...VIOLENCE IN THE MEDIA OF AMERICA JEFFREY MUHLNICKEL MR. DAVID KERWIN EN 1320 AUGUST 27 2013 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. "Violence grabs the headlines, but violence itself is a result of a society that promotes selfishness, greed and instant gratification" (Peterson). Violence on public television often catches us in a serious debate. Concerned parents fear that viewing inappropriate images presented by the media will corrupt America's youth. They cringe at the idea of our nation's children growing up to be vicious killers due to the brutal violence often seen on TV. Some blame television for most, if not all, of the ills of society and its children. "Truly it accounts for about 10 percent of violence, which means that 90 percent is caused by other things," Leonard Eron says. "Violence is a multi-determined...
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...normality of Media Violence was the main focus of this survey. Choosing to study Media violence was very important because it plays a huge role in society and it also poses a threat to public health in as much as it leads to an increase in real-world violence and aggression. Researchers have shown that fictional television and film violence contribute to both a short-term and a long-term increase in aggression and violence in young viewers. This is very important to look at if someone is learning about families because as a child goes through its first couple of years of developmental stage, this is where that child gains habits. In this case if a child has a habit of watching violence on TV they are highly prone to expressing that in real life as they grow up. This was done surveying 50 people in total. In this study I was looking more so on boys and what they thought about the violence they see daily. It has been proven that boys are more gamers than women (although not in all cases). I recorded all the answers and completed a percentage for each of the questions I have provided for the reviewers. I then took those percentages and situated them into statistics. Once I have obtained this data, my method of showing the relationship between my independent and dependent variable was that I prepared pie charts and graphs to examine my one main question; Are there any relationships between observing violence in the games they are playing and observing real life violence and does it...
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...Violence in Media As young adults, we experience the exposure of violence in all mediums of communication, such as TV shows, movies, video games, and music lyrics. We may have stopped counting how many crime investigation shows are in primetime or how many ways of killing people are in the Saw series. We just keep consuming those materials and even look for more violence as excitement. As we become so obsessed with the genre, we may have forgotten the importance of awareness to the issue. Statistics give us a better idea about the big picture. According to Media Education Foundation, researches indicate that about 89 percent of the top-selling video games contained violent content, almost half of which was of a serious nature. Two-thirds of Hollywood films released in 2001 were rated “R.” (Media Violence Facts, 2005) In September 2000, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that 80 percent of “R” rated movies, 70 percent of restricted video games, and 100 percent of music with “explicit content” warning labels were being marketed to children under 17. With this amount of exposure, researchers estimated that by the time the average child is eighteen years old, they will have witnessed 200,000 acts of violence and 16,000 murders. (TV-Turnoff Network, 2001) Those numbers reminds us to think about the issue. Is it too much? What effect does it have on our life, especially for children and adolescents? As we are still looking for the correct answers, multiple cases have showed...
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...Mass Media Essay Period 9 May 18, 2011 Media Violence Since violence in media has become more and more popular there has been controversy over the idea that being exposed to such violence can cause viewers to be more aggressive. Violence is the groundwork of many films, TV shows, and TV movies. Violence on screen is usually referred to as ‘action’. In a lot of cases, violence drives the story line. Rape, murder, or crime is used to begin a plot. If violence is the reason for the beginning of a story, there is usually more violence to come. There is an extraordinary amount of violence in media today because producers believe that it keeps audiences interested. TV violence rarely has consequences. There is a lot of fighting, but none of the main characters seem to get hurt. Only the characters that are less important die and when they do no one seems to care. TV violence rarely shows the real life consequences of violence such as physical handicaps and emotional costs. Children copy behavior they see in the media. If they watch TV programs that don’t show consequences of violence they may start to think that violence doesn’t cause serious harm. Children under the age of four are unable to distinguish between fact and fantasy and may see violence as an everyday occurrence if they are used to seeing it on TV. While violence on TV seems to be able to make a large impact on young children this doesn’t seem to be the case for teens that play violent video games. It is...
