Media Research - Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Media Research - Discussion - Essay Example The focus of the most desired effects studies would be on the content of video games as a mass media format and how it impacts youth personality and behavior. A recent study identified that the content of violent video games maintains the ability to lower player empathy toward others, in a survey of 307 adolescents between fourth and sixth grade (Funk, Baldacci, Pasold & Baumgardner, 26). It was cited as the â€Å"creative nature† of these games, accompanied with violent content, that changed how young individuals in society can lose their sense of compassion and kindness toward others with routine exposure (Funk, et al, 26). As identified, many varieties of this type of mass media contain advertising imagery that also alters attitudes and lifestyle focus, making effects studies absolutely fascinating. Offers one psychologist, â€Å"regular exposure to games actually rewires a child’s brand, making them more amenable to violence† (gamepolitics.com, 1). This, again, is why effects studies would be so critically important to understanding the role of different mass media formats on human behavior as they actually manage to create bio-physical changes to the human brain. Since there are many different formats of mass media other than video games, effects studies on all types of media could determine whether actual brain restructuring could be a potential and common outcome as a reason for why people change their attitudes and social behaviors. Effects studies related to video game media could be expanded to include the potential for television, radio and the social media found on the Internet to determine whether bio-physical changes occur after routine exposure to multiple media sources. By taking a larger sample of individuals who are not only children but include multiple demographics with different socio-economic backgrounds, actual brain measurements can be taken to witness whether structural changes occur after constant exposure to