Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 146 ( 2014 ) 340 345 Third Annual International Conference «Early Childhood Care and Education» Psychology of Child Safety within Modern Media Stream Lidija V. Matveeva* a, Yulija V. Mochalova, Tatjana Ya. Anikeeva, Ekaterinaa E.Petrakova, Moscow State University, Department of Psychology, Mohovaya 11, bild.9, Moscow, 125009, Russia Abstract The article steps in to investigate the impact media production makes on children of different age. Both objective and subjective causes are considered for emergence of potentially adverse content in media stream. We regard certain prerequisites that may lead a child to mould a world picture into the shape of dangerous habitat. We analyze potential perils that may jeopardize physical, psychological, moral and ethical mental health of a child. We examine the mechanisms of pressuree animated cartoon films bring on a child. 2014 Published L.V. Matveeva, by Elsevier Yu.V. Mochalova, Ltd. This is T.Ya. an open Anikeeva, access E.E.Petrakova. article under Pub the blished CC BY-NC-ND by Elsevier Ltd. license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Russian Psychological Society. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Russian Psychological Society. Keywords: MSM content; a journalist mission; child informational psychological safety; levels of threat; levels of mental development of a child; impact of animated cartoon films on children of preschool age. 1. Preface. Dramatic evolution of technological constituents of mass media suggestss further opportunities for human interaction and eventually triggers new demands for communication made by an individual as well as society. A human since early childhood has potential access to all cultural and scientific achievements, all kinds of entertainment including deviant forms in catering for one s tastes and desires. Modern system of information storage and broadcasting tends to ignore most cultural taboos of peoples around the whole world. The very logic of modern cultural torrent creates a template of mentality, which feels a yearning for infinite space, actualization of will to power, world and nature domination (values of the Faustian man [1] as opposed to the Apollonian man of the ancient Greek civilization). Development of technics and engineering art forms, come as a triumph over nature and the world of sacral space [2],[3]. Such innovations as post service, photography, radio, television and the Internet helps shape spiritual and psychological ingredients of existence, modify and intensify human interaction, and change man and space relation. That is, the logic of technical * Corresponding author +79163184806, fax+74956295917; E-mail address: matweewa-com@yandex.ru 1877-0428 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Russian Psychological Society. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.08.108
Lidija V. Matveeva et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 146 ( 2014 ) 340 345 341 development follows the way of permeation and modeling of collective and individual unconscious. As a consequence, the state of things with informational psychological safety of children requires a swift trial. 2. Body Professional work of a journalist or a news program editor attracts closer attention to critical points in vital social activity, which we call an event, news, or incident. Each of these involves a deed of a man, or a group of individuals, or collision of interests which brings forth antagonism or a conflict. A journalist should closely acquaint oneself with the event within short time limits, create a verbal or audio-visual code for it, and transmit the image via technical means to a wide audience in a comprehensible linguistic form. At that the journalist is free to maintain a personal civil view, and the freedom of information makes him free as the subject of creation. However, industrialization of culture promotes a conversion of the social institute of mass media into a sphere of effective economical activity, which makes the ambitious journalist or editor bring in the new circumstances of marketing of creative work, or celebrity image and responsive audience into the time sell, and fix the price with regard to the rating data (audience share) of a particular program. There comes a clash of interests of media holders and a journalist mission to design cultural values of different social strata and thus to encourage a social dialogue. The ultimate social pursuit of the journalist is to meet public demands for information, to satisfy the need of social integration, and to help shape the national, political and ethno-cultural identity. But commercial interests of media holders lie within the logic of informational capitalism, which represents the fixed order in its disproportion. They take interest in devising global informational trends abusing human urge to entertainment and structuring of leisure time. The news content abounds in violence reports - terrorist offence, burglaries, brawls and murders, catastrophes, hijacking, assaults, armed conflicts, political confrontation and what not. The idea that good news is not news underpins the whole concept of present day news-breaking, only a shock of large or smaller scale, intruding the life routine of a country (or in the international scale) is worth reporting. It is generally believed to be much more emotionally effective in stimulating the audience and holding public attention. [4]. Hence, the rating of the program goes high. b At the same time there is a complete negligence for statistical data that would provide the percentage of such accidents a) in frequency for a certain period for a certain country; b) in their correlation with welcome news; c) in comparison with previous historical data, ect. All this moulds the idea of today s world as a drastically dangerous place with constant menace to every soul living in it. But a news event is actually an unexpected change. It is something that happens abruptly, specifically, notably and in a short period of time. [4]. At that, the change might well be for the better! (Thus in the Soviet Russia mass media would follow the contrary newsbreaking concept: they would start with and emphasize encouraging events, achievements and breaks-through in national economy, or come up with information on social safety net and so on; while drawbacks and misfortunes were presented as single, non typical, of rare occurrence. This was, of course, another exaggeration, all the same leading to shift the real balance between tragic and soothing events in the world. However, it had no adverse effect upon the audience.) Safety is one of the basic needs of a human being [6]. Perception of the world as a safe vs dangerous place is being formed in the early childhood [7], it later tells in one s behaviour, interaction, motivation, lifestyle, and emotional expectations for the future. The impact of aggressive mass media on child mentality leads to form the following attitudes: the evil prevails over the good, one has to be on his guard, nobody will protect you but yourself, and the like. It all brings anxiety, fear, and mental strain, which, in its turn, may lead (and actually leads) to deviant behaviour (suicide, wanton aggression - as was recently the case at school 263 in Moscow). There are several levels traditionally accepted for safety/unsafety: physical (a menace to life and health); social (recognition/casting off in a community, a social standing, a birth rank, which nowadays adds in a fear to be or b The concept of news-breaking goes back to William Randolph Hearst (USA) who is credited with the creation of yellow journalism. He was the first to introduce the recipe for success: the front page should exhibit all kinds of sensations, exposures, human-interest stories, catastrophe and dramatic crime reports amply and realistically illustrated - to better meet mass appeal and achieve higher ratings [5].
