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influence of media on people
how do media influence behaviour of society
influence of media on people
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How Violence in Media Stimulates Desensitization Harsh methods used in law enforcement, rapid increase in gun violence, and even the tendency to pull out a smartphone and hit the record button in extreme situations all make it easy to infer that modern society has grown to a point in which empathy has become a thing of the past. Thanks to such great technological advancements over the years, the fact of the matter is that violence can be accessed much more easily by just about anyone now. This ease in accessibility to graphic content has raised many to believe the current media is the cause of a phenomenon referred to as desensitization. The idea behind desensitization is that exposure to violence in multiple forms can cause a person …show more content…
Desensitization can be defined as a decrease or lack of an emotional response over time after repeated exposure to negative stimuli. What this means is that prolonged exposure to scenes of brutality lowers our inhibitions to violence, thus we become “comfortably numb” to what is violent (Fanti et al, 179). Desensitization can be split into two different categories. These two domains can be categorized by emotion and cognition. According to Dr. Kostas Fanti, a psychologist and professor at the University of Cyprus, emotional desensitization is identified when a person reports a lower perception of the physical or emotional status of another. To best exemplify the emotional side of desensitization, one could look towards spectators of a public fight. These people can be considered desensitized because rather than showing empathy and stepping in to stop the fight, onlookers either apathetically cheer the fighters on, or simply watch without doing anything to prevent further injury. When a person …show more content…
Kostas Fanti found that subjection to media violence over a short period of time can still cause desensitization. His experiment consisted of an ethnically diverse sample of 96 college students that had a varying range of hours spent watching tv over an average week. In this experiment, the students were asked to view segments of nine 2 minute violent or comedic scenes in random order with three minute breaks in between each scene. They were also asked to fill out a questionnaire before and after viewing each video clip. Each comedy clip was taken from different episodes of the series” Friends” and the violent scenes were taken from various movies. Movies used include: Elephant, Clockwork Orange, Fight Club, 48 Hours, and Soylent Green; each violent scene depicted either realism, emotional suffering, or physical trauma of victims (Fanti et al, 181). In the first few moments of the experiments, subjects reported that they did not enjoy the violent scenes much and expressed sympathy for the victims in the clips. After a prolonged subjection to these clips however, the participants’ reports were quite the contrary as participants began enjoying the violence portrayed and expressed less sympathy towards the victims in the clips. Fanti noted that there was a correlation between aggression and the level of enjoyment to scenes of violence. What this means is that the aggressive individuals in the sample seemed to enjoy the violent clips more than the less
WILL argues,” America, determined to amuse itself into inanition, is becoming increasingly desensitized” (295). This quote is explaining how entertainment is seeking a mass audience is stepping up the violence, sexuality, and degradation because that’s the only way to appeal to the mass of the population. A lot of games such as GTA a reality game, which focuses on violence, chaos, and even sexual fantasies can be bought by anyone to play. In this type of reality game stealing someone’s car, and even robbing the bank is considered normal. This desensitizes people so that once it happened in real life they will be more accustomed and will not fear it as much if they were not exposed to it. I agree with the authors claim because America is determined to amuse its self by desensitizing everyone by creating all these games and other inventions to get people ready to see even worse. For example, growing up when I was in the back yard playing I seen this boy he had hit someone with a rock and scrapped the boys knee. Everyone looked at the blood coming from the knee and started to run away, the boy to initiate the attack staid and watched the blood pouring from the kid’s knee. This right here is a perfect example on how we are becoming desensitized by reality simulated entertainment. The boy staring at the blood had no
Video games are at the root of some violent and aggressive behaviors because it causes desensitization to violence. When exposed to the sights, sounds, and smells of violence, humans tend to usually have negative reactions, reactions that serve as inhibitions to real-life violence and instigations of helping behaviors to victims of violence. Desensitization theory is defined as a reduction in an emotional and physiological response to real violence. A study conducted recently showed that just twenty minutes of playing a video can make people less aroused to violence. In this study, participants who played a violent video game had significantly lower heart rate and electrodermal activity
Representations of violence in the media (defined as through news, film, and television) throughout history have contributed to desensitization to violent actions.
“You ruin your life by desensitizing yourself” (Sparacino, n.d.). This quote by Bianca Sparacino (n.d.) points out the gravity of the impact desensitization can have on someone. When the word “desensitization” comes up, people tend to think of an emotionally insensitive or callous human. Although this is true, desensitization involves much more than most realize. Whatever leads someone to the point of desensitization takes hold of their emotions, actions, and mind. The term “desensitization” can be defined as overstimulation to the point of indifference, a lack of empathy, and a conditioned response.
