Although violence is not a new concept in society, it has become a much bigger issue than in years past. An increase in violent tendencies can be attributed to many factors including media violence. Mass violent attacks have become much more prevalent and violence amongst youths (the main demographic of violent media) is on the rise. The causes of violence are multifactorial, and range from mental health illness to one’s family life at home. But research has shown that violent media also plays an important role in triggering violent behavior. Research has shown a strong correlation between at risk youth and violent behavior. Violent media surrounds children today from a multitude of mediums from television to video games. Prolonged exposure to violent media becomes a risk factor and can result in children becoming desensitized to violence. Overtime, violence becomes a fact of life and children lose their ability to sympathize with the victim. Exposure to violent media does not itself induce violence but it is a risk factor and can strongly influence those predisposed to a violent nature. Through an analysis of more than 200 studies, researchers showed the short-term effect of exposure to violent media had a moderate to large correlation. Media violence can have a quantifiable, adverse effect on children as they learn to view violence as means of positive conflict resolution. According to Strasburger and Grossman, (2001) the offenders of recent school shootings were exposed to and captivated by many different forms of violent media. Children are more susceptible to being influenced by their surroundings and, unlike adults, they cannot always distinguish between reality and fiction. Violent media has a clear, negative effect on the ...
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...hieve the same status as their idol.
Overall, violent media places our children in unnecessary danger. There is no way to end violence in the media, but by understanding its effects on children, society can develop new ways to protect our youth. Never before in history has media been so prevalent and accessible. Humans are most vulnerable and easily influenced when they are children. Yet, children are exposed to an unnecessary amount of gratuitous violence in the media for excessive amounts of time for a week (28 hours per week). This is time that could be spent playing outside and developing positive social skills; instead they it is spent learning violent behavior. This can potentially lead to aggressive and violent behavior in real life. Violent media has adverse effects on the development of children and can have a serious negative influence on their behavior.
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.
Recently, the effect that violent media has on society has been the focus of many psychological studies. According to an article published in the New York Times, research has found that: “Exposure to violent imagery does not preordain violence, but it is a risk factor” (Pozios, Kambam, Bender, 2013). There has yet to be a direct link between violence actually causing people to go on these massive shooting sprees that have been so common lately. It is natural and understandable for the
There are a lot of people who either wonder or believe that violent media is bad for people and mostly children. Not all violent media is bad. Sometimes when people have a stressful day they will play video games to let off steam. A few people like watching horror movies because of the thrill of being scared. But if you’re a kid with no friends or you are alone most of the time, you might enjoy comic books. They are filled with action and heroes. Doing any of these can give off a sense of adventure, thrill, and excitement. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to go off and start hurting people because of it. There is a lot of evidence that states the media affects viewers by encouraging violent behavior and weakening their creative ability. The question is whether the media is truly the problem, or is it the parental role that is the problem.
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.
As censorship of the American media has broken down over the years, the amount of violence allowed to be shown in movies, on television, and in video games has skyrocketed. From coast to coast in our nation, this saturation of hostility in our media has caused many contentious debates between scholars, parents, students and government officials alike. In this controversy, the central argument revolves around the effects violent media has on our society. The question that most researchers strive to answer is this: does watching or participating in violent media cause violent or other harmful behaviors? There are those who would say yes, it does promote destructive behavior in real life. On the other hand, there are those who argue no, violent media is simply a reflection of what is already occurring in our society.
Positive associations between media violence and aggressive thoughts, hostile emotions, and aggressive or violent behavior have been found repeatedly, in both children and adults, in studies using a variety of methods, including laboratory and field experiments, cross-sectional studies, and longitudinal research” (Jones, Cunningham, and Gallagher 11). Children are taken care of by those that are older. Children are taught what to do and what not to do. However, not all adolescents have the chance to be raised right. They become exposed to violence in or out of their household, and they capture the cruel acts through media and are persuaded into thinking it’s normal.
When families sit down to watch television, they expect to watch family type of shows. Family type shows meaning rated PG or PG13, sitcoms and movies that do not include weapons, killing, foul language, and non-socially accepted actions. When children killing, they start to believe that it is accepted. Do children think that killing and hurting others and themselves have little meaning to the real life, children can become traumatized. Most killers or violators of the law blame their behavior on the media, and the way that television portrays violators. Longitudinal studies tracking viewing habits and behavior patterns of a single individual found that 8-year-old boys, who viewed the most violent programs growing up, were the most likely to engage in aggressive and delinquent behavior by age 18 and serious criminal behavior by age 30 (Eron, 1). Most types of violence that occur today links to what people see on television, act out in video games or cyberspace games, or hear in music. Media adds to the violence that exists today and in the past few decades. It will continue in the future if it is not recognized as a possible threat to our society. When kids go to a movie, watch television, play video games or even surf the web, they become part of what they see and hear. Soaking violence in their heads long enough becomes a part of the way they think, acts, and live. The line between pretend and reality gets blurred.
