To Do:

• Gather some initial findings from the Primary texts
• Finalise details with Ecclesfield Secondary School
• Chase up what’s happening with Ecclesfield Primary School
• Complete Focus Group plans i.e. Pull together a presentation?
• Draw up a written survey to include with Focus Group as a hand out and to give out to Parents/Teachers
• Gather Primary Text examples
• Continue updating the Media Blog
• Gather findings together in a concise form

Powerpoint Presentation 3

AUDIENCE & REASON
Kids (8 -12 year olds)
To form the basis of my research I’m looking at the very start of the timeline, with Primary school kids to get their basic impressions on why they watch these cartoons and what their opinions of these shows are.
Teens (13 – 15 year olds)
To further the above study, I’m also going to run a focus group with a Secondary school group to help develop what I learned from the Primary school kids and whether with age their impressions have changed and if they’re aware of what they watch yet.
Parents
To get some background knowledge on what they let their kids watch, hours of TV allowed and what their opinion on the whole debate is.
Teachers
Similar to the Parents research as I’d find it interesting to see authoritative figures POV on how, if at all, these shows influence kids on a day to day.

Question

Just to reiterate as I don't think I've actually posted the eventualm question I decided on up so it's:


To what extent does TV violence, in a fictional animated capacity, affect the youth of today?

Powerpoint Presentation 2

Internet Research Findings:

•Children, despite being banned from acting out ‘play’ violence, they still conduct it in a more private manner.
• Violence is the catharsis that kids need to avoid taking aggressions out in real-life on other people.
• Violent media aimed at children, both cartoons and video games, aim to provide a way for them to feel powerful in a controlled and safe environment.
• “A powerless child needs some way to feel powerful and dominant, even if it’s only make-believe.
• Is make-believe violence the solution to a lot of real-world violence?

Important to note is that the following findings come from a government controlled website.
(2 of my internet sites are Government pages – both heavily condemn violent media and the Canadian site even gives instructions on how to set a good TV viewing scheme up.)

• Even if watching a violent programme does increase aggressiveness, this may be only a short-term phenomenon. Due to the personalities of kids and they’re always taken by ‘the next big thing’.
• “By watching Looney Tunes you are teaching kids that violence is funny” - Dr. Dimitri Christakis
• Classified as Violent: Power Rangers, Star Wars, Space Jam and Spider-Man
• Classified as Non-Violent: Rugrats, The Flintstones, Toy Story.

- Based off several sources i.e. parents, government controlled sites, etc (See Internet References)

Powerpoint Presentation 1

Book & Journal Research findings:

• The more violence there is, the greater its potential for influence.
• Subjective as to your personal ideology on what is violent and what’s not.
• Studies and moral panics are more ideological in the first place than scientific, due to lack of results from well over 3000 studies.
• The media is constantly used as a scapegoat to explain events that are too complicated or upsetting to take in.
• Media – a form of electronic child abuse?
• Proposals to combat & regulate violent media is less likely to encounter opposition than attempts to address more significant causes of violent crime such as poverty and family breakdowns due to it being more feasible and convenient.
• 3 kinds of effects: Behavioural – leading to aggression; Emotional – producing shock, disgust or excitement; Ideological – portraying socially acceptable, dominant ideas in a bid to encourage viewers to believe in what they’re seeing and it gains this reaction.
• Does media desensitise kids to violence?
• Children can distinguish between fact & fiction through media literacy which they gain through watching such things.
• After watching some form of violence TV, children are more likely to take on the role of a victim than the villain of the piece.
•Parents were more likely to express concern about the effects of violent cartoons on other people’s children than on their own.

- Based on the opinions of several critics (see Book references)

Update

So far completed:
- Book research completed and annotated - 5 books in total
- Journal research completed and annotated - 1 article found
- Internet research completed, needs printing and annotating - 3 sites found
- Programmes to look at chosen - 5 programmes in total
- Cross-examined annotations to see any common ideologies that pop up.

To do:
- Letter to be drafted to headmistress at Ecclesfield Primary
- To then follow up any inquiries and organise a meeting
- To piece together an interview/survey for parents/teachers
- To actually gather physical sources to include in interview/focus group

Book References

James D. Torr, Violence in the Media, 2001, USA, Greenhaven Press.

Louise I. Gerdes, Media Violence: Opposing Viewpoints, 2004, USA, Greenhaven Press.

C. Kay Weaver & Cynthia Carter, Critical Readings: Violence & The Media, 2006, USA.

My idea set in stone

I've decided to focus on my 2nd Research option.

Topic: Children & The Media
Area Of Investigation: Violence in kids programming, specifically in an animated capacity and whether or not this has any effect, whether it be negative or positive on children, of which is highly publicised.

I've chosen this one over the first option of education in children's media as, after doing a fair amount of secondary research I discovered there wasn't all that much to look at nor to draw many conclusions from.

The question for my topic is:
In what way does TV violence, in a fictional animated capacity, affect the youth of today? If at all?

Selecting Research Area

Research 1
Topic: Children & The Media
Area Of Investigation: Education in Children's programming, focusing on the last 20 years and how prevalent this programming in today's society and with what impact.
Limits & Range of research: In this research I'd have the chance to talk to a wide group, ideally 2 seperate focus groups, one being a group of around 8-11 year olds and the second being a group of 12-15 year thereby allowing me to get 2 perspectives and also how attitudes towards this type of programming change with maturity. I'd also be able to get insight from people who experience the effects that these programmes have on kids such as teachers and parents. In terms of limitations, there could be the possibility that I won't be able to organise focus groups to work with. However, due to some personal contacts I can't see this being a problem.
Strengths and Weaknesses: Strengths of this research would include being able to get first hand perspective on what kids actually believe they're learning and wether or not they actually think they're learning from it. Others could be to get actual examples from people such as teachers as how educational programming helps and also ideas from people of that status, what they think of the current climate in terms of educational programming. Weaknesses would definitely be the quality of the answers, certainly from the younger focus group. Furthermore, as mentioned previously, getting the interviews and focus groups together could pose a challenge.

Research 2
Topic: Children & The Media
Area Of Investigation: Violence in kids programming, specifically in an animated capacity and whether or not this has any effect, whether it be negative or positive on children, of which is highly publicised.
Limits & Range of Research: As with the previous research, I'd have the chance to talk to a wide group, again ideally 2 seperate focus groups, one being a group of around 8-11 year olds and the second being a group of 12-15 year thereby allowing me to get 2 perspectives and also how attitudes towards this type of programming are whether it actually is gettting worse or awareness is being raised. I'd also be able to get insight from people who experience the effects that these programmes have on kids such as teachers and parents and how they think the media is blowing things out of proportion or how we as the public don't realise just how bad it is. As with the previous research, the focus groups could pose a challenge to get together.
Strengths and Weaknesses: Strengths of this would be me being able to show kids some examples of what I'm talking about and be able to analyse their reactions instead of explaining to them what I mean. (To be continued...)

Personal preference is really mixed at the minute. I'd ideally like to splice the two together in some way. How is a different question......

My two initial ideas are:

Education in children's programming and how these has changed in the last 20 years and whether it's lost it's impact over the years.

How freer TV viewing and recent franchises are contributing to the oversexualisation of younger children and what effect this is having.

With both I'll need points of view from teachers, parents, peers and the kids themselves.