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Relationship between media and violence
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Media violence and its consequences
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Why is it that children in today’s society are much more violent than the children from only a decade ago? What could possibly have influenced the children today to become more aggressive? The answer is simple, the media. Children today are exposed to television shows, songs, video games, movies, and music videos that express, or show, more anger, violence, and profanity than what children from ten years ago were not. It is the media that is making America more violent than ever. Young children often repeat what they see and hear. They do not realize that what they are watching and hearing may not be appropriate. If the child’s favorite character can do or say something and get away with it, then the child believes they can too. Some children may be old enough to realize that what a character does on the television or movie may not be right. However, if the character that the child is watching does not get in trouble, then the child watching will think it too is okay for them to do something and not get punished. The media today shows much more violence and profanity than years before. According to Holley Cefrey “violence is a learned behavior” and children “learn how to express [their] aggression through violence by imitating what [they] see or have seen done to others.” The children today are being raised to think that what they see is okay and normal, when it is actually far from it. Today the average child and adult will “devote more time to reading, watching, or receiving mass media messages” than they spend at work or school. Studies show that “the average person spends over 20 percent of his or her waking hours exposed to the media.” That percentage “is more than twice the amount of time spent interacting with other people.” With the amount of time Americans spend watching or reading products of the media, it is no surprise that the
First, according to Burns and Crawford (1999), a child has a greater chance of being struck by lightning than being killed at school. Second, between 1993 and 2003, homicide arrest rates actually decreased by 77 percent among juveniles (Sternheimer, 2007). Third, Sternheimer points out that the aforementioned studies do not imply causation – they are merely correlative studies that show a link between media violence and aggressive behavior. Therefore, it is extremely possible that the link occurs opposite of what is sensationalized in the media – that aggressive people seek out violent entertainment.
Could one of the reasons for this be everyone thinks it is okay to be violent and cruel based on what is posted online daily? The “web” is in full control of adults, young adults and even small children. No matter what is being posted as they are seeing it, and watching it. This is their guide, this is what is teaching the world what to do and what is okay. If a young viewer sees a fight will it make them think it is okay? Social Media is a bad influence, and what is being posted is only making it worse. One fight can over a million views and half of those viewers are automatically affected. “The relationship between exposure to media violence and aggressive behavior has been an ongoing focus of inquiry by academic researches and major health organizations for years” (Donnerstein 1). This proves that researchers have been studying the effects of the “media” for a long time, and it is indeed an issue that is still ongoing. It is also stated in the article that “Office of the Surgeon General of the United States found strong evidence that exposure to violence in the media is one of a number of risk factors that can increase children’s “aggressive behavior.” This is saying is it proven by researchers that violence in the media is definitely affecting behaviors of children. It is still a major problem, and the research has not
In today’s world there has been huge increases in violent acts being done. Kids are turning into to bullies, murders, thieves and more. This can be happening for many different reasons. One could say it is the way the children are raised, what they see going on in their neighborhoods, what they are watching on television, seeing online, or on their video games. Everyone reacts to things differently and the violent media kids see can have different effects on each of them. According to the article “Violent Media is Good for Kids” written by Gerard Jones, violent media and other forms of ‘creative violence’ help far more children than they hurt. Gerald Jones gives examples through the article on experiences that are personal to him where violent media has been helpful but he does not give enough facts to make the reader believe it helps more children than it hurts.
Do violent media produce our youth commit violence. While people believe this I disagree and realize it is just a scapegoat, and believe the previous article state that media helps us deal with negative emotions that humans feels. For people at one time will feel rage or anger and learning how to control these emotions is an important segment of growing up. It is dangerous to hide these feelings and pretend that they don 't against. For then when they pop up in life we will not be able to control our action and that can lead to violence. It is important that kids nowadays view violence for what it is, for it will always be around and one day every person will become a victim of it. The glorification of violence is also not something that is modern, the oldest told stories have excess violence in them. Even back then I believe people have been able to tell the difference between fantasy and real world. So what could be the cause of the increase in violence. There are two things that I believe causes of our current violent world. The first is the breakdown of the family of America. Kids are growing up nowadays with less guidelines and no one to teach them right from wrong. Being forced to conduct adult decisions at younger and younger ages and this is leading to a downward fall of society. The
According to John Davidson's essay Menace to Society, "three-quarters of Americans surveyed [are] convinced that movies, television and music spur young people to violence." While public opinion is strong, the results of research are divided on the effects of media violence on the youth in this country. Davidson wrote that most experts agree that some correlation between media violence and actual violent acts exists, yet the results are contradictory and researchers quibble about how the effects are to be measured (271). Moreover, Davidson is not convinced that the media is the sole problem of violence, or even a primary problem. He points out that other factors, such as "poverty, the easy accessibility of guns, domestic abuse, [and] social instability" may have a greater impact on a child becoming violent than the influence of the media (277). Even though other forces may be stronger, media violence does have some adverse effects on the members of society. If senseless violence on television and in movies had no effect, it would not be such a hotly debated topic. What type of effects and whom they affect are the most argued aspects of the discussion.
