content said having had sex before by over 60% - those that reported not to have had sex confirmed to have engaged in other intimate sexual activities (Grube & Gruber, 2018).

This study reviews the need for an intervention to curb the rising number of premarital sexual activities. Admittedly, research on the topic surpasses technology as there are no laid down approaches towards regulating media viewership from the youth. The situation is further worsened by the availability of personalized handheld devices such as smartphones. Technology such as social media also poses a risk due to the lack of minimal supervision and legislation established to govern it. Alternatively, no guidelines are set on the number of hours that youths should be exposed to media; therefore, often they are often supervised exposing them to a risk of exposure (Kalmuss et al., 2018).

The optimal approach towards curbing the ill effects that might arise from continuous exposure to sexual content on the current media is offering sexual education to adolescents and young adults. As mentioned, their cognitive ability to make informed decisions is limited; therefore, interaction by informed choices is necessary. These adults can be teachers, guardians, parents and health professionals. Parental involvement in this demographic's use of the media will aid to avoid the consequences of health risk behaviors that might arise from sexual exposure in the media.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the best approach towards curbing the implications from exposure to sexual content on the current media is offering sexual education to adolescents and young adults. Parental involvement in this demographic's use of the media will aid to avoid the consequences of health risk behaviors that might arise from sexual exposure in the media.

References

Grube, J., & Gruber, E. (2018). Adolescent sexuality and the media: a review of current knowledge and implications. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1070813/

Kalmuss, D., Davidson, A., & Cohall, A. (2018). Preventing Sexual Risk Behaviors and Pregnancy Among Teenagers: Linking Research and Programs. Retrieved from https://www.guttmacher.org/journals/psrh/2003/03/preventing-sexual-risk-behaviors-and-pregnancy-among-teenagers-linking

Keller, S. N., & Brown, J. D. (2002). Media interventions to promote responsible sexual behavior. Journal of Sex Research, 39(1), 67-72.

Stern, S. E., & Handel, A. D. (2001). Sexuality and mass media: The historical context of psychology's reaction to sexuality on the Internet. Journal of Sex Research, 38(4), 283-291.