What are some mass media effects and their impact on society?

Mass media can definitely effect society in many different ways. Not only can it effect children, teenagers and adults but seniors too. "Mass media have a large role in initiating children into society. The socialization process is essential in perpetuating cultural values" (Vivian 354). As the book says, nobody is born knowing how to fit into society. Where do we learn the basic essentials for fitting into todays society? Mass media. Television, newspapers, movies, music and magazines are just a few ways for people to gain knowledge into our society. It all really begins in the toddler age. The first things that we see is what we believe is right, and depending on what we see in the media is how we are going to act. I don't believe media is the only impact on our society, but I do believe it plays a strong role. Sesame Street, Barney, Blues Clues and Arthur are just a few of the shows we watched growing up that taught us how to share, count, spell, problem solve and an all around basic knowledge to begin our learning. Today however the children's shows are more based on entertainment and noise then an educational knowledge. The process then moves on to teenagers and their video games and late night TV. There is so much more violence and mature content in games and the big screen than there was 10 years ago. This definitely has an impact I think on todays environment. More people talk about their kills in Halo than they do their homework grades. Did they see the latest teenage pregnancy TV show rather than how far along their midterm paper was. The media is not our sole cause for changing our society, but it does have a huge impact on what we do in our society today.