Youth and children are picking up on these behaviors daily. Studies have shown that by the age of 18, the average American teen will have viewed around 200,000 acts of violence on television. The violence and sexual content that television and music are now portraying has negatively influenced younger children and teens to commit murder, exhibit aggressive behavior, and become tolerant of violence and sex. The negative influence television has begun to have on children is unreal. Americans seem to ask themselves what brings about such things as the Columbine shootings, eleven-year-olds murdering toddlers, and an increase in teen rapes.
Many things should be done to change children's view on television and how much violence should be on the television. Children today act and dress older than they are. The fact remains that they still are children. The children that watch Barney and sing along and have a great time learn to love one another. The children who watch Power Rangers begin to kick each other and fight because that is what they are seeing on television. We should sit down and explain to our kids that the Power Rangers are trained actors and actresses. They are actually not hitting and kicking each other. Watching violence makes children act violently. As long as children see it being done, they are going to do it also. Children imitate everything they see.
The video hosted by Bill Moyer that we watched in class on March 4th involved violence in the mass media and the effects that it may have on children in modern day society. Video games sometimes display graphic violence as well as violent verbal messages that often convey a message of appeal to children. Movies often combine humor, violence, and/or sex in order to be more appealing to the audience. Usually two or more of these factors are used. Whether it is through these sources or as something as simple as the evening news, violence is everywhere in the media today and displays messages of approval that American society may not realize.
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.
Mass media is a major influence that causes violence in youth culture. According to Hoffman, studies show that children experience an incredible number of violent acts per hour of watching television (Hoffman 11). The advancement in technology such as video games and televisions have aimed children to watch shows with numerous violent scenes. In making this comment, one can infer that violence is becoming a common and unexceptional act for which one can learn that violence is an accepted act in our society (12). Personally, I agree with Hoffman. I visited a websit...
Media has positive effects on people. There have been many researches to figure out how media affect to the public. Among many media effects, media violence is one of the most serious controversies. Several studies found that the increasing presence of violence in the media promotes and encourages violence of the public and teenagers are affected to by media violence. However, those who do not admit that media effect to the public assert that the viewers have ability to filter violent contents. Despite of the opposition that media have no effects on people, the U.S. government has restricted access to violent contents in the manner of age limits. However, because of the development of file-sharing program online, which is known as P2P, the
Bang! Bang! Little children running and screaming; terrified that they are going to die. The shooter walks into the room heavily armed, with a crazed look in his eye. There’s a women near a closet and small group of 1st graders behind her. He starts to go toward the little room to finish what he started. Then the young woman steps in front of the unstable gunman to shield the students from harm. A fatal shot is fired and the young teacher lies dead. That woman was Victoria Soto, a hero in the Sandy Hook Shooting, who risked her life to save her students from that delusional man, Adam Lanza. The horrific incident that took place on December 14, 2012 took the innocent lives of 26 students and teachers. Lanza did have a mental illness, but that isn’t all to blame. The shooter was known to play and watch violent movie and games (Aliprandini and Finley). This shows that media violence can be linked to aggressive behavior and that violent media can affect the minds of some young children and teens. Studies in the past decade have helped prove that sometimes the media can be bad for kids. The outcome of playing first-person shooter games could end up in innocent lives dying like in Newtown.
mainly with the content of the shows. Many of the shows on television portray violence, drugs, sexual activity, and profanity. People who watch these shows see what the actors and actresses are doing and then feel it is all right for them to do the same things. If a kid is watching a show were one of the actors or actresses use profanity, they will feel it is all right for them to use the same language.
Sometimes, children think that is a normal thing in our real life, by watching only a single violent program, which can increase aggression on children and become violent, aggressive, and vicious. Usually, U.S. children begin watching television at a very early age, sometimes as early as six months, and are eager viewers by the time they are two or three years old. The amount of time that children spend watching television is very interesting because like four hours a day, 28 hours a week, by the time they graduate from high school, children spend more time watching TV than any other activity, besides sleeping. However, children that watch many programs in which violence is very real, parents show no affinity toward violence and that is why the child thinks that violence is not bad. Normally children cannot tell the differences between real and unreal, that is why young viewers are unable to realize that when a character attacks someone it is real and should not be imitated by them.
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.