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...Media Violence Jessica Higginson PSY101: Introduction to Psychology Instructor: Hillary Locke Sept. 28, 2014 Media Violence and Violent Behavior in Children Is violence on television turning our children into violent, destructive, hateful people? Television shows today can be a powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior (Bee, 1998: 261-262). Violence surrounds us due to most of what is on television is violent. For example take Saturday morning cartoons; the level of violence during Saturday morning cartoons is higher than the level of violence during prime time. During prime time there are six to eight violent acts per hour while there are twenty to thirty violent acts during Saturday morning cartoons ("Killing Screens," 1994). Before children finish grade school, they will have witnessed up to eight thousand murders and one hundred thousand violent acts on television (Levine, 1995: 143). Children learn about life through media more than in any other manner. The average child spends approximately twenty-seven hours per week watching television, which means that children spend most of their time only watching television and sleeping (Minow & LaMay, 1995: 32-33). Also, it has been proven by many studies that there is a positive relationship between television violence and behavioral problems in children. The research done by Wood, Wong, and Chachere (1991:378) has shown that "exposure to media violence increase viewers' aggression." This paper...
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...The Effects of Media Violence When was the last time the television could be turned on without individuals being exposed to some form of violence? Violence is seen in movies, reality TV, throughout news networks, and more. It seems as if media is aiding in a worldwide violence craze. Because media is the biggest source of advertisement and promotion, it has become incredibly easy to influence people in our society, more importantly our youth. According to the American Psychological Association, there are three major effects the media has on youth in our society. The effects include: children being less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others, more fearful of the world around them, and children are more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others. (American Psychological Association, Nov 2013). Adolescents today are exposed to violence in all forms of the media such as video games, movies, television shows, and many others. As a result, the lives of adolescents are being tremendously impacted. To young people, the impact of media violence is not always evident, however it definitely exists. Because young children imitate the things they see, it is easy for children to imitate violent actions seen throughout various media outlets. In addition, Eugene Beresin, Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Training, states, “Before the age of four, children are unable to distinguish between fact and fantasy and may view violence as an ordinary occurrence...
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...Columbine incident and wanted to create their own version but using a bomb instead of guns (Los Angeles Times, 2012.) Many American citizens might argue the rise in violence in children and teens is attributed to the amount of violence found in different medias such as, television and video games. According to Macionis, society views violence in television and media as the reason behind high aggression in children and that the two are directly linked (p. 124.) Violence in television has become more graphic and has had lawmakers and citizens concerned as early as the 1950’s. In 1952 the House of Representatives held a meeting to regarding violence in media and stated, “Television broadcast industry was a perpetrator and deliverer of violence,” (Parents Television Council, 2011.) According to the New York Times, the US Surgeon General Jesse Steinfield said, “it is clear to me that the casual relationship between televised violence and anti-social behavior is sufficient to warrant appropriate and immediate action,” (1999.) The history of violence in media shows how the regulations have changed from the early days of television and media to present day cable, Internet and other forms of media. Overtime, society has come to accept such violence in television, media and games. The issue is how much violence children and teenagers are exposed to. (1950’s) The Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) prohibited obscene and indecent material, which was defined by what...
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...Flared by uncontrollable violent emotions and encouraged by violent media, the violent killers have struck, taking many lives. Now, everyone will pay. In the Columbine shooting, the dangerous effects of the tons of violent media plastered everywhere is evident. The two horrible killers played countless hours of violent video games, leading them to the dreadful plotting of their extremely devastating shooting. When shooting occurred, it was clear from the guns they used to the strategies of killing they used where they obtained their inspiration from Their violent video games. Clearly, violence in the media does contribute to the violence in society. Since celebrities are very commonly idolized, it is very likely people will imitate their idols, even to the point of acting out violently. Mary Gavin admits, "Many violent acts are perpetrated by the "good guys" whom kids have been taught to emulate. Even though kids are taught by their parents that it isn't right to hit, television says it's okay to bite, kick, or hit if you're the "good guy."" Like Mary states, these violent acts are usually directed at the "bad guy," it is very easy to apply the "good guy's" solution to their own lives. When the solution that the "good guy" uses involves violent material, media consumers are encouraged to commit these violent acts themselves just because their role models say it is okay to. This greatly affects the role of violence in our society when these "good guys" start being compared to horrible...
