Mind Over Media: Developing a realistic understanding of the world

In the first five years of their life, children start to form their own picture of what the world is like. Ideally this view will include a sense of personal safety and happiness within the world, optimism that they can deal with the world’s challenges and an appreciation of diversity among people. In the early years they learn important lessons about the difference between fantasy and reality. They rely on ‘reality checks’, that is the reactions of their primary caregivers, to appropriately develop and refine their feelings and behaviours. Ideally in these early years, children will develop a sense of optimism about their ability to contribute actively and positively to their world.

The media and the development of a realistic understanding of the world

Good quality television, computer games and selected websites can help children explore past, present and future worlds and to develop understandings about the world they live in, including natural environments, human ingenuity and cultural diversity.

Infants (0–1 years)

The most important developmental need of an infant is secure attachment to their primary caregivers. (See YMA’s Fact Sheet Mind Over Media: Developing Healthy Relationships for more detail on this topic.)

Infants, the media and a realistic understanding of the world

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children under the age of two should watch no television at all, because of their need for more direct interaction with their caregivers. In addition to this, some concerns have been expressed about exposing infants to some forms of violent television, as some studies have shown that even infants can imitate what they have seen on television. Television violence often includes features that attract the attention of infant viewers, such as high levels of activity, changes of position, scene or character and noise. (Josephson, 1995, p12)

Toddlers (1–3 years)

Toddlers are keen to explore the wider world, but at the same time, need the security of a trusted caregiver to keep them safe and help them learn to manage their feelings. Toddlers have an unclear understanding about how the world works, and as a result can sometimes have fears such as the fear of going down the bath plug hole, fear of monsters and witches and fear of people who look different.

Toddlers, the media and a realistic understanding of the world

The best way for toddlers to develop their understanding of the world is by actively interacting with it, and large amounts of television consumption may interfere with this important ‘reality checking’ process.

A sense that they are safe in the world
The National Television Violence Study (US) conducted in three consecutive years in the late 1990s found that young people view 10,000 acts of violence per year.

They concluded that exposure to media violence can affect very young children in three ways:

• Learning of aggressive behaviours and attitudes
  
• Desensitisation to violence
  
• Fear of being victimised by violence

(cited in Villani, 2001, p394)

Every Young Media Australia Movie Review reminds readers:
“Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.”

Joanne Cantor, respected researcher in the field of children and television and Professor Emerita in the field of communications arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has conducted much research into children’s fear responses to the media. She has found that “what children see on news shows really frightens them … Children may not be interested in the news, but they will be affected by it if you watch it when they are around. If you have preschool children, the safest bet is to watch the news when they are in bed or get your news from the papers.” (Cantor, 1998, p. 112, 123).

Expectations of well being
Exposure to too much commercial television gives children a false image of what it means to be happy and successful. Susan Linn (2004) writes that marketing to children… “aims to affect core values such as lifestyle choices: how we define happiness and how we measure our self-worth”. Charles Ashbach (2001), clinical psychologist, argues that excessive television viewing is problematic for children because it can give them an unreal sense of their own power and self-importance, not tempered by a parent’s loving reminders of the importance of relationships and cooperation.

Preschoolers (3–5 years)

In the later preschool years, children have refined their understanding of the world to some degree, but still rely on adults and other children to provide them with more information and feedback about their perceptions. By the age of three or four, they will be able to sort people into categories, and will notice if people look different to them and most of the people they know.

Preschoolers, the media and a realistic understanding of the world

Cultural diversity
Research shows that the images of mass marketed media can undermine trust and empathy across racial or ethnic barriers, as minority groups members are often associated with negative values and antisocial behaviour and portrayed as fundamentally different (Berry, G and Asamen, JK 2001).

Many good quality children’s programs exist in which people from different races and ethnic groups are valued and respected. Choose these programs over those which contain gender, racial and ethnic stereotypes.

The world as a mean and scary place
Cantor found that the most troublesome content for very young children is:

• Visual images, that are naturally scary, such as vicious animals; monsters; grotesque, mutilated, or deformed characters
  
• Physical transformations of characters, especially when a normal character becomes grotesque.
  
• Stories involving the death of a parent
  
• Stories involving natural disasters, shown vividly.

Exposing your preschooler to such images, should be avoided; preschoolers can not yet distinguish fantasy from reality and can be traumatised by suchimages.

More about the TV news
The TV News is generally a depiction of the most graphic and violent events of that day. Given that the primary function of commercial TV News and current affairs programs is to sell advertising space, the more sensational and unusual the event is, the more likely it is to be deemed newsworthy. Many ‘news’ programs are tabloid in nature containing lurid and gratuitous details of destruction and grief. These are images and concepts that children, in the absence of television, would not have to confront until they were much older, if at all. A child developing their view of reality from what they see on the TV News is at risk of developing an unbalanced view of the world.

