The Impact of PBS and Other Media's Content on Children - Term Paper Example

The content consumed from the media by the young people depends on the age groups such the elementary school, middle school, and high school. Elementary school children are greatly influenced by the media in terms of teaching them about the various cultures that exist all over the world. Most of the content is offered in terms of animation to create more interest among the children. One of the major media that offer content for elementary children is the PBS kids. The impact of the media content for elementary children is to model behavior and influence their cultural beliefs.

Children aged between 2 to 5 years spend about 32 hours every week watching the programs that have been tailored for the children. It is therefore believed that parents plan an important role in influencing the beliefs of the children through the media content they watch. The content from the media great determines their culture and the beliefs they have concerning society.  The middle school children in the United States are also offered good media messages that help in their growth process.

The media content they consume is still cartoon even though some start to get to learn music. The media message for this level of children involves lessons of good behavior and friendship. The messages in the cartoon programs they watch ideally teach the children the value of good friends while giving them tips on how to value their friends. Additionally, the lesson of self-confidence and proper communication. The impact of the media at this level in the life of the children involves the promotion of better speaking skills and way of interaction.

Exposure to some content in the media may, however, impact their behavior negatively especially when they get exposed to violent content. The cartoon programs for middle school children are best suited for the age group between 5 to 10 years old. The high school children have a totally different type of content tailored for them in the media. They are content for the high school children can be both cartoon and real-life movie. Additionally, they are exposed to various forms of music they receive in the media (Singer & Singer, 2012).

The media provides high school children with youthful music and movies that focus on love stories and youthful interactions. The constant message for this age group is usually the beauty of love and happy ending stories. The impact of the media content involves exposing young people to relationships. Additionally, the media content helps the young people to forge relationships in the adolescent thus creating better young people. Heroes and icons are one of the major television network preferred by the high school children especially aged between 10 and 16 years.

The recommendation is for parents to expose their children only to the media content with messages and those that can help model behavior (Singer & Singer, 2012). Additionally, the parents must consider reducing their children's screen time and increase time spent as families for proper cognitive development.