Media Violence For The Canadian Radio Television And Telecommunications Commission Essay

THESIS STATEMENT: The world’s media today seem to have more violence than ever. Video games have vivid depictions of accident catastrophes, fighting and murder. Television news programs generally lead with a violent story in order to gain an audience. This is free society people can stay what they want. ‘’ Media violence has many negative effect on youth today to commit crimes in society.’’

* According to the National Television Violence Study, the context in which violence is portrayed is as important to its impact as the amount of violence. The study concluded that 66% of children's programming had violence. Of the shows with violent content three-quarters demonstrated unpunished violence and when violence occurred 58% of the time, victims were not shown experiencing pain. (14)

After reviewing many case studies about whether excessive or extensive violent television news coverage leads towards violent conduct is up for debate. Interestingly enough many scientific organizations have openly stated that violent media coverage causes aggression, and examined the association between media violence and violent behavior. It has been reported that there has been more than 3,500 research studies to prove that there is in fact a connection between media violence and violent behavior. Out of these 3,500 studies only 18 of them have not been able to relate media violence and violent behavior. Clearly there is overwhelming evidence to prove this relationship is accurate,

In the media there is a great deal of violence and nobody can really deny that. However, the effects media has on children and young adults have been debated for years. In this paper I will be discussing the effects of media violence, the other factors, and the possible solutions to alleviate this global issue.

Violence in the media, like sexual representation in the media, is so common that they are often seen on a daily basis. As time and technology has progressed, violence has become a more prominent feature to certain types of media and is becoming less uncensored. Violence can now be seen across a wide range of movies, television shows, newspapers, magazines, video games, and even on Facebook. Mediums in which I see violent media the most is through movies, television shows, and Facebook. Each of these forms, I can easily say expose me to some type of violence several times a day.

Violence has always played a role in Television. But there's a growing concern that, in recent years, something about media violence has changed. Laval University professors Guy Paquette and Jacques de Guise studied six major Canadian television networks over a seven-year period, examining films, situation comedies, dramatic series, and children's programming. The study found that between 1993 and 2001, incidents of physical violence increased by 378 per cent. TV shows in 2001 averaged 40 acts of violence per hour (Public Health Agency, 2003).

Thanks to the miracle of television the average American child watches 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence before finishing elementary school (Early Concerns 113). Television violence is responsible for the increase in childhood violence. Watching violence is a popular form of entertainment, and watching it on television is the number one way that children are exposed to violence. Local news shows provide extensive converage of violent crimes in order to increase their ratings (Felson 96). Violence usually refers to physical aggression and aggression is usually defined as any behavior involving intent to harm another person (Sege 34).

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

          Due to violence on television, children become less sensitive to that pain and suffering of others or to become more aggressive to others. It also makes children more fearful to the world around them. (Abelard 1) Viewing habits of children observed for many decades deduced that violence on TV is associated with aggressive behavior, more than poverty, race, or parental behavior. It also reported that a TV show contains about 20 acts of violence an hour.

Violence is used in many ways in promos as a hook to draw viewers into the program. That is because violence is an effective promotional device. But severe permanent damage could be done to the children’s minds by such pornographic and sadistic material, in which detail is powerfully realistic. The increasing demand of comics, the wide use of the Internet, and viewing television are the main forms of media, which have caused people’s minds to perform violence. First of all, comics play an important role in the promotion of Media Violence. The comics were universally condemned. They were badly produced, on poor paper with cheap print. They were full of sadistic violence, horrific obsession with death, lustful

In this era of internet connectivity, access to an array of violent media stimuli is readily available. Scientific exploration of the effects of such exposure on real world violent behaviour carries potential ramifications for the safety of global communities. Media violence is understood here as stimuli that includes depictions of violence or calls to violent action and includes image, video, television and gaming. Violent behavior is defined as behavior causing emotional or physical harm expressed verbally or physically. Whilst there remains no causal proof for the

            In recent times, the news media has cried out against violent media, painting it as the leading cause for youth violence. Following events such as the Columbine massacre, news sources have vilified violent media, claiming that it is a primary cause of violent behavior in youths. This analysis provides firm research on the subject from the opposing and supporting sources, giving a thorough definition to the term “violent media” and  brings forth evidence that other psychological effects and environmental factors are more significant causes of increased youth aggression than violent media.

Let’s take a look at the “tale of the tape” of individuals who are involved in this argument. The persons against media violence: parent, teachers, pediatricians, and child psychiatrists have a logos advantage over the persons who say media violence is not a problem: major TV network and cable providers; because of the large amount of statically data that backs up their claim that violence influences violent behavior. The major TV network and cable providers also have statistical data that backs up their claim, but unlike those who are against them their statistical data is often conducted in-house which leaves many wondering about the accuracy of the data. Major TV network and cable providers often use the First Amendment to make up what they lack in statistical data. The parent, teachers, pediatricians, and child psychiatrists support each other where as major TV network and cable providers often pass the blame onto each other as if they were playing a game of hot potato, which once again leaves one wondering about the credibility of their claim that violence on TV is not that big of a problem and there are measures in place to protect children. Parent, teachers, pediatricians, and child psychiatrists also have a pathos advantage over major TV network

According to the National Television Violence Study, the context in which violence is portrayed is as important to its impact as the amount of violence. The study concluded that 66% of children’s programming had violence. Of the shows with violent content three-quarters demonstrated unpunished violence and when violence occurred 58% of the time, victims were not shown experiencing pain. That makes the children think that violence is just like riding a bike, simple as that (NTVS, 1-2).

In the book Critique of Violence ,author Walter describes Violence as "The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, male development, or deprivation .The violence that is portrayed in the media has been debated for decades ,and it has rose a question about how does it influence the youth?. From movies to video games society has been accustom to seeing violence in their everyday entertainment. Since children are easy to be influence by their environment, it is safe to say that violence in the media can and will contribute to violent behavior.