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...2013 Violence in Media and Children There is a wide and growing acknowledgment of the fact that media isn’t just a “mirror of the society” – a smooth polished surface presenting an undistorted reflection of the world around us. For if that were true then all a newsman would have to do is to point his/her camera at the world and hit the record/air button. But in reality, the recorded content is often relayed back to the tv station where rather active decisions are taken at every step of the production process regarding how much of what content should be shown and when. Therefore it can be argued that the media plays no small role in molding our perceptions of the world we live in and in extension affecting the world itself. While this paper shall acknowledge the importance of media in today’s society, it shall neither reiterate the nature or extent of its positive aspects but shall instead focus on presenting an argument that exposure to violent media is harmful to children. One of the reasons it is true is that recent studies show that children today from ages 2 to18 with the exception of sleeping, spend more time watching television than they do performing any other single activity. (1) Additionally, today’s media bears no resemblance to the media a few decades ago; while viewers today are constantly bombarded with images of blood and gore, such a thing would have been almost unimaginable back then. When children are Gollamudi 2 repeatedly exposed to such violence for a...
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...Main Stream Media Violence and the Effects on Society Violence can be found in almost every form of media from television to video games. Violence exists in sports, news, movies, and games. This violence has many implications on society. The impact of this violence is different from one person to the next and from children to adults. There are many forms of violence in the media today. Violence is most prevalent on TV and in movies, video games, and the daily news from around the world. Violence can be found in sports such as boxing, mixed martial arts, hockey, and football. The news reports of murder and other forms of violence every day. News about foreign wars or news of violence in your local inner city, bet your bottom dollar you will hear something new every day. It seems like every day there is a new and violent video game coming out. Games about war and games about crime life, even games about fantasy violence are all over the market. Children are affected by violent media more so than adults. Studies have shown that on average, American children watch no less than 4 hours of TV a day. Studies have also proven that violent programming can have some very adverse effects on children. Children can become emotionally numb to violence and develop a lack of empathy for victims, as noted by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Children have been known to imitate the violence they see on TV. Some children may even learn to use...
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...Media Violence Essay Media Violence has been around for many years. Shakespeare wrote detailed gruesome plays but they were beautiful and entertaining. Media Violence has been said to have been persuading our society, but mainly the children to commit violent acts in the world. Many people are concerned because they believe that violent media is the main factor that is making people commit violent crimes, like killing other people. An example of violent media persuading a child to commit a murder would be in the recent theater shooting in Colorado, it was reported that the young man who committed the murders was persuaded by a character in the infamous Batman show called the joker. Therefore the media has been attacked by angry viewers so, the ACLU has been steadily defending the media because they deserve the freedom of speech and also the freedom to create anything they feel would be entertaining to their audience as long as it doesn’t immediately make the audience to actually want to commit the crime. The media which has violence in it, has been fighting many lawsuits because people believe the violent media is a main cause why violence is being created in this world, even though our violence rate isn’t increasing. It doesn’t make sense to blame the violent media yet the parents are the main ones responsible for having control over what their own kids get to actually watch. People can’t control the media but they have control of how to raise their kids and how to teach children...
