There is no avoiding it! Wherever we go it’ll find us. We’re stuck! We can’t run away or hide from it. Instead we are addicted to it. In this globalization era, a powerful force in the world is media. It affects everybody and everyone. Children minds are sponge-like, absorbing information that makes them easy targets in terms of manipulation by the media. Media plays an important role in the upbringing of a child. Despite its many advantages, children can be affected negatively through it. Current studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between violence in media and a child’s aggressive behavior. So the question that arises is how do children develop a worldview of violence through media? Based on this question, I interviewed Irene Vlachos Weber –a proud mother of two children and a professor at Indiana University, Bloomington who has done her Ph.D. in Psychology from Indiana University itself and completed her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree from Colorado State University. Her areas of interest include Community and Clinical Psychology. Through this interview and the course readings, it was revealed that when children see any acts of aggressiveness on media, they tend to show a worldview of violence either by imitating it, by using deadly forces to solve conflicts, or by absorbing that violence in their minds, thereby desensitizing themselves from reality.
Within the realm of learning, children imitate what they see whether it’s on television, magazines, or movies. Professor Weber claimed that sometimes children adopt the behavior they see in cartoons or movies and imitate them in real life to solve their problems. This can be related to Franz Kafka’s story “The Kafka Project: A Report for an Academy” where Red Pe...
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...e in by watching and imitating), yet they progressively want to watch considerably more savage movies and play even more blood-stained video games. The influence of media on the psychological development of children is profound. While most researchers are completely certain that children can take in violent behavior from media, they call attention to all the parents who have a huge power in lessen that influence. In today’s world, parents should be acquainted with all sorts of media their children are exposed to. When it comes to kids, parents should limit the use of media. There have been many studies that show that there is a direct correlation between reduction of media as well as reduction in aggressive behavior of children. Parents should realize that remaining silent and doing nothing will just empower the children to take the perilous path of aggressiveness.
Eron, L.D. (1963). Relationship of television viewing habits and aggressive behavior in children. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 193-196.
Many Americans feel that the viewing of violence in the media reinforces negative behavior in society, especially among children and young adults. "Three thousand studies have been done since 1955 on the link between television and violence; 2,980 of them found a correlation between the two. We hear little about that because we get most of our news from television" (Peterson). With this much research one must acknowledge that there is a problem in America involving sex and violence in the media. We cannot blame all societal problems on the media and its portrayal of these issues, but we can become educated, ourselves, in order to better facilitate the healthy lives of our children.
A "hot topic" of discussions today is the issue of violence in the media. After reading about the subject, I am convinced that media violence negatively affects the viewer. The most susceptible are the young.
The AAP suggest aggressive conduct, depression, sleep disturbances, fear, and desensitisation to violence are evident when children are exposed to violence through the media or video games. In agreeance with Bandura et al. findings, The AAP explain children are strongly influenced by the media through modelling and observing behaviours and aggressive behaviours are learned and imitated. Moreover, they argue children under the age of eight years old can not discriminate between fantasy and reality, which leaves them open to being extremely susceptible of adopting attitudes and behaviours portrayed in the media. Adding weight to their argument, The AAP discuss experimental studies that show after playing video games, children display significant decreases in social and helping conduct and an increase in aggressive and violent stimulation and retribution. As a result, The AAP strongly advocate that only child positive games and media content should be available rather than censorship. These findings are in line with Bandura et al. findings in that exposure to aggressive behaviour is imitated by children through social
In a research analysis of Media and Violence, studies show that “Although the typical effect size for exposure to violent media is relatively small ... this ‘small effect’ translates into significant consequences for society as a whole” (“Media and Violence: An Analysis of Current Research”, 2015). This states violent behaviors can come from the smallest variables, or clips from videos, which is why it is important for parents to control what their kids see, read, and watch, and limit the amount of violence exposure.
