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Violent Media’s Effects on Youths

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Violent media’s effects on youths According to Smith and Wilson (Smith., 1997; Wilson., 1997), the National Television Violence Study, a three-year assessment of more than 3000 programs a year, found out that “60 percent of programs across twenty-six channels contain some physical aggressions”. Some points of view believe that there are connections between media violence and violent behaviour. However, other people don’t think so. This essay will argue that violence in the media is one of the main causes of increasing violent behaviour among youths because children learn behaviours from the media, youth who watch violent TV programs become more aggressive and they show less sympathy for other people. First of all, children may learn violent behaviours via media. According to Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1986), children learn ideas, values, emotions and even behaviours by observing others in their social environment. They tend to imitate observed behaviours that are rewarded than those that are punished. For example, they are more likely to mimic hero characters in the movies or games that usually use violence to solve the problems. These characters always get rewarded for their actions. This kind of scenario has become too common and Rowell Huesmann (1986) stated that children might learn from it and develop it into a script, a solution for every problem. Furthermore, there are researches that show children can imitate and reproduce the violent actions for eight months after they have seen it on TV (Bandura, A. Ross, D. & Ross, S., 1963). Therefore, it is clear that children can mimic characters on TV and become more violent. Another proof that shows the effect of violent media on youths is children become more aggressive as they watch more violent programs on TV and play violent games. Along with copying violent behaviours, children will find violence

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