Violence in the Media

688 Words2 Pages

In 1884, a man by the name of Paul Nipkow invented a device called the scanning disk. Little did Nipkow know that years later his invention would be transformed into one of the most popular pastimes in America today ("Inventors"). Philo T. Farnsworth was the true inventor of television in 1927. He had no idea that thirty-five years later his inventions would not only be in ninety percent of Americans homes, but also strongly effect everyone that watched it. "Following the introduction of television into the United States, the annual homicide rate increased by ninety-three percent"(Journal of the American Medical Association). With the invention of television came the job of broadcasting shows on to the television. Broadcasters soon found what the public wanted and gave it to them through the waves of the tube. In the mid fifties people wanted to see family shows, educational programs, and sports. People wanted to watch something that the whole family could sit down and watch together. This all changed in the late nineties and into the new millennium. Adults now to wanted to see more violence and explicit movies and kids preferred to more violent, action packed cartoons and teen sitcoms contain riddled with brutality. The family watching TV together is non-existent in today's time. Parents want to watch their shows and kids want to watch theirs. This deprives families of their time together. With the average household in American having a TV on in their home for seven hours and forty minutes a day ("Real"), television has turned into much more than a pastime. It is a necessity to have one and an addiction to watch it. With so much television in people's life's today it is important for us not to just turn our backs on the effe...

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...lts from surveys like this one, by Rowel Huesmann and "Real Vision", what more proof can Americans ask for? But yet when the spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters was asked whether or not there was a link between TV violence, and real violence, he was quoted as saying, "I think the jury is still out about whether there is a link." When is the wall of denial going to be torn down?

Both sides have told their sides of the debate over TV violence. The evidence is out there, and surveys have been done. The jury is in deliberation over whether or not something should be done about the violence. Personally I feel the evidence is stacked against the amount of violence kids are absorbing through the TV today. With the continuous bombardment of violence on televisions around the United States rising yearly, the issue's need to be resolved also rises.

