Media Influence

I'm not sure if there is already a thread out there about how the media influences the children in our society these days and if there is I'm sorry.

Anyway, I was wondering your thoughts about the media's influence on our society these days.. Do they really influence us as much as people claim they do? I find it interesting how the news almost always finds a way to connect societies behavior to movies, tv shows, video games.. things like this.

What I would like to know is: Do you think that movies, TV shows, video games... ect really influence our society as much as the news and government makes it out to seem?

and why you feel the way you do.... Please

Certainly we are all affected by what we see on the media. we are programmed to believe what we hear and learn from it.

Children are the easiest to manipulate as their brain hasnt fully developed. Therefore, if it's "the coolest thing around" it will truly be the coolest thing around.

There is no getting past this fact of life. Think of advertising as a trial and error move. if something is truly "the best", try it out, see if that statement is correct or not, and act accordingly.

Well it does influence children, I know I myself have been influenced a bit. But I'm stil normal, no matter how much odd and bloody or smth. movies I've seen. I think it depends a lot on the family that the child lives in. Good parents might let a child to watch movies that are not made for them, but then they could explain it so that the child just gets a good side from the movie. For example, watching a movie about war, some kids might think: "Oh yeah!!! I wanna shoot someone too!!!" Good parents though will talk to the kid, and show him that the movie shows more like: "War brings a lot of destruction and death and sadness."