It is estimated that US children 2 to 18 years of age spend an average of 5.5 hours, daily, using media of all types. 1 During these years, it is estimated they will have viewed over 200,000 acts of violence just on television. 2 In this issue of the Southern Medical Journal, Dr. Robert DuRant and colleagues reported on their findings that an increased frequency of watching professional wrestling on television was associated with an increase in reported date fighting and other violent behaviors, risky sexual behavior, and smoking cigarettes, among a multistate random sample of adolescents aged 16 to 20 years. 3 In this cross-sectional study, 22.4% of males and 13.6% of females reported watching professional wrestling on television during the 2 weeks before the survey. Prior research, including experimental and longitudinal studies, has consistently demonstrated strong associations between exposure to media violence and desensitization to violence, greater acceptance of violence as a means of solving problems, and violent behavior, as well as depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance. 4

Thesis (MPA.) -University of Limpopo, 2010 / The focus of the study was on the contribution of media exposure towards the functionality of dysfunctional schools in Limpopo Province: Capricorn District. The study was qualitative in nature and concentrated on the schools in Capricorn District that were affected by the media industry. Seven schools were selected as follows: one from Mankweng Circuit, two from Nokotlou Circuit, One from Sepitsi Circuit, One from Seshego Circuit, One from Pietersburg Circuit and one from Mogodumo Circuit. According to the research findings, the majority of the schools which were exposed by the media improved their functions. A positive impact of media exposure has also been identified through research findings in terms of the Department of Education’s involvement in the schools which were affected by the media.

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Exposure to negative media messages related to LGBTQ+ issues have been associated with negative affect, depression, stress, and psychological distress among that population (e.g. Rotosky, Riggle, Horne, & Miller, 2009). Frost and Fingerhut (2016) have suggested that this exposure to negative media messages is a form of distal minority stress, which has been theorized to contribute to anticipated stigma or unfair treatment (Meyer, 2003). Thus, in the present study, we predicted that individuals who were exposed to more negative messages in the media will have more negative feelings about the election, report more anxiety and fear, and anticipate more discrimination due to their LGBT identity. Further, we hypothesized that negative feelings about the election would relate to more anxiety, fear, anticipated discrimination. However, because connection with the LGBTQ+ community and spiritual well-being have been associated with better mental health (Pflum et al., 2015; Greenfield et al., 2009), the current study explored whether community connection and spirituality relate to the other relations tested. Participants (N = 207) were recruited online through various social media platforms and participated in an online survey using Survey Monkey. The survey included the following measures: the Exposure to Negative Campaign Messages (adapted; Frost & Fingerhut, 2016), a self-created Presidential Election 2016 Response Questionnaire, Discrimination Scale (adapted; Kessler, Mickelson, and Williams, 1999), Connectedness to the LGBT Community Scale (Frost & Meyer, 2012), State-Trait Anxiety Form for Adults (Form Y1; Spielberg, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1977), Fear and Sense of Control Scale (Salcioglu, Urhan, Pirinccioglu, & Aydin, 2016), Spiritual Index of Well-Being Scale (Daaleman & Frey, 2004), Centrality Scale (Quinn, Williams, Quintana, Gaskins, & Pishori, 2014), and questions about frequently used social media sites. Results revealed, contrary to our hypotheses, that more negative messages in the media was not significantly related to negative feelings about the presidential election, r = .05, p = .524, or state-trait anxiety, r = .079, p = .341. In support of our hypotheses, negative feelings about the presidential election were significantly related to more anticipated discrimination in everyday life, r = .631, p < .001, state-trait anxiety, r = .577, p < .001, and fear, r = .663, p < .001. Exploratory analyses revealed that those with more negative feelings about the election felt less connected to the LGBTQ+ community, r = -.224, p = .001, and had a lower spiritual life schema, r = -.362, p < .001. Additional exploratory findings highlight the possibility that spiritual well-being may moderate the effect of being exposed to negative media messages and should be examined more specifically in the future. In sum, feelings resulting from media exposure may be more influential to mental health than media exposure itself.

