And music videos their image.Television exerts a powerful influence on children, shaping their culture, desires, and self-image. A new study finds that children who watch music videos on television receive constant reinforcement reinforcement /re·in·force·ment/ (-in-fors´ment) in behavioral science, the presentation of a stimulus following a response that increases the frequency of subsequent responses, whether positive to desirable events, or of a message that runs counter to their health: It's cool to smoke and drink. Robert H. DuRant of the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and his coworkers recorded more than 500 different music videos at random from four television networks in early 1994. All aired during periods when young children might watch. At least 10 percent of the videos on each network depicted de·pict tr.v. de·pict·ed, de·pict·ing, de·picts 1. To represent in a picture or sculpture. 2. To represent in words; describe. See Synonyms at represent. tobacco use, and at least 20 percent showed drinking, they report in the July American Journal of Public Health The American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) is a peer reviewed monthly journal of the American Public Health Association (APHA). The Journal also regularly publishes authoritative editorials and commentaries and serves as a forum for the analysis of health policy. Music Television (MTV MTV in full Music Television U.S. cable television network, established in 1980 to present videos of musicians and singers performing new rock music. MTV won a wide following among rock-music fans worldwide and greatly affected the popular-music business. ) led the pack in both categories, DuRant notes, "with almost 26 percent of its videos containing smoking--more than twice as many as on Country Music Television." In general, a lead singer or performer was twice as likely to smoke and three times as likely to drink as a background player. Musical genres also differed in their depiction of these legal drugs. For instance, almost 30 percent of rap videos depicted smoking--three times the rate seen in country videos. Moreover, DuRant found, smoking and drinking "were portrayed por·tray tr.v. por·trayed, por·tray·ing, por·trays 1. To depict or represent pictorially; make a picture of. 2. To depict or describe in words. 3. To represent dramatically, as on the stage. as positive" in 75 percent of the cases. One-third of the alcohol use occurred in conjunction with at least mildly sexual behavior sexual behavior A person's sexual practices–ie, whether he/she engages in heterosexual or homosexual activity. See Sex life, Sexual life. . DuRant's group now worries that this "positive pairing of alcohol use with sexually explicit themes" could have a "profound influence" on how children view drinking. Particularly troubling, of those videos with smoking or drinking, between 6 and 10 percent involved use of the substances by what appeared to be children. DuRant, a medical sociologist, worries that if young people "see these behaviors glamorized by role models, it might encourage them to consider smoking and drinking acceptable." While he would not advocate government censorship censorship, official prohibition or restriction of any type of expression believed to threaten the political, social, or moral order. It may be imposed by governmental authority, local or national, by a religious body, or occasionally by a powerful private group. of such videos, he believes networks "need to make a stand, saying `we're not going to play these any more'"--much as MTV recently moved to pull all videos depicting guns, he says. |
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