According to the article, Violence in the Media, written by the APA, it provides information on how ferocious television episodes can affect a child’s senses, feelings, and attitude. To be more specific, it can make them become numb, frightened, and more pugnacious due to the amount of violent TV they watch. Furthermore, according to the same article, the APA also wrote, “By observing these participants into adulthood, Huesmann and Eron found that the ones who'd watched a lot of TV violence when they were 8 years old were more likely to be arrested and prosecuted for criminal acts as adults.” Psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann and Leonard Eron held a study that concluded that the result of watching violent television can lead to jail and criminal actions. This will also cause a child to become more aggressive and therefore will become a nefarious person. All in all, the American Psychological Association decided that violent television can shape a child’s disposition. In fact, it can also encourage a child to execute bad deeds and crimes when they become
Violent media directed at adolescents typically has an unpleasant reputation because it is considered to be detrimental to a child’s overall environment and behavior, specifically comic books and video games. There are numerous of articles being published today linking children who consume violent media to obesity, aggressiveness, and sociopathic behavior. The question posed today is: Could there be a possibility that children will have some benefits consuming violent media? Gerard Jones, author of the article “Violent Media is Good for Kids”, advocates for children to be presented with the opportunity to indulge in violent media. Jones states that violent media helps children immerse themselves into feeling complex emotions such as anger and
Many psychologists have studied the effect of the media on an individual’s behavior and beliefs about the world. There have been over 1000 studies which confirm the link that violence portrayed through the media can influence the level of aggression in the behavioral patterns of children and adults (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2001). The observed effects include, increased aggressiveness and anti-social behavior towards others, an increased fear of becoming a victim or target of aggressive behavior, becoming less sensitive to violence and victims of violent acts, and concurrently desiring to watch more violence on television and in real-life (A.A.P. 2001). According to John Murray of Kansas State University, there are three main avenues of effects: direct effects, desensitization, and the Mean World Syndrome (Murray, 1995, p. 10). The direct effects of observing violence on television include an increase in an individual’s level of aggressive behavior, and a tendency to develop favorable attitudes and values about using violence to solve conflicts and to get one’s way. As a result of exposure to violence in the media, the audience may become desensitized to violence, pain, and suffering both on television and in the world. The individual may also come to tolerate higher levels of aggression in society, in personal behavior, or in interpersonal interactions. The third effect is known as the Mean World Syndrome, which theorizes that as a result of the amount of violence seen on television and also the context and social perspective portrayed through the media, certain individuals develop a belief that the world is a bad and dangerous place, and begin to fear violence and victimization in real life (A.A.P. 2001).
Violent media influence on the attitudes and behaviour of young people has been a hot topic of debate for decades. Critics say that violence in television, movies, and video games, desensitizes children to real effects that violence has on society and themselves. The problem is that teenagers tend to act on the behaviour seen in the television shows they watch and the video games they play every day. They shoot someone in a video game and not be able to distinguish that it is morally wrong to kill someone but to influence every day it does not affect them and they will grow up and be a savage. This subject is debated because of the profound effect that violence can in the future of society. The introduction of television violence has led many to theorize that chronic exposure to the act will desensitize some teenagers and cause them to develop the characteristics of a more aggressive.
Although, there is evidence (via survey), that reveals numerous children and adolescences allocate a considerable amount of time to absorbing violent media. Furthermore, it has also been identified that by reducing the consumption of violent media, it will lessen individual aggression and violence. While long-term exposure to media violence can disrupt an individual’s learning processes, resulting in the acquisition of lasting aggressive tendencies, and may magnify “aggression-supporting beliefs”. Anderson et al.
Teperman, Jean. "Toxic Lessons What Do Children Learn from Media Violence?" Children's Advocate newsmagazine. Online. www.4chilren.org/news/1-97toxl.htm. Accessed October 23, 2001.
Furthermore, television violence causes aggressive behavior in children. Many people believe that children who watch violent television programs exhibit more aggressive behavior than that exhibited by children who do not (Kinnear 23). According to the results of many studies and reports, violence on television can lead to aggressive behavior in children (Langone 50). Also, when television was introduced into a community of children for the first time, researchers observed a rise in the level of physical and verbal aggression among these children (Langone 51). The more television violence viewed by a child, the more aggressive the child is (“Children” 1).
Television violence causes destructive behavior in children, however; television can be a powerful influence to young viewers in our society. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming are very violent. Many researchers like scientists, pediatricians, and child researchers in many countries have studied to find out what it is about television violence that makes it such a big affect on the way kids act and behave. Sometimes, children think that is a normal thing in our real life, by watching only a single violent program, which can increase aggressiveness on children and become violent, aggressive, and vicious.
No single factor can cause children or adults to act aggressively. Instead, it is the accumulation of risk factors that leads to an aggressive act. Hundreds of studies look into the issue of violent media, it always seems to end up the same place with three major effects including increasing aggressive behavior in a variety of forms, desensitization, and spurs fear. Not every viewer will be affected noticeably, but we know that every viewer is affected in some way. Some have argued that violent media are the primary cause of mass shooting. Others have argued that there is no solid evidence of any harmful effects of violent media. But it is clear is that exposure to media violence is one of risk factors increased aggressive behavior, desensitization, and fear.
...onditions that ensure an adequate counterbalance increasing consumption in some cases, end up having a negative effect on children. Children learn best through demonstration followed by imitation, with rewards for doing things the right way. While not all are affected the same way, it can be said that, in general, violence in the media affects attitudes, values and behaviors of users. You run the risk that children end up understanding that it is reasonably practicable to resort to violence. The fear is that the models of aggressive behavior can be considered suitable. Thus, in an investigation, a good proportion of children (third) defined as normal acts of violence they had seen him mightily little. It is not; here is a risk of direct imitation, but rather a change in terms of reference: where extreme violence appears to be normal any more light may seem harmless.