Background/Objectives: The first objective of this study is to assess the relationship between cigarette access and smoking behavior in 15-17 year old students. The second objective of this study is to assess the relationship between media and smoking behavior in those students. The third objective of this study is to observe whether the smoking rate will increase if subjects have both access and exposure to the tobacco product. I propose to use the youth survey data to test the impact of exposure to smoking-related media messages and the difficulty of acquiring tobacco products. I hypothesize that there is positive relationship among youth access to tobacco products, exposure to tobacco ads/promotions on social networking sites and active smoking. Methods: I examined National Youth Tobacco Survey data from 2014 and a total number of 1293 subjects as a secondary analysis. Results: The students with one or more than one method of accessing tobacco had higher odds compared to students with no access (OR = 70.12; 95% CI: 47.71–103.07; p &lt; 0.0001 for only one method; OR = 240.22; 95% CI: 160.25–360.09; p &lt; 0.0001 for more than one method). Moreover, the association between exposure to tobacco ads via internet, newspaper, point stores and movies/TV and smoking behavior was significant at both moderate and heavy exposure levels (OR = 1.44; 95% CI: 1.08–1.92; p = 0.014 for moderate exposure group; OR = 1.82; 95% CI: 1.26–2.62; p = 0.002 for heavy exposure group). The multivariable model, which shows the effect of the combination of these two factors, it states access to tobacco products was significantly positively associated with an increased smoking rate (OR = 69.06; 95% CI: 47.03-101.40; p &lt; 0.001 for only one access group; OR = 241.78; 95% CI: 160.49–364.22; p &lt; 0.001 for more than 1 access group). However, the severity of media exposure was not significantly associated with the increased odds of cigarette smoking among adolescents (OR = 1.14; 95% CI: 0.80-1.62; p = 0.470 for moderate exposure group; OR = 1.39; 95% CI: 0.81–2.40; p = 0.227 for heavy exposure group). Conclusion: I provided further evidence that exposure to tobacco messages and have access to tobacco products can increase the smoking rates among youth. These findings could be a result of better diagnosis and reporting, but the increase may also be due to other risk factors in the population. These findings may have implications for further and more aggressive counseling for teenagers. These effects should be further explored in a larger population of adolescents. Intervention methods should be designed to help the public understand the benefits of reducing adolescent’s exposures to tobacco smoke. / Epidemiology

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In our case study we investigate how media chose to illuminate the process of court proceedings concerning a one specific rape case in Sweden during the spring and autumn 2007. For our study we have chosen to investigate two Swedish daily newspapers, one known to be a serious morning newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, and the other an evening tabloid newspaper Expressen. We would like to see whether the reports of the trial diverge and if that is, how they differ. The rape took place in Stockholm’s posh area named Stureplan in March 2007. The two men 21 and 25 years old, accused for the crime were acquitted after the first instance. The appeal was lodged to the second instance where they were convicted for rape. We find it interesting to find out whether media considered the men innocent and gave an objective view after the first trial or if media judged the men nevertheless. To find out how the media wrote about the men we used a qualitative content analysis. We looked for characteristics in the newspapers, those being for example, who get to talk? What did they say? How are the people involved described, trustworthy? Using the theory of Media Logic we have drawn conclusions of why media has chosen to report as they did. Our conclusion is that both newspapers are very similar in their coverage of the rape. They also almost solely took the woman’s, victim’s part by letting her communicate her opinion and emotions to the general public during the entire process. What we found interesting was that Expressen almost used texts that were subjective while Dagens Nyheter reported about the case in the same way, but in their newsarticles. The media furthermore show a feeling of victory when the men are ordered guilty of the rape. The media legitimize their earlier preferential treatment for the woman by the announcement “we were right all the time” and the Swedish judicial system had made a mistake.

Military children have been a population of interest and research speculation for several decades. Despite the research base built studying this population, many questions remain regarding their specific experiences and mental health outcomes. To accommodate the nation's needs when fueling the armed forces by the all volunteer force currently comprising the service branches, many military personnel have found themselves in circumstances including multiple deployments and deployments of lengths approximately equal to one year. With family relationships now a more prominent issue for military members, the necessity of considering the effects of deployment on these family members has become especially pertinent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the way increased exposure to technology affects children’s deployment outcomes in today's military culture, especially in their deployment experiences. Participants included 71 parents and 20 children in military families currently or within the past year experiencing a deployment. Participants were divided into two phases for completion of study tasks. Phase one participants, 20 children and one of their parents, completed interviews, emotional/behavioral measures, and a deployment experiences survey. The 51 parent participants in Phase two completed only the deployment experiences survey. Evaluation of data presented from participants provided insight into the deployment experiences of these families as impacted by the technological advances in communication and media today. Results indicated a range of positive effects related to technologically supported communication between parents and children throughout deployment. Families participating in increased parental communication during deployment showed relationships to decreases in ambiguous loss symptoms, increases in positive attitudes including growth and maturity, and smooth reintegration following deployment. Despite increases in availability, news exposure reported from children occurred at a low incidence rate. Regardless, negative reactions to news viewing was reported.

