Informative Essay

Title: Informative Essay
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Introduction
Please pay attention to what I am going to present to you, because it will be of great significance to your lives.
Parents together with policy makers and researchers have acknowledged the power of the change and have become concerned about the potential hazards the electronic media is likely to cause to the health of the adolescents.
According to Brown & Marine, the experience of adolescents has been changed as a result of the existence of electronic media such as the computers, cell phones and the internet. Even the television presence in the household of Americans has experienced change in content and has continued to grow dramatically (2009, p.1).
Before high school graduation, students often spend approximately 18,000hours watching televisions compared to the time spent in school. During this time they will view about 2,000 alcohols commercial annually. Alcohol and tobacco advertisements reach the youths not only through television media, but also through other channels such as magazines, sports stadium signs, billboards, internet, computers and mass transit. For example, the use of subway systems (Jernigan &David, 2008, p.130). The Centre on Alcohol marketing points out that, various alcohol companies in the United States spends approximately$2billion a year in advertising alcohol products. For example, in the year 2001 and 2007, 2million advertisement on television and 20,000 advertisements in magazines and online were made. This promoted youth exposure to drinking and smoking habits. However, the media also has campaigns that help fight alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking amongst the youths through education and health talks.
Influence of media on tobacco and alcohol consumption among the youths
It has been established that the use of tobacco and consumption of alcohol is highly connected to the level of use in the population especially among the youths. Data collected from the Harvard School of Public Health states, 98% of the college-age smokers also drink alcohol where as 59% of the college-aged students who consumes alcohol also smoke tobacco (McKee, Harrison & Shi, 2010, p.360). Electronic media has advertised various brands of alcohol and cigarettes which has influenced the way the youths behave. Moreover, the variety of labels used to influence consumers to use or avoid a particular product has become a powerful tool in the advertisement industry and also in promoting health. Concerning health issues, the labels of alcohol and cigarette products have been fully used to caution consumers on the dangers associated with use of that product. For example, there has been warning labels on all cigarette packaging materials to warn the consumers of the dangers associated with the use of the product, leaving up to them to make an informed decision.
According to Ringold (2008), brand advertising especially in the market of alcohol beverages, continues to be controversial due to the fact that they do not have measures ensuring responsible drinking amongst youths through media campaigns. However, the brand owners often take the electronic media as a place to compete with their competitors. They always achieve this; through directing their whole resources in attracting and keeping their desired share in the market. In markets that are mature, especially where a particular product has been accepted by consumers, the electronic media is frequently used as a tool by those industries to further differentiate the existing brands already in the marke...