Media in the Education of Children

Nowadays media has developed broadly and it consists of several television networks, press, radio, etc. On the one side, such media development has positive impact, but on the other side, it has negative impact which affects education and formation of new generations. As a basketballer and trainer of young ages I will focus in the role of media in the education of children from the sports point of view. Technological and economic development after the ‘90s brought with it a new approach: unequal broadcasting of television programmes for all the sports disciplines, because in our country, for economic interests, only football is covered and such abuse goes to the point of using the term “sports news” and the only news is about football, or even Albanian sports newspaper in which the only information is about football. Wouldn’t it be better to say “Albanian football” instead?! The contrary one finds in the “Albanian sports” which pages cover all sports. Moreover, such phenomenon has negative impact on the education of generations that increasing are dreaming about football, spend money about football, avoid other alternatives thinking that football is the only way to have a luxury living, being rich and famous.


Introduction
All over the world, media is a used to transmit information to the public and as such its role in educating and orienting people in any area of life becomes increasingly important.
Such reflections mostly complete and enrich one another, rather than exclude one another and the diagnosis will help us judge the role and place of media in the society.How do we use the media?What do we expect from the media, secretly or openly?Such questions help us understand the power of media, its audience and impact on the social life.
The impact and subordination of the society from the media is an issue of concern and it may not be settled as easily as we would have wanted.It is important to know not only how to use the media, but also to know what to expect from the media and how to perceive it.Media power, statute and role depends, in the long run, on the relations such media have and create in a society.

Aim of study/ research
The aim of this study is: to know and understand the role of media in the education of children.Being aware of its strength and power, through this study, we want to help parents, teachers, trainers, heads of the institutions responsible for sports development and children development to be properly informed of the choice of sports discipline they want to be involved.Such choice must not only be based on the information broadcasted from the television which in most of the cases is neither objective not balanced in forwarding information, as it broadcasts mostly football development, the life of famous footballers and their luxurious lifestyle.This is an issue of concern because children frequently insist to become part of football teams as they see it the only way to become famous and rich.
A wrong choice which does not consider several parameters that the child needs to be involved in a sports discipline ends in failure and psychological consequences on the child including indifference, lack of trust and self-confidence to do something else or signs of inferiority.Through this study we intend to help parents because they are the only responsible for the failure or success of their children.

Research question
What happens to the public when attention is focused only on one sports discipline, football?
What are the consequences of other sports?What are the consequences in education of children?Is failure to allow other sports to make public their work and success a violation of their rights?How can the work of media be improved to broadcast controlled and balanced programmes?All these questions shall be given an answer in this paper.

Scientific methods
In order to get the intended results, we conducted a survey including 700 children, male of the age group 8-9 through a questionnaire which consisted of 12 questions the most important of which were: what is your favourite sports?Are you good at this sport?Where did you learn playing this sport?
In addition to the questionnaire, during the period January-April, the sports programme of national and other television operators have been monitored in order to conclude with the final results of the paper.
Television operators that have been considered for this study:

Result
From the survey done ,based on the 12 questions of the questionaire and on the monitoring of the national televisions we come to those results reflected in details to the table and graphic below.From the asnwers, its clearly obvious that the favorite sport is football.The main part of the children asked say the learned it from the television,same attend cuuses and sports team and another part addmit learning it from a member of family or plaing with friends.The several monthswe personally monitored some national televisions as they cover the whole country with signal came to these result.From the result table where are reflected the minutes of transmission during a week its clear that football covers all the sportiv time space and of course the socil impact is bigger.This is a really upsetting reality for the sport and its development in our country therefor we have to improveit trough discussion and agreements to balancethe sports transsmision

Findings
The role of media is to inform the public objectively and consequently the presentation of sports activities must not be discriminatory, biased or supporting certain activities.Instead it must be fair and sensitive to any initiative undertaken for sports development in Albania.It has a key role in the presentation of sports image and as such it must not become a virus for the society, rather than agents of promotion of sports and related values.Having said this, it is important to understand that sports is not football alone, but a wide range of sports discipline which unfortunately are not given enough space in visual and print media as an essential way to reach the public at large.Reporters must be aware that their broadcasts very often distort the balance which must exist in the broadcasts of all sports.Media has a special role in sports development because the impact it has on the society helps the individual to become informed of the potential of sports for a healthy life.Media information and power has strongly entered the world of the children and it has an impact on their education.Such finding which may seem quite common, must be considered very important by the parents, schools, teachers, trainers, and higher instances responsible for the development of sports in our country.
In our society, the role of television acquires a great social weight because tv programmes are considered to broadcast the only truth and the public tends to believe whatever is broadcasted.As such television may powerfully affect the pattern of overall social development.Given this reality we are bound to review everything concerning the impact of television on education and orientation of children to their choice of sports.We are all aware that television may orient the behaviour and conduct of people, positively or negatively and only by looking at the considerable entries of all the age groups to the Albanian football team, one can understand the impact of television as an invasive model in the Albanian society.All over the world, the society is deeply obsessed after football and main players.Television has played a negative role in this regard.All televisions have bombarded the viewers with news, programmes, football matches to the extent that it is impossible to avoid them.The commercial nature of television affects the production of sports programmes and content of the programme to be adapted to the greatest category of viewers.No one has the right to ask the TV operators for more space to handle and progress and achievement of other sports which are becoming triumphant all over the world.However, as a sports player, trainer, teacher, parent and viewer of such TV programmes, we have the right to request equality within the programmes entitled "sports programme" which actually are more than "Albanian football".Regardless of the nature of the programmes, depending on the production, it is time to understand the education role of television.Television in Albania must change the philosophy of sports broadcasting by keeping a balance for sports in general, because otherwise the Albanian society will deepen the gap between football and other disciplines and this would be a harsh punishment of sports and children as well.All the above-said corresponds to the results issued from the questionnaire addressed to 700 children, male, of the age group 8-9, who mostly emphasised their preference of football and claimed to be good at playing football because they has followed matches from television.This is reflected in the following tables and graphs.

Conclusion
Nowadays the media invasion has a great influence in the mutual relations between the media and the society according to which society defines itself.In order to improve this relationship and exploit its potential, the society, institutions responsible for sports development and the media must discuss on the equal rights of all sports disciplines in television broadcasting.This is a good opportunity for the children to become familiar with sports, the values of each sports discipline, particularities of each sports discipline, and achievements of famous sports players in order to identify themselves with the sport of their informed choice.Such cooperation with the media will create the proper space for other sports because the rush towards football only is creating consequences on other sports including baseball, volleyball, box, weightlifting etc which suffer lack of talents because of the low participation and possibility to choice.