This magister degree project is a quantitative, real-time study concerning Swedes’ pronunciation of English, their choice of English accent and the degree of mixing of accents by individual speakers. The informants of the study are Swedish television journalists who speak English on television, in various interview situations. In order to determine which accent/s the journalists adopt, the classical RP/GA differences have been observed. For the purpose of the study a corpus of television clips was created, using The Swedish Media Database (Svensk Mediedatabas). The time span of the gathered material stretches from 1970 until 2009, covering four full decades. The speech of TV journalists is particularly interesting from a sociolinguistic point of view, as it can be argued that it is a form of performed speech where the concern for linguistic norm or context appropriateness is higher than in normal speech. The accent that the journalists adopt could therefore be particularly indicative of which English accent is considered most prestigious or most appropriate, among Swedish speakers. British English was the exclusive educational norm in Sweden until 1994 when American English was accepted as an alternative. Students have since been encouraged to choose one of these accents and to avoid mixing of accents. At the same time Swedish speakers are increasingly exposed to American English through media. The hypothesis underlying this study was therefore that we should see a growing tendency in favour of American English in the journalists’ speech and that the tendency to mix accents would be less frequent in earlier years and more common today. Results of the study show a very modest increase of American accent, which peaks in the 1990s and seems to abate by 2000. The data indicates a surprisingly stable situation in favour of British English over the four decades, with a general 30-40 percent mix of American English features. All the informants mix accents, typically up to 30 percent, already in the 1970s. The data cannot fully confirm an increasing American English influence on Swedes’ choice of English accent. However, the study indicates that mixing of accents is, and has been, a common and probably inevitable phenomenon.

This research explored college students’ attitudes toward online romantic relationships and their intentions to develop this type of relationship. Borrowing elements from both social cognitive theory and the theory of reasoned action, this study introduced a model that combined perceptions of indirect past experiences, beliefs, attitudes and social norms and associations with people’s intentions to form romantic relationships over the Internet. Under the premise that people learn through observation, this study argued that when direct experience is lacking (as was the case with this sample), other sources of indirect experiences with online romantic relationships (perceptions of significant others’ past experiences and exposure to media messages about online romantic relationships) would relate to people’s beliefs about these relationships and their perceptions of what significant others think (social norms). Based on the theory of reasoned action, it was hypothesized that people’s beliefs about online relationships would then be related to their attitudes toward such relationships. Lastly, also under the framework of reasoned action, it was hypothesized that both attitudes and social norms would predict people’s intentions to form or develop romantic relationships over the Internet. The purpose of this study was thus to examine how well predictors from social cognitive theory and the theory of reasoned action explained intentions to form online romantic relationships. A pilot study was conducted to derive beliefs and attitudes toward online romantic relationships and to test the main instrument. In the main study, 226 college students with no prior direct experience forming online romantic relationships completed a web-based self-administered questionnaire. A structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to assess the relative importance and the strength among the different constructs. Results indicated that the overall model fit the data well. The final model accounted for 46% of the variance in people’s intentions to form online romantic relationships. Perceptions of friends’ and family’s past experiences with online romantic relationships were significantly related to people’s beliefs about these relationships. However, only friends’ past experiences was related to social norms. Exposure to media (news stories or ads about dating sites) was not related to either beliefs or social norms. Consistent with the theory of reasoned action, beliefs were strongly correlated with attitudes about online romantic relationships, and lastly, both attitudes and social norms emerged as instrumental factors in predicting participants’ intention to develop online romantic relationships. Overall, the findings confirmed the importance of integrating indirect past experiences in understanding people’s attitudes and intentions to form romantic relationships over the Internet. The theoretical and methodological implications of these results for the study and understanding of online romantic relationships are discussed.