Introduction
Violent media influence on the attitudes and behaviour of young people has been a hot topic of debate for decades. Critics say that violence in television, movies, and video games, desensitizes children to real effects that violence has on society and themselves. The problem is that teenagers tend to act on the behaviour seen in the television shows they watch and the video games they play every day. They shoot someone in a video game and not be able to distinguish that it is morally wrong to kill someone but to influence every day it does not affect them and they will grow up and be a savage. This subject is debated because of the profound effect that violence can in the future of society. The introduction of television violence has led many to theorize that chronic exposure to the act will desensitize some teenagers and cause them to develop the characteristics of a more aggressive.
Although the causes of violence are multifactor and include variables for individual biological vulnerability, psychiatric disorders, substance abuse and social conditions such as poverty, poor education, family psychopathology, and child abuse, research information quite interesting in showing that among the most important variable is the exposure adolescents to television violence are at much greater risk. Current research has confirmed the link between violence presented through a variety of media and aggressive behaviour. If young children also have ready access to firearms, then the likelihood of violent behaviour, for themselves and others, increased.
Objective
Exposure to violence in the media, both online and offline significantly associated with higher likelihood to simultaneously report seriously violent behaviours. Compar...
... middle of paper ...
...ven after decades of extensive research, the result are still weak as there are intense arguments from both side trying to prove that media violence is one of the factor that contributes to violent behaviour in teenagers or not. The reason is because violence is a crucial constituent of numerous individuals' lives. In the youth culture it's a major factor that is resulting in an increase rate of criminal activity since society is manipulated by the imagery they are viewing, resulting in them mimicking the portrayals displayed by the media. We also hope that our research will somehow create an awareness to teenagers out there on the dangerous effects of media violence in their everyday life. The government should also take actions in controlling the content of media by that are shown on the media so that it wouldn’t be easily exposed to the young mind and teenagers.
American society emphasizes violence in the media. Television shows, movies, and video games, are all outlets researchers often place blame when considering the effects media has on violent behavior. Television shows, movies, and video games frequently revolve around violent plots, characters die in gruesome ways, and violence against others is common place. “Social learning is the branch of behavior theory most relevant to criminology. Social learning theorist, most notably Albert Bandura, argue that people are not actually born with the ability to act violently, but that they learned to be aggressive through their life experiences.” (PG. 161)
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.
Television with its far reaching influence spreads across the globe. Its most important role is that of reporting the news and maintaining communication between people around the world. Television's most influential, yet most serious aspect is its shows for entertainment. Violent children's shows like Mighty Morphing Power Rangers and adult shows like NYPD Blue and Homicide almost always fail to show human beings being able to resolve their differences in a non-violent manner; instead they show a reckless attitude that promotes violent action first with reflection on the consequences later. Contemporary television creates a seemingly insatiable appetite for amusement of all kinds without regard for social or moral benefits (Schultze 41). Findings over the past twenty years by three Surgeon Generals, the Attorney General's Task Force on Family Violence, the American Medical Association, the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other medical authorities indicate that televised violence is harmful to all of us, but particularly to the mental health of children (Medved 70-71).
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.
The hypothesis that screen based media violence consumption has a detrimental effect has been widely researched and the American Academy of Paediatrics recognises exposure to violence in the media, including television, movies, music and video games, as a significant risk to the health of children and adolescents (Committee on Public Education, 2001). It has been fairly well documented in our society that children become ‘purposeful TV viewers’ by the age of three (Murray, 2008) and by the age of sixteen, the average child has witnessed more than 20,000 murders on television (McGinnies, 1994). There is general agreement that violence exists on tele...
“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.
Most studies of the effects of media violence have examined passive visual media (dramatic television and movies, television news, and music videos), that is, media that viewers observe only. A substantial of laboratory and field experiments over the past half-century have been set up to examine whether the exposure to violent behavior on film or television tends to increase the aggressive behavior of a particular teenager in the short term. The consistent finding from such experiments is that youths who watch violent scenes subsequently display more aggressive behavior, aggressive thought, or aggressive emotions than those who do not watch...
Television violence is also a cause of both violent and aggressive behavior in teenage boys. According to the evidence in a study done by Turner, Hesse, and Peterson-Lewis, it was concluded that watching television violence had a long-term increase in aggression in boys (Hough 1). In addition to this study, Dr. William A. Belson evaluated fifteen hundred boys, aged thirteen to sixteen years, and he determined that boys with heavy television exposure are more likely to commit violent acts than other boys (Langone 51). In Belson’s study, he discovered that the effect of each violent act on television was collective, and over time, Belson discovered that the boys engaged in many aggressive acts, including painting graffiti, breaking windows, aggressive play, swearing, and threatening other boys with violence (Kinnear 26).
By the time a child reaches the age of one, they see about 200,000 acts of violence on television. (Nakaya, 3). The Media has been becoming more and more violent over the years. A poll in an issue of Times Magazine, from 2005, showed that 66 percent of Americans think that there is an abundant amount of graphic acts of violence on televisions (Nakaya, 18). People are exposed to thousands of acts of violence through video games, television, and movies. Many studies show that media violence increases violent behavior in in humans. Studies show, violent video games, and graphic television have physiological effects on children. The government has very few regulations on media violence. Some people believe the government shouldn’t limit content because others might be insulted by its material. Media violence is such a broad topic and has such a large presence in daily lives, so we cannot simple get rid of it. The Federal Communications Commission stipulates, “By the time most children begin the third grade, they will have spent the equivalent of three school years in front of a television set.” Even though the government shouldn’t censor the media, Media violence is becoming a serious issue because it is becoming more violent, it makes people behave violently, and it has little regulations.
First is government intervention, reduce the content of media violence. From the origin of the media to eliminate negative information, government should make legal view by relevant policies and laws and forcibly remove violence in the media. For example, the Sweden government has the media violence committee, on film, television, video, computer games and computer networks and other media for violence and show any negative effects to pay close attention. Second is Parents ' supervision and guidance, some parents complain that full control over what their children watch and do what is impossible. Although it is difficult to control the child 's media habits, but this does not mean to give up work. Ostrov’s Research shows that parents supervise children 's media usage, for example, restrictions on the use of time, to ensure that the media content health, can reduce a child 's aggression.(Ostrov,2009) Therefore, parents should actively take measures to minimize the influence of media violence on children. And the last but not least is Cognitive change towards violence. Due to the influence of media violence is growing, lack of the mind, right from wrong ability of children, if they are long-term exposure to violence in the media content, they will think that violence is widespread, violence is an effective strategy to solve the problem. Therefore, parents should tell children to limit their use of some type of
Fisher, Deborah A. "Television Violence Contributes to Aggressive Behavior in Young People." 2007. Opposing Viewpoints. .
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 ...