Violence in the Media

1406 Words3 Pages

Violence in the Media

In today’s world, there is an endless amount of information available to people everywhere around the globe. Mass media is definitely shaping our world, whether it is in a positive way or a negative way. Television and the radio waves provide us with hours of entertainment. The emergence of the Internet allows us to access thousands of pages of information within the reach our very own fingertips. But with the convenience of all this information comes along a certain level of responsibility. As a society, we Americans must decide what is appropriate information and entertainment for the masses to access and enjoy. But does today’s society give too much leeway in what it thinks as “appropriate?” Does increased violent, sexual, and other forms of possibly offensive content negatively effect our behaviors? What measures should the individuals of our society and the government takes in order to hide impressionable minds from the constant violent behavior exhibited in the mass media? In order to answer these questions, the first order of business is to define what would be considered objectionable content.

Today’s society seems to focus upon the amount of violence found on television and in the lyrics of many different forms of music as the objectionable content of choice. Society chooses to focus upon violence because it is violent acts that seem to place the most influence on our behavior. Violence could be seen as any act that may represent the harm or death of one person, done by another or a group of people. But “violence by itself does not capture the essential problem regarding media portrayal,” according to the organizers of www.hc-sc.gc.ca., an Internet page speaking about the role of violence and g...

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...ar, censorship not only limits creativity, it also limits our right to choose what we enjoy and hate.

Bibliography:

American Psychiatric Association: Psychiatric Effects of Media Violence:

www.psych.org/public_info/media_violence.cfm

Dubow, E. F and L.S Miller: Television Violence and Aggressive Behavior, in Tuning Into Young Viewers: Social Science Perspectives on Television. Ed. By MacBeth TM. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications, Inc. 1996. Pp. 117-147

Fact Sheet: Children and Media Violence. www.mediaandthefamily.org/research/fact/vlent.shtml.

Feldman, Charles and Paul Vercammenb, Youth Violence Puts the Spotlight on Mass Media. www.cnn.com/US/9803/26/media.violence. Article: 26 March 1998

Spears, George and Kasia Seydegart: Gender and Violence in the Mass Media. www.hc-sc.-gc.ca/hppb/familyviolence/html/1gender.htm#Perspectives.

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Violence in the Media

No Clear Link Between TV Violence and Aggression