CAINE'S Memoirs

    I consider the media negative but not to the extreme. The media in itself is not negative, but its message content determines its negativity level.

   As a tool for information dissemination, their messages are craved for, by a mass audience - sometimes leaving little room for evaluation of the message content by the audience.

   Because of the many forms of media; ranging from the broadcast forms to print forms, access to media messages are easy and vary from person to person. No two persons experience the same media message exactly the same way. What is interpreted from a message boils down to the individual based on his perception and evaluation. How a person interprets a message depends on things peculiar to him and his life which includes his age, education and experience.

   Since media audience are most times of no particular age group, the need to quantify the effect of their messages on a particular age group shows variations in interpretation and impact. For an adult it is quite easy to evaluate media message before it is assimilated but for children, the same cannot be said.

   For instance, in a matter of seconds, most children can mimic a movie or television character – sadly even the visibly negative. The experience triggers an almost immediate impact which if left unchecked becomes habitual.

   Likewise, the impact of the media on suicidal behaviour seems to be most likely when a method of suicide is specified especially when presented in details when the story is reported or portrayed dramatically and prominently for example with photographs of the deceased or large headlines and when suicides of celebrities are reported. Younger people seem to be most vulnerable to the influence of the media, although limited evidence also shows an impact on elderly people.

   An example, a five-year-old set his baby sister’s bed ablaze with a cigarette lighter, killing her and destroying his home. According to the boy’s mom, he got the idea from a movie characters Beavis and Butt-head, who play with fire and say things like "Fire is cool." In Ohio, three girls set a house on fire while attempting to copy a scene in which Beavis (or possibly Butt-head) sets fire to his buddy’s hair by igniting spray from an aerosol can. The girls, however, used the technique to set clothing on fire, not hair, and ended up burning the house. (Los Angeles Times, October 14, 1993).

    Media messages are indifferent. They are either good or bad. Although this is not intended, whatever forms they take, it is considered negative when it does not improve lives “positively”.

   Likewise, because of its openness to leads or sources as to information gathering, governments, various stakeholders, media financiers or advertisers determine which information we get. They have an upper hand to determining which propaganda the media would portray on their behalf – to their benefits. And since the media, according to scholars, succeed in setting agenda for their audience – telling them what to think about, their messages are most times accepted hook, line, and sinker.

   Reporting and portrayal of suicidal behaviour in the media may have negative influences and increase the chance of suicidal acts in people exposed to such messages – and same goes for all other vice and anti-societal values or norms. Although, to say that media can - is not to say that it always does - in most circumstances, nor is it to say that violent media (content) creates violent behaviour out of nowhere.

   It is affirmative to categorise the media, so would I, as negative only judging by its content.