Olympic Games

Children and games
Olympic Games have been found to attract much attention from spectators as compared to any other cultural phenomena (Murray, 1896). When we have Olympic Games then we have people scrambling for seats in the stadiums they are taking place and millions of other following the proceedings on television sets. Many medalists have even confirmed that it is not the winning that is important in an Olympic game but the tribulations and ululations when one is being presented with a medal. It is with this reason that we have to bring up children knowing which Olympic Games are real, and which ones is not (Murray, 1896). Then we have got to teach them that some games might be mere acting or after a lot of exercises and before doing this then it is impossible to be perfect in executing the same.

One thing the children share in the world is their games. Childrens games are common to each child and any children can fit to games of other children which they dont share a background without any big problem. However the media has been found to influence children so much on certain aspects (Deal,  Kennedy, 1999). Children all over the world are exposed to media in one way or another and if not then they are exposed to children who have exposure to media.

Most adults have been asked if the some of the Olympic Games that children are exposed to are likely to change their behavior and they denied the same. When asked a second question if an advert on television is likely to influence their purchasing patterns they acknowledged that it has that possibility. Now the big puzzle here is, are the Olympic Games not likely to influence a childs character and even behavior because they would want to emulate some superstars

Television watching and its impacts on a Childs behavior
Children are very apt imitators of whatever they watch and hear (Amelia, 2002). No child will want to be associated with failure and that is common in children when you threaten himher and the response is that the dad is to be informed and he will deal with you. Even if the person threatening seems to be physically built well than the father or mum, they know that their parents are the best. Whatever that they watch on Television they would want to emulate it perfectly ignoring the cost involved in doing the same.

Media violence is like a health issue and the more that a person is used to the same then the person gets addicted. If the medicine for this health issue is taken in excess then it requires prevention as the best cure. It has been suggested that kids are more vulnerable to media abuse because they are unable to differentiate between fantasy and reality. More so children under the age of 8 years do not have the same understanding of fantasy and reality that the adults do have. Most parents have been spotted that whatever the children view on television is a little violent and they expect the children to distinguish between fantasy and reality. In a case like that one now, who qualifies to be called a kid

The notion that the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy inoculates a person fro0m media effects is so wrong and has no basis. For instance parents know that adverts are sometimes not real but they work out, then media violence is not also a small entertainment but sometimes ameliorates its effects. Infect normally parents see the effects of watching media violence with the children and they just get scared, excited, laugh, and our palms might be noticed sweating and even hearts racing. Other effects of media violence might be so obvious so that they are not noticeable.

The proliferation of media violence and its Economic Underpinnings
Violence in entertainment is an old civilization that can be rooted to when the Romans used to entertain themselves watching Christians do battle with angry lions and this used to be considered as a type of game. Dramatic theater from the Ancient Greeks to Shakespeare to Andrew Lloyd has always been full of jealousy, retribution, and violence. It is up to the 20th century that the media has documentaries of this and because mass media is available to everybody then the probability that people are likely to get in touch with this is high.

Early the 20th century radio programs and motion pictures provided interesting diversion programs for those people who would afford them (Murray, 1896). By this time also people considered radio and television not to be important. However with the invention of television by the year 1939, about three quarters of homes in US had a television set by 1955. Now days around 90 percent of children between the ages of 2 and 17 play video and computer games or have access to the same (Funk, 2001).

The rise in media consumption has had very important implications in the society and cultural norms and practices are being imparted to children from the media (Caplan, A.  Coehlo, O. 2006). Media can be defined as an overt depiction of a physical threat force or the actual use of such force intended to physically harm an animate being or groups of beings. Violence includes certain depictions of physically harmful consequences against an animate being or group that occurs as a result of unseen violent means. Some people have agreed that the cartons that the children are allowed to view proliferate violence. Most of the cartoons are cunning and others depress others to have powers over them and this is exactly that children are likely to copy and emulate.
 
1990 is the year when the number of programs on t television which proliferated violence was on increase with the hero character using violence to emerge victorious out of situations which are close to impossible coming out of them. It is situations like this that children sometimes find themselves in and they would want to use the heroic features to come out of them. Every program on television at the moment must strive to inculcate some form of violence for it to sale and for those who produce the programs are competing to have a lot of their programs on air play.