342 Lidija V. Matveeva et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 146 ( 2014 ) 340 345 pass for a looser); cultural (the substitution of cultural scenarios - that is, a traditional Russian mode of heroic and selfless behaviour, imposition of the so called ideal types of personality [8]. intolerable for the cultural tradition of the people; spiritual (the general discounting of spiritual values, or shifting the accent off the values of creation - creation of oneself as a personality (as Dostoyevsky put it, creation of a human within oneself [9]), creation of one s family, society, and country). Nowadays the list is extended with one more - the virtual level (virtual intrusion into private space, casting off in social networks, which appears to be even more painful for present-day school children than similar failures in the real life). Child mentality is jeopardized by the following: 1) news breaks (radio, TV, Internet); 2) computer games ( first person shooters ); 3) cinema production (thrillers and blockbusters); 4) animated cartoons (those which never bring the good to triumph over the evil, which present no positive character a child may identify with and follow, or those in which the narration pattern or tempo rhythm is broken). To form pro-social attitudes and eventually bring down mental strain a child needs a reasonable quantity of psychologically supportive information, which will provide for the safe, amiable and generally positive view of the outside world with attractive future in it. There is more than one periodization of human lifetime development [7], [10]. It is rather obvious, that in every certain period of his life a human faces particular objectives, he/she is motivated in a particular way and seeks to satisfy particular needs in accordance with his physical, psychophysiological, social and moral state. For each of the periods sound development implies the unity of physical, mental, moral and spiritual aspects of being. The following comes a general description of risks that mass media production may potentially carry to child and adolescence health, in accordance with the four types of well-being: physical, mental, moral, and spiritual. Table 1. Health risks for children and adolescents, potentially assumed in media production Types (levels) of health Potential risks The physical level 1) Decreased physical activity; 2) Intemperance in eating, drinking, alcohol drinking; 3) Violations of cerebral activity The mental level 1) The image of significant other suggested by mass media (that children and adolescents tend to follow) badly affects child self-identification; 2) The content of communicated information may impact the child (or adolescent) world picture, the system of his/her values and beliefs; 3) The content may exert influence on mood and emotional state of a child or adolescent; 4) It may suggest inducement to certain actions; 5) It may have an impact on sexual development. The level of moral health 1) Information pattern of the world (spacious/narrow, amiable/hostile, appealing/tedious; beautiful/ugly; fair/unjust, etc.); 2) Information pattern of different countries, including the motherland; the notion of patriotism ; patterns of a city, town, village, street, house; 3) The general idea of politics, of social-political movements, of law and legislation, of judiciary system and justice in society; 4) Patterns of diverse sub-cultures, professional communities, hobby clubs, sport movements, art and cultural events; 5) Telecast and advertised patterns of professions, social roles; 6) A family pattern created in mass media; the right place for each member of the family; the clash of generations; gender roles in the community; 7) Presentation of various relationship patterns - friendly interaction, family life, professional activity, interrelation with neighbours, interaction between adults and children, pet care, etc.