While violence is not new to the human race, it is an accumulative epidemic that is taking over today’s society. With firearms, ammunition and explosives becoming more accessible, this is resulting into more violent behavior and less serious consequences. Violence in the media plays an imperative role in the etiology of violent and hostile behavior in the world today. While it is difficult to determine which age group have experienced more televised violence, studies have shown that the consequences of aggressive and violent behavior have brought a great deal of human agonizing, suffering, pain and financial destitution to our society, as well as an atmosphere of apprehension, distress and doubt. Research indicates that violence in the media has not just increased in quantity; it has also become more explicit, sexual and sadistic. Most acts of violence in media and on television are laughed off and there are no consequences for these actions.
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.
“There is increasing evidence that early exposure to media violence is a contributing factor to the development of aggression” (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podolski, & Eron, 2003). Huesmann and Kirwil (2007, p. 545), argue that an individual’s aggression and violent behaviour are not only caused by emotional, mental and physical circumstances but also the environment plays an equally vital role. They further on state that hastening violent behaviour in the short-term sense is due to disclosure to violence, which can be either through media, computer games and violence that they observe at home, school and their social environment. This paper intends to comprehend media violence and its effects on humanity by understanding the issues that underlie the argument of whether the exposure of violence through the media does in fact contribute to ones likeliness to engage in violent and/or aggressive behaviour. In this essay, an evaluation will be made to determine the length of the effects of violent media in children and adults. Secondly an analysis will be made in terms of the conditioning that one experienced growing up, formerly a brief explanation of interpretation will be made and finally a conclusion will be made to determine whether exposure to media violence does indeed cause violent and/or aggressive behaviour in individuals.
Drugs, poverty, and an unstable home life are some of the already factors that influence violence; if the already known factors are combined with media violence, “the result is an explosion of violent crime in any nation in which it takes place” suggests Lt. Col. David Grossman (par. 3). Most people who are often exposed to violence would argue, “Not all people who are exposed to media violence are murderers.” This is true, but most murderers have had some involvement with violent video games, rap music, or television. Kids tend to mimic the actions of others whether they are good or bad. For example, if a kid witnesses someone bullying someone else, they will, more likely than not, join them. Why wouldn’t this be the same if they observed someone committing violent actions through media? Some might also argue that the murder rate has decreased throughout the years. Grossman recommended looking at the assault rate rather than the murder rate be...
According to Gerard Jones, violent media can actually have positive effects on young people because children will feel rage and anger just like anyone else. He explains that children need to experience anger so that they can learn to understand and control it. Jones also believes that violent media are a positive influence on children because it can make the child braver. Jones explains how violent media can help a child view the problems around them and help motivate them to fix it, just like a superhero would. Jones makes some good points. For example, he brings up the quote of Melanie Moore, an urban teen psychologist, who said, “Children need violent entertainment in order to explore inescapable feelings that they’ve been taught to deny,
Lastly, it is no doubt that media violence can give an impact to their personality and mental health. This is because, their feeling and mental health will be affected. Overexposure to violence can lead the children to believe that world is dangerous and unsafe place. They may begin to overestimate that they will be a victim of violence. They also will feel stress and anxiety about what will happened to them. Teenagers who exposed to high level of violence tend to have higher levels of anger and depressions. For example, they are reported in having higher rates of wanting to hurt or kill themselves. As a conclusion, I hope that I have explained to you the negative effects of media violence on youth. Exposure to media violence will make youth to have violence and aggressive behaviour. It also can make children to have difficult time to differentiate between reality and fantasy and also their feeling and mental health also will be affected. In order to reduce the effect of media violence to youth, parents and family need to limit their time in spending time with television and game. So, I strongly urge you to carefully consider my argument for yourself and for the world.
The regularity and asperity of media violence has dramatically increased over the years. The Media exists in almost every aspect of people’s lives and exposure to violence in the media is becoming a large concern. People are exposed violent acts in the media everyday between video games, movies, and television. Parents are distressed over the fact tha...
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 ...