Effects Of Media On The UAE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Effects Of Media On The UAE - Essay Example And now in this era of increasing media penetration how children are brought up is a lot different; their childhoods are spend playing with toy guns (no wonder this is where all the violence stems in) and as they grow up they become cruel young men who believe life is nothing but a war zone which can be conquered with their "toy guns" (Wellisch 2000). Television is that source of the media which affects our society most strongly. When I say strongly, I mean it because a research by Emercon Statistics, 2000, show that on average a person who subscribes to cable in Dubai watches television more then 6 hours a day! Everyone knows of the success story of Dubai; it used to be a desert not until long ago, till the Sheikhs invested some money in developing this city and what you see now is one of the mega cities of the world! Foreign media played an important change in this development of Dubai from a desert to a city, then a mega city and now eventually a media and fashion hub! The effects foreign media has on the UAE are countless. It has changed peoples' life style, how to perceive things, what they study and how they study and even more their aspect towards life! Bryant, J., & Thompson, S. (2002). Fundamentals of media effects gives this situation: An Arab wife, previously she used to sit in the home and settle all the household chores so that when her family came home in the afternoon, they could all spend quality time. As time passed, American television channels opened in UAE and that made the Arab women know about the American culture (where husband and wife both go to work). And now If you see an Arab wife in this era, they're don't perceive life as to staying at home and waiting for their family to comeback while they settle their chores, they instead and go out and work! Media of course has changed lifestyles. (Bryant & Zillmann 1994) The youth I believe has been affected significantly of the lot. It is generally believed that media exposure brings more aggression into, viewers especially in youth if the movie is a violent one. To prove my point I believe there wouldn't be a better example then the classical "Bobo Doll Experiment" from Strasburger, V. C. (1995). Adolescents and the media: Medical and psychological impact. This experiment was done on nursery going children. They were put into a play room where they observed a television where an adult was hitting and kicking and inflatable doll and making sounds as if he was really fighting. The movie was then stopped and the children were observed for the next ten to twenty minutes. On the other hand another group of children were put to play with a similar doll, but they weren't made to see the adult hitting the doll video. The results were significant and as expected! The group who witnessed the video was performed similar aggressive acts on the doll while the o ther lot did not. The above experiment proves that the youth tend to take what they get from the media. According to Ravitch, D., & Viteritti, J. P. (2003). Kid stuff: Marketing sex and violence to America's children, most human rights group have called in for a total ban on movies for youth, especially those that depict sexual and violent scenes. Considering the negative