A person’s motive to watch gore and violence is fueled by their desire to explore and familiarize themselves with situations and emotions that could possibly be all too real. In Gerard Jones’s essay “Violent Media Is Good For Kids” Dr. Melanie Moore, a psychologist, supports this claim by stating: “‘Children need violent entertainment in order to explore the inescapable feelings that they’ve been taught to deny, and to reintegrate those feelings into a more whole, more complex, more resilient selfhood’” (374). Adults function in the same manner and also need violent films to explore those feeling that are locked away inside. By bringing them to the surface, we can confront those feeling and then grow accustomed to them. An example of individuals watching film to
When the reader sees this it makes them wonder if watching these violent actions does actually desensitize themselves, and even make them feel less sympathy for victims of violent crimes. These thoughts really connect with the reader, and might even persuade them to decrease the amount of violence they watch. The author cites work from a former university professor stating, "What we call entertainment is really propaganda for violence. If you manufacture guns, you don’t need to advertise, because it is done by our entertainment industry" (Point para #6). The author is trying prove that when kids watch violent movies it is just advertising things like guns and other sorts of weapons. The professor believes that violent movies are just propaganda for violence, as kids may think the movies are cool
Zillman, D. & Weaver, J. Effects of Prolonged Exposure to Gratuitous Media Violence on Provoked and Unprovoked Hostile Behavior.
In conclusion, we as people can be desensitized to anything, even something as awful as murder. Philadelphia Journalist John Smallwood put it best when he said: Our desensitization to murder has become frightening. (Smallwood, 1) Shirley Jackson repeatedly shows this desensitization people have with murder through the villagers in ?The Lottery.?
The more you see about violence: the less sensitized aggression would become. Not that you care less, but you emphasize less. This is an example of habituation.
But incidents like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are predictable; they are not a random act of brutality because such violence is a learned behavior. Americans glorify violence and this attitude is illustrated through the tolerance of violence portrayed through the media. And although distinguishing between violence as pure entertainment and violence as social criticism is important, good intentions can still lead to terrible outcomes. The effect of viewing violent films has been insufficiently considered, yet plays a significant role in encouraging aggressive behavior.
Some studies looked into showing the effects of desensitization amongst consumers of violence like the case “The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence” (Carnagey et. al., 2007). This study looked at desensitization is a term used by scholars, public policy analysts, politicians, and the lay public to mean effects as varied as: (a) an increase in aggressive behavior; (b) a reduction in physiological arousal to real-life violence; (c) a flattening of affective reactions to violence; (d) a reduction in likelihood of helping a violence victim; (e) a reduction in sympathy for a violence victim; (f) a reduction in the sentence for a convicted violent offender, (g) a reduction in the perceived guilt of a violence perpetrator; and (h) a reduction in judged severity of violence victim’s injuries (Carnagey et. al., 2007). To put a clearer definition of desensitization to violence is a reduction in emotion-related physiological reactivity to real violence (Carnagey et. al., 2007) When looking at the term desensitization and violent video games the initial thought was that playing video games will in turn make youth more aggressive immediately after exposure, and become more aggressive adults (e.g., Anderson et al., 2003; Carnagey et. al., 2007). In this particular
There are those who believe that playing video games that are violent cause a reduction in brain response to real life violence. This is because the violent game affects a part of the brain hypothesized to cause desensitization. It is then thought that this “desensitization” to violence predicts that those who play these games will become violent themselves later. (Bartholow, Bushman, Sestir, 2006) This is a blanket assumption based on an affect seen on a part of the brain that is not yet proven to control “desensitization.” Admittedly I am not a scientist, but I find it difficult to make the leap from “proven desensitization” to predicted future violence.
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).
Television violence causes children and teenagers to be less caring, to lose their inhibitions, and to be less sensitive. In a study on the connection between violence and television done with 1,565 teenage boys over a six-year period in London, William Belson, a British psychologist, found that every time a child saw someone being shot or killed on television they became less caring towards other people (Kinnear 26). William Belson also discovered that every time a child viewed this violence on television, they lost a fragment of their inhibitions towards others (Kinnear 26). In addition to William Belson’s study, studies done by many scientists and doctors show that seeing violence on television causes viewers to become less sensitive to the pain of others (Mudore 1).
With the explosion of technology today, access to the media is at your fingertips, anytime, anywhere, and almost 24/7. Video games, movies, cartoons, daily news, websites, music videos, and even in commercials, violence is everywhere, and it becomes harder and harder to avoid. Violence in the media has been increasing and reaching dangerous proportions. According to Report of the Media Violence Commission, the effects are remarkably consistent regardless of type of medium, age, gender, or where the person lives in the world (336). Many studies and researches reveal the empirical evidence that links violence in movies and television shows to aggressive behavior in children, teenagers, and adults. Increasing aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, and fear are three types of negative effects contributed to by violence in movies and television shows. The article, “The Influence of Media Violence on Youth” emphasizes that violent television shows, films, and music reveal unequivocal evidence that media violence increases the likelihood aggressive and violent behavior in both immediately, and in the long term (Anderson, Craig A., 81). Violence now has gone into the mainstream. The Hunger Games, one of the top grossing films in 2013 replete with blood, gore and violence. The Walking Dead was once voted highest-rated entertainment program on TV with horrific violent scenes, killing from stabbing into the heads, bloody corpses, and disturbing, haunting images shown in most of the scenes. CBS’ Criminal Minds is television show with series of scary scenarios showing the violent murders of psychopath people. Worst of all, Silence of the Lambs deals with a psychopath who ...