5 Ways To Curb The Negative Effects Of The Media And Entertainment Industry
A man who was arrested by the police in Ogun state for allegedly kidnapping a six-year-old child has said he learned the act of kidnapping from watching Nollywood Actor Zubby Michael’s movies.
The suspect identified as Ayobamidele Kudus Ayodele allegedly kidnapped the pupil from his school in the Ojo Alaba area of Lagos, on November 16, 2021, and kept him hostage for four days until a ransom of over half a million was paid for his release.
He said, “Zubby Michael is my favorite Nollywood actor and he is good at kidnapping roles. I decided to try out some of the methods used by Zubby to kidnap children and adults in the movies.
This is a real-life story that reveals the overwhelming unconscious influence of the mass media and the entertainment industry on the life of its audience.
In the 1930s, the media and entertainment industries operated a theory called the bullet or hypodermic needle theory. The hypodermic needle theory (known as the hypodermic syringe or bullet-model) is a model of communication that suggests that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver.
The model was originally rooted in 1930s behaviorism and was largely considered obsolete for a long time.
However, streaming down the ages you could still see the prevalence of this theory in the 21st century. This implies that the media and entertainment industry could mold the world into a negative or positive place.
The positive inclination of the media and entertainment industry especially in the Nigerian climate has witnessed a lot of alterations. Yes it has curbed the barriers in communication and eased depression but the negative impacts have also been felt especially among the youths, ranging from:
1) Normalization of violent acts
2) Constant projection of sexual activities
3) Inducing unnecessary pressure
4) Poor moral and life value indoctrination
5) It contributes to individualism.
6) Opens up the possibilities of fraud, theft, and hacking as a type of entertainment.
Sequel to the introduction and virality of citizens journalism, the professional media and entertainment ethics have been watered down.
The arrival of the internet, social networking, user-generated content, video streaming, and other technical innovations have profoundly changed media and entertainment over the previous decade.
Rooting on this premise, the big question becomes, how can we sanitize the media and entertainment industry to inculcate positivity in society.
To underestimate the power of the media and entertainment industry in building better nations is inimical. Hence the media and entertainment industry must become a pure conduit for national transformation and to achieve this:
1) The regulatory bodies for the media and entertainment industries should ensure strict compliance to every code of conduct or ethics of the media with disciplinary measures to defaulters. The negligence of this has resulted in the dissemination of unprofessional and unethical content.
2) There should be a system of scrutiny and censorship for an advertisement to curb the excessive and abusive use of sex appeal strategies for advertisement.
Pending on the theory of individual differences and perceptions theory which proposes that individuals respond differently to the mass media according to their psychological needs and that individuals consume the mass media to satisfy those needs, the ideology behind using sexual scenes or pornographic pictures needs to be curtailed to it’s the barest minimum.
3) There should be an association of freelancer content creators, skit makers, bloggers, and social media influencers, this will be a unified and more decent mode of operation.
4) People should bear in mind that the world is now a global village according to Marshall McLuhan and as such the certainty of who your post will get to is to a large extent, undetermined. Hence people should consider the adverse implications of what they dish out on the media and entertainment platforms both online and offline.
5) We are in the era of exposure and parents and guardians should stay agile to always censor the kind of exposure their children or wards get. For instance; some movies are rated 18 and have sex scenes that are not morally healthy for an underaged teenager, such movies should be kept out of reach for them. Parents should be abreast of sites and channels that can hamper the moral values of their children and wards.
The media and entertainment industry are basic for human existence, but the negative effects have to be curbed, and as such these measures will play a vital role in curbing the negative effects of the media and entertainment industry.