Top five tips to help your children be smart media users

One of the most useful ways you can support your child to apply their early cognitive skills is to teach them how to examine critically the media to which they are exposed. Research shows that media education by parents is the most effective way to reap the many benefits that media has to offer and avoid its pitfalls.

Teach about the ‘fib’ factor

Summary about the media and the development of a realistic view of the world

There are many excellent children’s television programs that can enhance and extend your child’s understanding of the world, particularly if you watch with them responding to their interests and answering questions. Violent media should be completely avoided as the child is at risk of developing the view that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflict. Research clearly shows that some children who have been exposed to violence on TV develop the view that the world is a ‘mean and scary place’. Exposure to television advertising should also be avoided as it can create distorted expectations about what constitutes happiness and what is needed to be ‘successful’.

To conclude Young Media Australia’s Mind Over Media Fact Sheet series

This is the final in Young Media Australia’s Mind Over Media Fact Sheet series. The information presented in the Fact Sheets has been drawn from a range of researchers and practitioners, not only those who focus on the implications of early brain research, but the very solid body of research that exists in the more general field of media impact on early child development.

As a summary, it may be helpful to summarise the debate as to the degree to which early brain research can inform early childhood policy and practice. The titles of two articles in the June 2001 issue of the Australian Journal of Early Childhood epitomise the debate: “Neuroscience and early childhood: A necessary partnership” and “Neuroscience and early childhood: A dangerous liaison.”

Of principle importance in this debate, and not disputed, is that children’s experiences in the early years do have an impact on their healthy development in a range of areas.

Other elements of the debate are:

• Critical periods and plasticity. Some research indicates that mature brains retain plasticity and are not restricted by critical periods. Other writers suggest that claims of critical periods start too late and end too early, that is, life in utero must be factored in to any discussion, and it must be acknowledged that they can go much later than is sometimes suggested
  
• Enriched environments. Although it is agreed that environments of abuse and neglect can be damaging to brain development, it is not necessarily the case that an enriched development is necessary to enhance the brain’s natural process of healthy development
  
• Many findings are based on animal research. Sceptics about the importance of early brain research remind us that animal research does not translate exactly into human behaviour and physiology.

What does early brain research tell us about the impact of the media?

Early brain research does confirm certain points about media impact on children:

• violent media can hard wire a fight or flight response to threatening situations, and reduce the capacity to employ higher reasoning
  
• too much media can increase the likelihood of developing aggressive behaviours and attention disorders.
  
• some good quality media designed for children can enhance children’s literacy and problem solving skills.

Conclusion

Early brain research aside, there is a wealth and depth of childhood development theory and practice available to provide parents and caregivers with clear guidelines about healthy media use for their children. They tell us that monitoring the quality and quantity of children’s media consumption, choosing age appropriate programs, avoiding both media violence and advertising and teaching our children to be critical media consumers are the most effective ways to ensure that they reap the benefits of their media environment and avoid the pitfalls.

References

American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) (1999) Television — How It Affects Children [Viewed 14 September 2005] (www.aap.org/healthtopics/mediause.cfm)

Ashbach, C (2001) “Media Influences and Personality Development: the Inner Image and the Outer World” in Singer, D.G. & Singer, J.L. (eds.) (2001) Handbook of Children and the Media (Sage Publications: US)

Berk, L. E. (2003). Child development, (6th ed.). (Boston: Allyn & Bacon)

Berry, GL and Asamen, JK (2001) “Television, Children and Multicultural Awareness” in Singer DG and Singer JL (eds.) Handbook of Children and the Media (US: Sage Publications)

Corrie, L (2000) “Neuroscience and early childhood? A dangerous liaison” in Australian Journal of Early Childhood Vol 25, No. 2 June 2000, pp 34–40

Cantor J(1998) Mommy I’m Scared: How TV and Movies Frighten Children and What We Can Do to Protect Them (San Diego: Harcourt)

Josephson, W.L. (1995) Television Violence: A review of the effects on children of different ages (Canadian Heritage: Canada)

Linke, P (2003) Learning about feelings AECA Learning at Home Series No. 1 2003 (AECA: Canberra)

Linn S (2004) Consuming Kids: the hostile takeover of childhood (The New Press: New York)

Meltz, BF “Teach about the fib factor” The Boston Globe 11 March 2004, [viewed 1 December 2005] (http://www.boston.com/yourlife/family/articles/2004/03/11/teach_about_the_fib_factor/)

National Research Council and Institute of Medicine (2000) From Neurons to Neighbourhood: The Science of Early Child Development (National Academy Press: Washington)

PBS Parents (Site developed by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and US Department of Education [Viewed 14 September 2005] (www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/)

Talay-Ongan, A (2000) “Neuroscience and early childhood? A necessary partnership” in Australian Journal of Early Childhood Vol 25, No. 2 June 2000, pp28–33

Villani, S (2001) “Impact of Media on Children and Adolescents: A 10 Year Review of the Research” in Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 40:4, April 2001, pp392–401

Young Media Australia Movie Reviews (2005) [viewed 12 October 2005] (www.youngmedia.org.au)