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...Media Violence – Friend or Foe Denise Zurawski Ashford University Media Violence – Friend or Foe Psychologists are concerned regarding the amount of violent behavior that children and even adolescents watch in their own homes through TV programs, video and computer games, even the music that they listen to. Children as well as adolescents are susceptible to these acts of violence that they witness, believing that this is the way of the world. Too much violence in a show or movie may have them believing that such behavior is acceptable and even normal. Observing too much violence in any form can have children as well as adolescents believing that this is a precise interpretation of real life. The American Academy of Pediatrics notes that “American children between 2 and 18 years of age spend an average of 6 hours and 32 minutes each day using media (television, commercial or self-recorded video, movies, video games, print, radio, recorded music, computer, and the internet)” (Media Violence, 2001). A significant part of this media disclosure includes acts of violence, which if believed, could very well be acted out by our youths. Research has shown that when children watch media violence, especially if the characters (the bad guys) are portrayed as attractive and not held accountable for their actions, children may be adversely affected, and act out the aggressive behavior seen on TV. As stated in one article the authors note, For decades, researchers have studied...
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...Media Violence and Children Unit 5 Thomas Clancy – Instructor Shirley Landram Abstract This purpose of this essay is to show some of the ways television can influence children. It delves into emotions that can be experience or learned from family or TV. Understanding what young ones perceive and learn at different ages can be helpful to curb the impact that television shows have on children. Many people are concerned about the effect of media violence on children. Can something be done about this problem? Education and understanding may be a help in curbing violent tendencies. Only time will tell. Media Violence and Children This generation is being raised in a world so full of technology that often it is hard for anyone to keep track of it. As parents try to keep up with the fast-paced world, many rely on television as a babysitter. There children see violent behaviors and misconduct. Some of the programs are not good for a child since what is seen can desensitize them to abusive behavior in everyday life. Parents have an important role in helping children understand what is seen in the media.. Opting for more prosocial programs and explaining about emotions involved is something parents and caregivers can do. There have been studies done of how violence on shows affects children. It is wondered if violence on television has lasting effects. If too much violence is seen by children, they seem to become unaffected by it in later years. It teaches the child...
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...Violence in the media has been a growing problem ever since the emergence of mass media. You have to wonder how violence has become so prominent in our culture. More minors are being involved in heinous crimes such as murders and armed robberies. Even play on the school ground is getting rougher. There are many factors that play into the increasing violence, such as over population, religious struggles, and race. One factor that plays into the increase of violence would be mass media. Mass media has the power to reach and influence almost every American. Radio, newspaper, and television are all means by which media reaches people. Television however, can be considered the most influential. Ninety-eight percent of Americans have a television in their household. When it first came out it was considered a novelty, there were only a few channels and the signal was not very clear. Now it is available through air broadcast, cable, or satellite. Television has become part of everyday life. With the growing fixation and attraction to violence in the media, children in today’s society are becoming more violent and aggressive. After reading the article "Violent Culture: The Media, the Internet, and Placing Blame," the author brings up the point that the media was turning the focus of blame in Kip Kinkel case on the internet. He cited examples of how easily information about building bombs and guns was to get on the internet. Yes these types of things are easily found on the internet...
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...Psychology 324 Assignment: Does Media Violence Cause Aggression? 1. INTRODUCTION The question of whether media violence causes aggression has been a topic of debate for decades. The innovation and creation of the television, computer and radio has altered the manner in which individuals acquire information regarding the world around them, including views on how violent the world is (Busman & Anderson, 2001). With the average American child being exposed to eight thousand murders and one hundred thousand acts of violence via television by the time they graduate from elementary school, it is not surprising that many critics of media violence are of the opinion that it leads to aggression (Bushman & Anderson, 2001). However, if one studies the reviews more carefully, it can be seen that there is no real scientific evidence that media violence causes aggression (Freedman, 2002). Numerous articles, experiments and studies have been published either supporting or opposing the question. In this essay two such articles will be explained, namely “Media Violence and the American Public” (Bushman & Anderson, 2001) which supports the idea that media violence causes aggression and “Villain or Scapegoat? Media Violence and Aggression” (Freedman, 2002) which opposes the idea that media violence causes aggression. 2. DEFINING MEDIA VIOLENCE AND AGGRESSION Media Violence is defined as the graphic representation of physical aggression by a human or human-like persona towards another individual...
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