Media And Violence: The Causes Of Violence In The Media
918 Words | 2 Pages
I feel it is an extremely complicated method to blame the media for all violence. The person committing violent acts, is choosing to commit those acts. The acceptability of the violent act is altered by the media’s influence and reach regarding violence. Every outlet provides only a glimpse into how much violence is allegedly occurring because of media in the world today. I’m not an extremist one way or the other, however I do partially believe the research that has been done in regards to media and violence. I feel there is little objectivity or reason to not commit violent acts, when violence is a person’s normal. Media is everywhere and I feel that yes, media does have an effect on violence “contributes” however I don’t feel it can be blamed for the
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No Clear Link Between TV Violence and Aggression
2067 Words | 5 Pages
Kaplan, R.M. & Singer, R.D. (1976). TV violence and viewer aggression: A reexamination of the evidence. Journal of Social Issues, 32, 33-70.
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Violence in the Media
1064 Words | 3 Pages
Gina Marchetti, in her essay "Action-Adventure as Ideology," argues that action- adventure films implicitly convey complex cultural messages regarding American values and the "white American status quo." She continues to say that all action-adventure movies have the same basic structure, including plot, theme, characterization, and iconography. As ideology, this film genre tacitly expresses social norms, values, and morals of its time. Marchetti's essay, written in 1989, applies to films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Rambo: First Blood II. However, action-adventure films today seem to be straying farther away from her generalizations about structure, reflecting new and different cultural norms in America. This changing ideology is depicted best in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994), which defies nearly every concept Marchetti proposes about action-adventure films; and it sets the stage for a whole new viewpoint of action in the '90's.
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Violence on TV
2095 Words | 5 Pages
There is a "general consensus among social scientists that television violence increases the propensity to real-life aggression among some viewers," and yet, paradoxically, "there is presently little evidence indicating that violence enhances program popularity" (Diener & DeFour, 1978). Top government studies insist, "violent material is popular" (Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior, 1972). Differing conclusions may be viable. One leading social psychologist flatly states, "evidence suggests that violence on television is potentially dangerous, in that it serves as a model for behavior -- especially for children" ...
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Children and Violence: An American Media Controversy
1027 Words | 3 Pages
One paramount debate that truly highlights the two sides of this controversy occurred in July of 1997. As George Gerbner, the former dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Communications, argued that, “Formula-driven media violence is not an expression of crime statistics, popularity, or freedom. It is de facto censorship driven by global marketing, imposed on creative people, foisted on the children of the world” (“Is Media” 1). Critic Todd Gitlin responded to that argument by stating, “Television violence is mainly redundant, stupid, and ugly,” it does not cause violence in its viewers, and the biggest problem is that the profiteers of television have to produce this “formulaic stuff” (1). Personally, I agree with George Gerbner’s view on this subject. In my opinion, the overabundance of violence in American media has caused adverse effe...
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Influence Of Violence In The Media
1534 Words | 4 Pages
The media and entertainment play a very crucial role in our perception of violence in society. Exposure to violence in the media, including television, movies, music, and video games helps us construct our own perspective on violence. According to Joel Best, his theory on random violence states that random violence and violence, in general, is patternless, pointless, and leads to the deterioration of society. Many examples can be given from national and international media coverage on various random violence acts. There are many sides to the debate about whether or not violence in the media affects us and how prevalent it is in our society. The focal discussion is the influence of violence on people through the mass media: movies, television,
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Analysis of Violence in the Media
979 Words | 2 Pages
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.
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Televised Aggression: Effects on Children and Behavior
874 Words | 2 Pages
Through movies, talk shows, cartoons and more, our television screens have plainly become littered with violence. According to The National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center (2008) “61 percent of television programs contain some violence, and only 4 percent of television programs with violent content feature an ‘antiviolence’ theme” (para. 1).
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Is Media Violence To Blame?
513 Words | 2 Pages
Many people believe media violence is not good and that it makes kids aggressive. Laboratory studies found that children who see violent programs, are more likely to be more aggressive than those who watch non-violent programs (“Doesn’t Cause Violence”). When people hear that, they believe children should not watch violent television shows. The problem with studies like these, they take place in labs so they cannot be applied to the real world (“Doesn’t Cause Violence”). Also, this is just a short-term response to watching a violent TV show. This does not mean that they will be a violent person. Correlation studies show that watching violence at a young age affects them as teens (“Doesn’t Cause Violence”). The parents believe as teenagers they will be violent for the rest of their lives. Just because watching television programs is linked to aggressive behavior, does not mean the TV show causes violence (“Doesn’t Cause Violence”). If parents are really worried about what their children are watching, than they should be more responsible and monitor what their kids are watching.
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America Needs Media Censorship
2275 Words | 5 Pages
One of the culprits of criminal behavior is T.V. violence. Violent programs may have a negative influence on those individuals who are already violence-prone, or children who are living through vulnerable periods of their development. Adult violent offenders tend to have shown certain personality features as children, ?one being they tended to have viewed violence on television.? The amount of violence on television continues to grow. ?A typical child watched on television one thousand murders and twenty five thousand acts of violence before finishing elementary school.? When displayed this often, how can people not become desensitized to criminal acts? ?By allowing this type of material to be openly exposed to the public we are endangering safety and society?s values.? Without control of what material is delivered to the masses, we cannot expect people to have a proper sense of right and wrong as they will constantly see the horrific things that happen in the false reality of the media and become immune to feelings of disgust toward such atrocious deeds in real life. Controlling what is viewed on television is the responsibility of the government in order to decrease violence in the real world.
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Media Violence In The Media
692 Words | 2 Pages
According to Craig A. Anderson and Leonard Berkowitz (2003, pg 81), for more than five decades, Americans have been concerned about the constant portrayal of violence in the mass media and the harm that these portrayals might do to youth. Reflecting to this concern, several major researches have been carried out to examine on the association between immature media users’ exposure to television violence and their aggressive behavior.
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The Importance Of Violence In Mass Media
1100 Words | 3 Pages
At the present time violence in mass media is appearing frequently in our lives. We are surrounded with it. It encompasses television, film, videogames, internet and music. This has been a controversial issue in America. In this article the author speaks about how violence in mass media effects children. This author also emphasized how violence increases high school shootings, censorship and to restrict content to remove violence in media.
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Mass Communication Essay
1491 Words | 3 Pages
Television violence linked to bad behavior in young children has been going on for years. Some claim that parents are using it as an excuse to blame the media and I agree in some cases that is true but not in all cases. We cannot ignore the fact that television does feature a lot of violence and aggressive behavior and in young fresh minds these type of behaviors stick. Children begin mimicking behaviors as soon as they are born and as they get older they continue to do so. A two year old learning how to speak hears a curse word and repeats it, sure they don’t know or understand what it means but just because they don’t understand the meaning of the word doesn’t take away the fact that it is a bad word and should not be coming out of a young child’s mouth. The same ...
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Television and Media Essay - TV, Violence, and Censorship
1037 Words | 3 Pages
Society has been bombarded with violence from the beginning of time. These concerns about violence in the media have been around way before television was even introduced. Nevertheless, there have been numerous studies, research, and conferences done over the years on television, but the issue still remains. Researchers do acknowledge that violence portrayed on television is a potential danger. One issue is clear though, our focus on television violence should not take attention away from other significant causes of violence in our country such as: drugs, inadequate parenting, availability of weapons, unemployment, etc. It is hard to report on how violent television effects society, since television affects different people in different ways. There is a significant problem with violence on television that we as a society are going to have to acknowledge and face.
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1390 Words | 3 Pages
Television violence, and media violence in general, has been a controversial topic for several years. The argument is whether young children are brainwashed into committing violent real-world crimes because of violent and pugnacious behavior exposed in mass media. In his article “No Real Evidence for TV Violence Causing Real Violence”, Jonathan Freedman, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and author of “Media Violence and Its Effect on Aggression: Assessing the Scientific Evidence”, discusses how television violence, claimed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), does not cause real-world aggression among adolescents. The FCC determined to restrict violent television programming to late night hours only because their “scientific research” proves of increasing aggression among young viewers (Freedman Par. 2). Freedman goes on to explain that the FCC has no substantial scientific evidence stating that there is a correlation between fictional violence and real-world aggression among young audiences. He has completed research in 1984 and 2002 on the relationship between media violence to actual acts of violence on the street. Because he has completed research projects related to this topic, Freedman’s statistical evidence shows that there is a reduction in youth violence and it essentially does not cause real-world crimes (Freedman Par. 1). The FCC continues to claim that exposure to media violence does in fact increase aggression, and yet their readers continue to believe their fabrications. Freedman argues that people who research media violence tend to disregard and omit the opposing facts. No one type of violence is more effective on aggression than another type. There is no evidence showi...
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Violence in the Media

Media And Violence: The Causes Of Violence In The Media

No Clear Link Between TV Violence and Aggression