Education and Applied Didactics EAD 2017, 1(1), June, 7-25 MASS MEDIA INFLUENCE UPON PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN Karla Melinda Barth Nicoleta Ramona Ciobanu University of Oradea, Romania Abstract We live in a world that moves constantly in a fast and technologized manner and parents often do not have time to deal with their children. Resources which remain to keep them busy are television, computers or gadgets that are everywhere and with whom children spend a lot of time. The cartoons are another favourite way to spend the free time from the perspective of children. However, not all have the predictability desired by parents. The present study is an applied theoretical foray wishing to explore the main categories as media personality acts on its role developing children's personality, and also develop an analysis the most known cartoons and if they have an educational or non-educational value. Keywords: television, personality, cartoons Media Media is the plural form of a word borrowed from Latin, which has been taken over in Romanian, meaning “mass (ways of communication) communication media”. The word can be used if needed in singular when it says in English "medium" and in Romanian "environment". For example: "To advertise the Xyz company used as a medium for the masses, especially radio. Another example: "... in the Romanian media ...” . Media (or mass media) includes all sources/public information environments that reach a very large number of people, such as television, radio, internet, newspapers, in which we include regular appearances as Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to: PhD, University of Oradea, Faculty of Humanistic and Social Sciences, Educational Sciences Department. Address: Universităţii Street, no.1, 410087, Oradea, Bihor County, Romania. E-mail: [email protected] 7 K. M. Barth & N. R. Ciobanu / EAD, 2017, 1(1), 7-25 ___________________________________________________________________ newspapers (e.g. daily or weekly), magazines, or lampoons. This implies that the product is readily available and is affordable for all social groups (“Mass- media”, 2017). Fundamental media categories Television The word "television" comes from the Greek "tele" = distance and from the Latin "visio" = vision/sight and requires a telecommunication system for transmitting and receiving moving pictures and sound through remote. This transmission can be carried out via radio or via cable television networks. Childhood programs The category of programs developed for children are cartoons, which involves static and moving elements, comic frame or film sequences on film. Classification of childhood programs. Because of the character that cartoons have, the language and the type of behaviour that is shown, they can be classified as follows (Asencio Chilan, 2012, p. 16): - personalized educational program; - personalized programs without an educational character. Television in education The traditional concept of what was considered to be the educational infantile television program was defined by adults, being associated with the school environment and having vertical designs being considered both qualitative and educative, when improving academic achievement in school. In today's society, cartoons are attractive, but not rich in values, sometimes negatively influencing children's personality development. Children get to spend a lot of time in front of the small screen substituting for reading activities, extra school work, and games or interacting with others. Television in learning Television is a window towards other children (Asencio Chilan, 2012, p. 20), a world that allows children to develop sensitivity and knowledge such as 8 K. M. Barth & N. R. Ciobanu / EAD, 2017, 1(1), 7-25 ___________________________________________________________________ ecology, animal world, to develop skills, and formation of new values. Television is an integral part of our society, not only because of the information, but also because of its humorous characters, entertainment, education, direct or indirect in various fields. Parents consider watching television, as a fun and safe activity for their children; because they spend a longer time watching TV, while adults have other domestic activities. Undoubtedly it is necessary to take into account the emotional and neurological development, because it differs from a child to an adult. Brain maturity is completed in about 18-20 years. This process is evolutionary cortical, from the back area to the frontal area, which means that the prefrontal areas are the last to mature. The prefrontal cortex plays an important role in higher brain function, cognition (behaviour control, reflection, judgment, etc.). Regarding children less than 5 years, there is a capacity for fantasy and perception of images on TV as real and true, affecting their personality and language. There is a possibility that they learn things that are not good, often distinguish between fantasy presented on television and the real life they live, influenced by thousands of ads they see annually, many of which are related to alcohol , tobacco, sweets, eat fast food or toys. Television and family The child needs to discuss the content of television programs with their parents because they can see the impact that television programs have over the child's development. Parents can choose the shows and cartoons which the child is watching and in this way they are creating a secure environment both intellectually and emotionally. Each parent has asked himself, from time to time these questions: - Is it good for children to watch television shows or programs? - How many hours should be given to a child to watch television? - What could I use to fill the child's free time, so he will not become addicted to TV? Most parents ask themselves these questions only when the child starts primary school and wakes up to the need to keep up with school, but these questions should appear before this period. The child may get addicted to television; this situation is quite difficult for parents, because it means changing habits and setting standards and rules related to time spent in front of the small 9 K. M. Barth & N. R. Ciobanu / EAD, 2017, 1(1), 7-25 ___________________________________________________________________ screen. In preschool, because the child spends a lot of time watching TV he may lose many opportunities to develop activities with a rich intellectual and emotional input (Asencio Chilan, 2012, p. 22). Television and formation of values Regarding this issue there are different opinions about the influence of television in shaping children's values. Quintana (1989) stated that television is a concern which takes much of the evil that occurs in society (the crisis of values, atrophy of imagination, offenders, increasing aggression, violence, etc.). Others, such as Gomez and Dominguez (1996), believe that television has educational opportunities and could be a powerful tool against social impairment (as cited in Asencio Chilan, 2012). There is another point of view, of Murillo (1996, as cited in Asencio Chilan, 2012, pp. 22-23), who had an attitude so radical, like others, he claimed that television does not have a negative impact, or positive impact; he believes the impact of television on training the values is neutral. In this regard it is argued that human nature has a mechanism or a level of acceptance that allows decoupling from what this medium to might convey. Television can be positive or negative, depending on the coordination that exists between programs which are available to pupils in school and what programs children are allowed to watch at home. The first programs are chosen by specialists, and others have a varied character, discrepancies may exist in the final effect if selected programs were not appropriate content. The authors believe it would be very beneficial, as most of the work that teachers can do, parents should also learn to select quality programs accessible to children on the basis of the evolutionary process and the time spent watching TV programs. There is a possibility that in the absence of this selectivity, the child does not develop sufficient critical capacity to be able to discriminate content, adopting a passive attitude of total acceptance of information provided by the media. Good coordination between the two social agents, family and school, creates the possibility of a potential advantage of television (as cited in Asencio Chilan, 2012, pp. 22-23). 10 K. M. Barth & N. R. Ciobanu / EAD, 2017, 1(1), 7-25 ___________________________________________________________________ The language used for childhood programs Children imitate cartoon neutral language. Experts and parents say the following: children attending kindergarten or school, are expressing themselves more often with terms coming from the cartoons they watch. This language is called neutral language. Many teachers and parents are wondering where to draw the line between this language and its effect on language learning, supporting the idea that this type of language could be applied for pedagogic purposes if stimulated conditions required were used (Asencio Chilan, 2012, p. 25). In a longitudinal study, Wright et al. (2001) researched the impact of education on vocabulary on 240 children, aged 2 and 4 from low-income families. The students were analyzed for a period of 3 years to established if the children who watched Sesame Street between ages 2 to 3 had acquired special skills. Children who watched educational