Within a social structure, there are many factors that influence how individuals view others and themselves. As an example, an individual's social class, cultural beliefs, and commitment to religion will influence how that person functions within a social structure. While all of these factors and much more control the way we function within society, the most powerful influence is the media. With the ability to impact our everyday lives, the media determines how people perceive social norms, values, and morals. Since the media's influence is not relegated to the television set in the middle of the family room, the ability of it to influence society is far more reaching. Whether it is the morning newspaper, the radio while driving to work, or the weekend trip to the movies, the media influences almost every aspect of our lives. Subsequently, the media demonstrates its influence over social norms and values through its use of violence, the ability to dictate social needs through commercials and advertisements, and establishing unrealistic body imagery.
             To begin, the first example of media's influence on society is through the examination of media's impact on children. At each age, the media affects children differently. Each specific age group reacts differently to violence in the media depending on how much they watch television, parental input, and media intake supervision by the parents. At infancy, they can pay attention to an operating television set for short periods of time, if an adult physically directs them toward the television set. According to a study by, Wendy L. Josephson, Ph.D, "infants who watched television for longer than a six-minute span showed signs of tiredness, such as crying, fussiness, and yawning." She states that there is no evidence that violence in the media has an effect on infants, but just to be safe, parents should limit television viewing.
             Josephson states that at about the age of two and a half, ...