Essay On Media And Media

The Impact of Violence in the Media on the Health and Well Being of Teens

A mass media explosion occurred in the mid twentieth century. New inventions such as the television set, the videocassette player, and the digital computer eternally changed the way people gather information about the world (Bushman and Anderson 1). Mass media can be seen as an effective tool because it can be used for educational purposes as well as provide insightful information with the click of a mouse. However, the use of this media is not always beneficial to society. It can be used to manipulate the mind of its audiences and glorify violence. Media violence has grown to become a major issue when dealing with the health of teens. Parents should be aware of what their children are watching in order to reduce the amount of violence which they view every day.

Violent television and video games can alter an adolescent’s perspective on how violence is integrated in the real world. The “Mean World Syndrome” is the public’s fear generated by media violence (Malcolm). Founder of the cultivation theory, George Gerbner, coined the “Mean World” term to describe the phenomenon whereby violence-related media content can make its viewers believe that the world is much more dangerous than it really is. The popular term is one of the main conclusions of Gerber’s cultivation theory. Individuals who consume large amounts of media come to believe the world to be a dangerous and cruel place which creates fear and anxiety that is not in proportion with reality. In Gerbner’s studies, he noted that people who watch a lot of Television (Heavy Viewers) begin to develop an exaggerated vision on how violent society is. The viewer, according to...

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... more likely to be arrested and prosecuted for criminal offenses as adults (Violence in the Media, 2004)

In 1950, about nine percent of American homes had TV sets, in 1955 it was up to about 65 percent, and it 1965, television ownership in the U.S was up to 93 percent. “The American public has consumed media as if it were ambrosia. A recent national study reported that consuming media is a full-time job for the average American child, who spends about 40 hours per week doing it”(Bushman and Anderson). Ever since television was introduced to the United States at the 1939 World’s Fair, the way that people view violence has changed. In the twentieth century, two major explosions occurred: the mass media explosion and the violent crime explosion. The question is whether or not media violence in the media is related to violence in the real world.

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