Lidija V. Matveeva et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 146 ( 2014 ) 340 345 343 8) Representation of a particular approach to history, to historical time, images of historical characters. The level of spiritual health Potential risks can be diminished by the following steps: 1) A creator of the information pattern (a communicator in the broader sense of the word) adopts the attitude of a dialogue, a subject-subjective interrelation, the interaction on equal terms ; 2) The communicator represents exclusively the norms and moral principals he indisputably shares, and creative ideas of the communicator are realized in accordance with the moral environment of the society; 3) A feed-back is provided; 4) The communicator admits self-criticism; 5) The communicator claims and strives to be free in selection of a theme for the information product. On the physical level Internet communication and watching TV involves long focusing on the screen events. It results in decreased physical activity. More often than not people eat and take alcoholic drinks while watching TV or working on the computer. It has recently become a kind of a norm. It is a well established fact, however, that TV watching loosens control over behaviour, that is, we may eat and drink far more than we need or want to. Besides, modern technology is believed to affect a human through media products. Thus 4dx video format is viewed with particular suspicion. As for the mental level, we can mark out the following potentially risky tendencies: 1) The image of significant other suggested by mass media (that children and adolescents tend to follow) badly affects child self-identification; 2) The content of communicated information may impact the child (or adolescent) world picture, the system of his/her values and beliefs; 3) The content may exert influence on mood and emotional state of a child or adolescent; 4) It may suggest inducement to certain actions; 5) It may have an impact on sexual development. For the level of moral health the processes of self-identification and formation of the world view are exceedingly important. But the main concern of this level lies with relationships, adoption of the norms that regulate the life in society, realization of one s place in the community. Potential risks mat surface in the following: 1) Information pattern of the world (spacious/narrow, amiable/hostile, appealing/tedious; beautiful/ugly; fair/unjust, etc.); 2) Information pattern of different countries, including the motherland; the notion of patriotism ; patterns of a city, town, village, street, house; 3) The general idea of politics, of social-political movements, of law and legislation, of judiciary system and justice in society; 4) Patterns of diverse sub-cultures, professional communities, hobby clubs, sport movements, art and cultural events; 5) Telecast and advertised patterns of professions, social roles; 6) A family pattern created in mass media; the right place for each member of the family; the clash of generations; gender roles in the community; 7) Presentation of various relationship patterns - friendly interaction, family life, professional activity, interrelation with neighbours, interaction between adults and children, pet care, etc. 8) Representation of a particular approach to history, to historical time, images of historical characters. Finally, the level of spiritual health, from the anthropological point of view, suggests the issues of selfactualization, self-realization of an individual in terms of A.Maslow s concept [6]. In the most general terms, self-actualization of a human implies the aspiration for development of all budding talents and opportunities of their realization, that is, a chance to apply them in practice. Self-actualization requires a benevolent social
344 Lidija V. Matveeva et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 146 ( 2014 ) 340 345 greeting. This is where the mass media, as a constituent part of the outside world, may come forward to support or discourage. There are several conditions under which self-actualization of the viewer will not be embarrassed. These are the following: 1) When a creator of the information pattern (a communicator in the broader sense of the word) adopts the attitude of a dialogue, a subject-subjective interrelation, the interaction on equal terms ; 2) When the communicator represents exclusively the norms and moral principals he indisputably shares, and creative ideas of the communicator are realized in accordance with the moral environment of the society; 3) When a feed-back is provided; 4) When the communicator admits self-criticism; 5) When the communicator claims and strives to be free in selection of a theme for the information product. 3. Conclusions Children and adolescents are not regarded as full members either in social course, or in their private life. Hence, gown-ups - parents, tutors, education specialists, community as a whole must assume responsibility for their life and health, including their psychological health as well. The basic psychological requirement for information products addressing children and adolescents comes as the following: both form and content of the information product should correspond to the level of physical development and maturity of the nervous system, as well as the level of psychological development of a child or adolescent. This implies that mass media products for teen/infantine audience should be created in accordance with our scientific knowledge of the norms of human development. Today we have educating and entertaining products marked 0+, that is, the target audience ranges from babyhood. In this sector the video production raises strong suspicions. No expert data, which may prove its efficiency and innocuous character, have been obtained. But the stages of human development and their psychological implications have been thoroughly investigated. In babyhood (0-3 years) children become familiar with objects and relations of the outside world, this will embrace the child s body, his/her self, the image of the other, characteristic features of the space, interrelations between people and many other things. This reality awareness comes hand in hand with physical development. Naturally, such development becomes possible only in contact with the outside world, certain objects, and in close interrelation with a grown-up. This stage of child development requires no supportive video production. In a perfect world a responsible author of national animated cartoons should strive to help the family, parents, teachers and society as a whole to develop at least the cultural identity of a child. Cartoons, as much as nursery books, may encourage child s introduction into the world of human relations, moral values [11]. Intelligent and conscious attitude of a child towards video production is developed only at a certain age, when he/she can join the interaction of the cartoon in a dialogue. The dialogue a cartoon suggests to the audience is performed in accordance with a certain tempo rhythm. A narration pattern addressing children of 3-5 years should provide some time it takes for a child to estimate his own moral position in regard to principal and minor characters, their conduct and choices. When this rule is neglected there might occur a delay in speech development of a child. In the real world of art industrialization [12] computer technology of cartoon production encourage the authors to actively use visual effects (like rapid cut). Hence, certain parts of narration escape the consciousness and intelligence of a child, leading to a gap in his part of the dialogue [13]. The zone of proximal development for children of preschool age implies adoption of forms, norms and the style of cultural behaviour in communication and interaction with other people, enshrined in cultural traditions and scenario patterns. Age labeling of cartoons may assist parents and teachers in development of child s personality. References
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