Essay on The Effect of Media Violence on Children

Violent media exposure of children or adults to violent media is a cause of aggression and violent behavior has been one of the most intensely debated issues in criminal justice and the broader populace. Concern have come and gone that media such as comic books, as well as television and movies, would lead to waves of rebelliousness, violence, and moral degradation. Sherry

It is a matter of great importance how much of media content children are exposed to and what exactly they are viewing on media. The issue of violence is not a new phenomenon among children and keeps increasing with time and change in technology and information technology. The causes of violence in children are seen to be multifactorial and exposure of children to media violence is said to be an important factor when it comes to the etiology of behaviors that are violent among children.

In his book, More Than a Movie: Ethics in Entertainment, F. Miguel Valenti examines nine “hot buttons” of violence – “creative elements that filmmakers use to manipulate viewers’ reactions to onscreen violence.” (99) These elements, posited by researchers conducting The National Television Violence Study (Valenti, 99) are “choice of perpetrator, choice of victim, presence of consequences, rewards and punishments, the reason for the violence, weapons, realism, use of humor, and prolonged exposure” (Valenti, 100) .

(1).The problem is that in the last four decades, the government and the public health amassed an impressive body of evidence identifying the impact of media violence on children. Since 1969, when President [Lyndon] Johnson formed the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, the body of data has effectively grown and grown and it leads to an unambiguous and virtually unanimous conclusion: media violence contributes to

So with this said, we all care for the children and how they behave. We all want the children to do well, and if teaching them to value and appropriately use violent media to help build up confidence then so be it.

Many would agree that these types of movies create many different fantasies and lead people to act out what they see in movies on others in real life. Some others would suggest that parents should watch movies with their children and get them involved with after school programs, and teaching them about their culture. I strongly agree with those suggestions, if parents fail their children it is a strong possibility that they will grow up to be serial killers. Revenge on society is terrible due to early abuse and rejection which has taught them passivity. Only in their world violent fantasies do they feel real and alive. What they go out in do to their victims is beyond unreal.

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.

Many people still have several questions they want answered, such as, is media violence actually affecting children or are children already prone to violence drawn to media violence? Some experts have shown short and long-term negative effects occur in children from watching violent media; however another group of experts have shown that media violence is only one of many risk factors leading to aggression developed in children. These two groups need to continue more research and go beyond that to find true solutions. Nevertheless, no sources were found to say that media violence has no influence on the increase in modern culture’s violent actions. The key to discovering the true correlation between violence in children and media violence is to continue research until a solution is

In the article titled Violence Media Is Good for Kids Jones stated that “When we try to protect our children from their own feelings and fantasies, we shelter them not against violence but against power and selfhood” (Jones 184). This quote embodies how many teenagers have felt throughout time. In addtion, violence has been surrounding us for many years however people seem to blame the influx of violence on media. Further,

Murderers usually have something mentally wrong or have a motive; what if a movie was inspiration for a murderer? Movies today have increased on the violence shown in them and this can be a serious problem. This can lead to an outbreak of violent crimes in our society. In Arline Kaplan's article Violence in the Media: What Effects on Behavior? she talks about the effects media violence has on viewers. Violence in movies should be moderated, shown through the stories of James Holmes and Thierry Jaradin.

This leads to lack of sympathy for victims of violence, notably in children. The surgeon general, National Health Institute and other professional medical organizations such as the American Medical Association and American Psychological Association have linked exposure to media violence to societal violence. The author argues that these studies may not be of considerable importance to claim that media violence is a public health risk. There other factors that are of more concern for societal violence such as being male or female, socioeconomic status, and intelligence. More research needs to be done before arguing media violence has a role in societal violence. I chose this article because it associates societal violence with the film industry. We see how different members of the film industry respond after a violent school shooting committed by an adolescent male. It shows opposing views of whether or not media violence affects behaviour, stating that the general public doesn’t believe it plays a role in

One reason for this could be people do not understand the appeal of violent content. Professor Jeffery Goldstein goes into why we, as a species, love to indulge in violence. In his book “Why We Watch” he says the allure of violence can be explained by analyzing the audience of violent content. Goldstein suggests our infatuation with violence is based more on our vision of virtue and justice rather than our nature. Goldstein backs this up by saying the writers for television programs make it so the viewer becomes attached to the hero who has traits which are stereotypically good. By having a main character with the traits of a good, moral person it is very easy to ensure fans will be drawn to him or her. Apparently this is true because most people’s morals will be the same as the character’s and give them an avenue to relate to him or her. He claims violent media is most commonly viewed by groups of males. The reason for this being they serve as prime situations for male bonding to occur. Even if somebody partakes in violent content by themselves there is still a social aspect to it. Having experiencing a movie or a video game gives you the ability to have conversations about it with other people, even if you experienced it by yourself. Also violent imagery provokes a strong emotional impact. Some people

The children of today are surrounded by technology and entertainment that is full of violence. It is estimated that the average child watches from three to five hours of television a day! Listening to music is also a time consuming pastime among children. With all of that exposure, one might pose the question, "How can seeing so much violence on television and video games and hearing about violence in in music affect a child's behavior?" Obviously these media have a big influence on childrens' behavior: we can see it in the way they attempt to emulate their favorite rock stars by dressing in a similar style and the way children play games, imitating their favorite cartoon personalities or super

            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.

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.