Media Violence and Aggressive Behavior

When it comes to the topic of violent media, some of us would readily agree it’s a controversial subject as to whether kids should or shouldn’t be exposed to it. This is because many children who view violent media react negatively rather than not being affected at all. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of what effects does it have on children. Whereas some are convinced that it is a healthy alternative for kids to express themselves, others maintain that it causes kids to become more aggressive and contributes to juvenile crimes.

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.

Children tend to act more violently due over exposure to violent media. Interestingly, studies done by psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann, Leonard Eron and others show that being aggressive as a youth did not speculate that they would watch more television. This suggests that violent media portrayal is a cause rather than a consequence of aggressive people. However, later research by psychologists Douglas Gentile and Brad Bushman, suggested that media violence is just one of the many causes that inhibit rational thought. [http://www.apa.org/research/action/protect.aspx]

There is no question that television and films these days are filled with violence and antisocial behavior. Virtually every show, movie or news story nowadays has some sort of violent theme. Studies have shown that for every hour of television, there are 6 violent exchanges shown, and this number increases to 14 exchanges an hour

Living in a world full of crime and violence, people begin to wonder what the cause of the violence is and how it can then be prevented. Unfortunately, there is not a single root cause that can be found when people attempt to decipher why children are deciding to bring guns to school and murder their peers. Some may believe that it was influenced by being exposed to a hostile family, violent films, or gory video games. Although sometimes this might be the case, a lot of the time it is not as black and white, making this topic very difficult to analyze and understand. Both Jonathan L. Freedman in “Villain or Scapegoat? Media Violence and Aggression” and L Rowell Huesmann and Laramie D. Taylor in “The Role of Media Violence in Violent

It is easy to accept to believe that children are exposed to negative effects by watching media violence. Children react differently than adults after having watched violence. For example, many children may experience having nightmares. According to the book entitled, “The 11 Myths of Media Violence,” it says

The media in today’s society is very influential on children. There are many things that children at a very young age are learning, for example violence. Many children learn violent behavior and they become violent and aggressive children because they are exposed to so much mature content. Many parents are not aware of what their children are watching, and without knowing it, their children are raised by the media. Many television shows contain a lot of violence, for example kids fighting each other, kids bullying other kids and kids yelling and disrespecting their parents. Unfortunately, at a very young age children are learning to be aggressive and violent because they are spending more time watching television than spending it

The purposes of this project were to examine TV violence and analyze how TV violence may influence children’s aggression. In Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment, results showed that children who observed aggressive models toward the Bobo doll were more likely to imitate that behavior than children who observed non-aggressive models. Male children were more likely to imitate the model if they were the same-sex compared to female children. Male children displayed more physical aggression compared to female children. The females were likely to show physical aggression when they witnessed an opposite-sex model perform in an aggressive model group. However, females were likely to show verbal aggression when they witnessed a same-sex model perform in

I think that media violence definitely contributes to real world aggression especially for younger children. When people watch war movies or television shows, they tend to act more aggressively. For young children, it is something they want to copy in real life when they play with friends. People more likely to mimic what they saw on media and copy the behavior in real life. There are some criminals who are not socially friendly, watch violence television shows or play war games, go out and kill others just like when they playing games. Some people have trouble differentiating the real life and the media world.

Do behavioral issues caused by violence in the media manifest American society? Mass media researcher, Cecilia von Feilitzen (Stockholm University, Sweden), cautions against distorting a complex problem. Feilitzen believes, “there has been too much focus on the causal relations between media exposure and violence in society, with a failure to differentiate among different kinds of influences” (McLellan). People are quick to blame television violence for behavioral activities that children demonstrate, without realizing that there are other important factors that also play a role in such behavior, for example, violence in the real world. For the most part, while some people contemplate that the news for instance, is full of violence, Times Mirror, a nationwide survey found that (of 1,516 Americans conducted February 20-23) that comparing today’s generation with those of the 1980’s believe that the news amplifies the expanse of violence in America (Pew Research Center). Violence is seen throughout society, not just in the media. The problem with society is that they think that by impeding children from watching certain things, it will be less likely for them to follow in the same footsteps. Even so, if that was completely true, why is it that some of those exact children end up with a worst criminal background than those who actually grew up watching TV violence as a child? What children watch, may have some impact on their adulthood, but that is beside the point. It does not

In conclusion, that was my ten page essay about media violence and how it affects adolescent’s behavior. It was easy to write this essay because my teacher help me along the way with these dreadful essay. At first, I hated that I had to write a ten page essay about one topic because I really believed that I couldn’t make it. After my teacher explained the steps, it was a breeze. I managed my work ethic and my time to make sure that I finished before the due date. There were times where I came to a writer’s block and I wanted to give up. But I didn’t let my negative emotions hold me down from completely this essay and making my teacher proud. I had one main motivation that help me keep working despite the rough times. The desire to graduate

The findings indicated that despite the existence of a history of aggressive behaviour, the hypothesis are supported. It was also consistent with the hypothesis that extensive television viewing helps to explain the association between certain environmental risks and subsequent aggressive behaviour, and also the bidirectional relationship between television violence and aggressive behaviour.

Essentially since media is more violent than ever, and children and youth are getting more attracted to violent media. Studies on violent media shows a clear evidence that violence on media rises the possibility of aggressive behaviors in both short-term and long-term situations (Rowell Huesmann, Moise, Podolski, & Eron, 2003). Most researchers agree that aggressive behaviors are more disposed to

A range of studies assert that causes of violent behavior are complex at the level of environmental influence and compare other learning, modelling and disinhibiting factors. This is an area where opposition to the hypothesis is more common. Two longitudinal studies assessing levels of violence pre-and post the introduction of television found a positive correlation, however

Joanne H Steward and Franco Follina (2006) say that literature review has discussed evidence on the impact of exposure to violence on aggressive and inappropriate behavior. The review has provided mainly evidence that exposure to media violence affects a person's behavior negatively and has been noted to have a detrimental effect on pro-social behavior, both in the long and short term. So not only are we is the media contributing to violence in children, but it can also affect them in adulthood. This shows that violence is the affecting factor. They why are we not willing to change? Why has the system stayed the same for so very long? If violence is making our society change for the worst then why can we not change for the better?