ARTICLE REVIEW

Quantitative Article Review

Quantitative Article Review

Quantitative Article Review

The quantitative article that has been selected for review is as follows:

Propper, R. E., Stickgold, R., Keeley, R., and Christman, S. D. (2007). “Is Television Traumatic? : Dreams, Stress, and Media Exposure in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001.” Merrimack College; Harvard Medical School, Center for Sleep and Cognition, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; and University of Toledo.

Introduction

It is undisputed that television has an impact on the thoughts, emotions and feelings of people. This impact can be both positive and negative. In the selected research, the researcher aim at studying the impact of one of the most traumatic events of the world known as the September 11 attacks. This event created an environment of stress, and affected people's dreams. The affect of the event was all the more aggravated because of media exposure. The devastating aftermath of the event as displayed on the media has implications of people across the globe (Propper & Stickgold, 2007, p. 334). This includes people other than those who were directly hit by the event. This means people who were at the sight or who had their loved ones and family at the sight. Even those who were not directly affected by the event could not escape the trauma as the media was updating the news every single minute. Studying the extent to which media exposure has played a role in this trauma was hence very important.

Discussion

The research was focussed on people who were living away from the twin towers. The people who lived in close proximity were excluded because they could have had exposure of the event first hand and not just from media. To study the affect of media, the objective was to focus only on people who have been following the news of the even over the electronic media, in particular television. The researchers studied the dreams of the selected sample prior to and after the attack and the exposure to media reporting of it. There was a significant difference in the attacks.

The methodology of the research was selected in accordance with the analysis of dream. The research sample consists of eleven students enrolled in the undergraduate class who volunteered to have their dreams studied. They shared their dreams before the fateful event and also the ones they had right after 9/11 (Propper & Stickgold, 2007, p. 334). This was done to carry out an analysis on the affect of media on the selected sample's sleep patterns and dream content.

The research findings accepted the hypothesis drawn for the research. The hypothesis of the research was that the exposure to media reporting of September 11 attack led to an increase in trauma and stress levels and this could be measured with the help of change in the dream content. To begin with, the researchers found that there was a change in the frequency of dreams. This frequency had grown considerably. Dreams are said to be a reflection of what we have in the ...