7). Infants begin to interact with their family. The family sets the child's perception of a social environment; an environment which can later be altered when the child's exposure to mass media begins, or when the child starts going to school.
As children develop intelligence, most likely, they tend to imitate the elders. Andrew Meltzoff discovers that as early as 9-month-old, an infant "can imitate very simple acts (for example, button-pressing to activate a noise-making toy) twenty-four hours after observing them" (qtd. in Shaffer 251; ch. 7). Similarly, a child exposed to various forms of mass media imitates whatever is there to see or hear.
Mass media takes on different forms: newspaper, magazine, radio, movies, television, and the latest and fast-growing electronic media - the World Wide Web. Newspaper and radio are among the earliest forms of communication media; however, television is one of the most popular today. Almost every household in the world owns a television set.
In 2004, a study by Frank N. ...
Ecological systems model and mass media
A number of theories on human development and the environmental influences have been published. Many of which cited that mass media have a certain effect on a child at a particular point of development.
Shaffer states that Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model of human development is "perhaps the most detailed analysis of environmental influences that has appeared to date" (59; ch. 2).
Fig. 1. Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model of human development; rpt. in "Overview of Child Development" (32)
Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems model of human development consists of microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. His innermost environmental structure, or microsystem, consists of the immediate contexts that a child actually experience (qtd. in Shaffer 59). It is the surroundings where the infant is first exposed to; this involves the family, playmates in the neighborhood, and later expands to peers at the day care.
Mesosystem refers to the "interrelationships among microsystems" (Shaffer 60; ch. 2). The strong emotional foundation that the family instilled will prepare the child with future relationship with the teachers and other children.
Exosystem, on the other hand, consists of "settings that children never experience directly but may still affect their development" (Shaffer 60; ch. 2). This involves the parents' view towards their work. If the parents are no longer happy with their job and they let their offspring see it, the child's emotional growth might be affected.
The macrosystem is a "broad, overarching ideology that dictates how children should be treated, what they should be taught, and the