Why the media is so violent
We stay in a society which is violent and art has been found to imitate the forms of life and to prevent the same it is important that we clean up the society and not the reflection of society. Hamliton (2003) provides evidence of the use of violence in the media as a marketing strategy to ensure a viewing audience. What is portrayed as violence is a competitive tool in both entertainment and news to attract a viewing audience.
To narrow down to Olympic Games and how the media has proliferated violence using them let us at first consider news (Murray, 1896). News about Olympic Games is considered news if it is has some elements of oddity or bizarre. Children would want to watch what makes them laugh at the same time happy and that is not going to end there because they are to put into practice what they here of. For example in Olympics there is a game of eating while one is running, and so many kids would want to watch it and even imitate how fast those people would be eating.

Violent media are successful in part because the violence attracts the attention of male adolescents who are the main sought after audience. Violence based movies are also easy to produce with easy language as compared to soap operas which require a lot of mental work to produce them. They are also preferred because there isnt a lot which is required in connoting the messages encoded in the movies as compared to any other form movies. Many television stations at the moment air wrestling matches which are compared a form of Olympic game because the wrestlellers win certain titles at various categories (Deal,  Kennedy, 1999). Wrestling is liked by many children more so the males who take watching it as a hobby.

Whatever we watch on wrestling matches is sometimes acting and normally we have warnings from the superstars that we shouldnt try the same at home neither at school (Abouna, 2009). However many of the fans of this program dont find time to connote what exactly the meaning of the phrase at the end means. Children take it up to their arms and they start abusing the same which is as dangerous as it can lead to physical injury of the involved children and those who had the potential to take after the superstars will have no chance in future (Caplan, A.  Coehlo, O. 2006).

A case is reported from Washington of a father and his son in the bedroom of the father who is dressing. The boy notices the pistol on the dressing table takes it and orders the father to raise hands up as what he sees in the television. The father ignores and insults him to put it down but the boy is adamant and the father wants to jump and snatch the pistol from the boy and make him a fool but the boy is witty enough to pull the trigger on time. In this case the boy ins not to be blamed in any way because all he knows about a pistol is for fun exactly what he sees on television because some superstars are shot and again he sees them or they are shot and they dont die.

There are some games for example karate and judo which are basically meant for sporting and maybe for self-defense when time is due (Murray, 1896). Some children do train in this and they would want to take due advantage of what they see in television by punishing those who dont have the skills to the same. One thing with children is that they would only want to be associated with heroes and villains and any chance they get with a villain they are likely to utilize it well. There fore this game has been abused by some bullies.
In conclusion childrens games are associated with some teachings and some of them used to instill societal values.

Recommendations
The games that children play should be decided by the society so that they are a vessel of passing on some societal values which are helpful to everyone who is involved. The society should shape the games in a manner that they dont offer for domination of one child to another and they dont inculcate a sense of violence to the young minds that are involved. The society should also act as role models so that the games they engage in are instilling role models to be worth of emulation by the upcoming generation.

The advertising industry should stop using those teen dominated media for adverts that seem to associate Olympics with violence (Mirvis, P.  Marks, M 1992). Instead they should give games a positive image so that children are motivated to embrace the Olympic and games activities. The media should also give substantive airplay to those sporting activities that seem to embrace human dignity and societal values.
The retailers of software concerned with games to children should also be monitored by the state so that they propagate issues which are not boosting violence in the society. Also for parents who purchase the same should explain to their children fully what they entail because the children cannot avid contact with the same completely.

The games which entail acts of violence and wrestling should be having more of the warning messages against the children practicing at home and school what they di in the ring (Murray, 1896). They should also offer reasons why the children should avid to do the same because in some video clips of the lives of the childhood of the superstars they show how they liked wrestling from early ages. They are also supposed to offer explanations on what course of action that children who want to become like them in future should take (Mirvis, P.  Marks, M 1992).

0 comments:

Post a Comment