Violence As A Social Norm In The Media

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.’’

Media violence’s history began in the 1950s when television became a mainstream media; TV networks sought a simple successful formula to increase their revenues. In present day “an average of 150 acts of violence and about 15 murders entertain us and our children every week, and that does not count cartoons and news” (Gerber, G. 1996). The average American child has viewed at least 40,000 murders and 200,000 violent acts, according to the research of TV-Turnoff Network research. The excess of violence on TV and the video game industry accompanied by the absence of parental love and involvement creates a dissident reality that can only increase the level of aggressiveness in children.

Everyone is influenced and shaped by society. Society affects our perceptions, our consciousness, and our actions. A majority of the influence, especially on the younger demographic comes through the media; specifically through television. It is important to examine how violence in the media develops a pervasive cultural environment that cultivates a heightened state of insecurity, exaggerated perceptions of risk and danger, and a fear-driven propensity for hard-line political solutions to social problems. The purpose of this essay is to evaluate the impact of television and media violence, as well as the human cost of violent media, and the overall effects on society from watching TV.

American television viewers have an insatiable appetite for televised violence, and as they become desensitized to violent images they seek out stronger images. The image providers have discovered a novel way to increase the intensity of the violent images -- move away from entertainment violence and show real violence. In the past few years real "life and death" programming has become more commonplace on television, both as news and entertainment programming. Shows like Cops, Real Life Encounters with Wild Animals, and Real Highway Pursuits have begun to appear on our television screens with an incresing regularity. These programs routinely show acts of real violence, caught on home video. Television news directors have adopted the credo "if it bleeds, it leads" to such an extent that it has almost become cliche. The thrill of watching fake violence is waning and being replaced by the drama of watching real violence. And the higher the body count, the more we watch.

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

By the age of 18, the average American television viewer has witnessed over 32,000 murders and 40,000 attempted murders on television alone (American Psychological Association). These statistics do not include such violence seen in movies or heard in music. To witness such an amount of violence is clearly unrealistic and exploitative. Violence is being used by television programs as a superficial way of grabbing and holding an audience's attention. Producers of television programs that show violence must take the responsibility of showing a realistic amount of violence on their shows. That is, they must not use gratuitous violence to appeal to male viewers, or else the violent crime rate in the United States will rise.

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

Violence in the media has become an overlying and controversial issue. On one hand, some people feel that Hollywood is becoming excessive with violence and should tone it down or remove it altogether due to the newfound correlation between fantasy violence and behavioral issues. Others note that movie producers shouldn't be held to blame for the issues of unsupervised kids and that aggressive tendencies cannot be simplified to a simple cause and effect relationship. Both authors of the passage work on each others' claims by arguing and correcting their proposals. For example, the second author uses a firsthand experience in order to protect her claims while the first author regards this as "flawed reasoning when it comes to violence in Hollywood

- Sex and and violence portrayed in media has become an important topic of how it affects the minds of individuals. There have been several debates involving whether more censorship is necessary. Sex and violence are very similar in the media however they can be treated very differently.

It is evident that tensions between truth and representation exist in all manner of situations. It can be argued that such tensions as represented through media are more influential than others.

This video explains how cultivation theory finds that the levels of violence that are displayed routinely on television and movies has desensitized the population to the effects of violence in the real world. The video show scenes of reckless, senseless violence being committed in broad daylight with bystanders seemingly aloof to the plight of the victim even after the perpetrator has left the scene. I feel that the increased amount of violence and aggressive brutality that is displayed through mass media can have some effect on a minority of the population. A strong healthy mind is capable of separating the violence that is portrayed in the media and real violence being committed on the streets of their city. This depiction of violence can

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.

In today’s society violence in the media has taken a toll, when white cops starting shooting black unarmed people. In the Washington Post, is sited the 492 people have been shot and killed by the police. There were several shootings that took place daily. The media on television would show every one of the shootings. The shootings were on Facebook, the news, and the newspaper. After showing these shootings, people would start to riot and protest. I saw the video of Philando Castile shooting on Facebook.

TV shows have been known to teach the audience lessons about life and spread knowledge to their viewers, however sometimes the violence depicted in programs can get out of hand. TV shows often have a meaning behind every episode but sometimes the amount of violence shown blurs that meaning. Most of these shows have an audience of young viewers from the ages of 10 and above, and being this young children’s minds are the most bendable and adaptable to their morals in life. As television is one of the stronger influences on the morals of children which can lead to various amounts of negative effects on the young audience if violence is depicted in the show. One effect that happens immediately is that it educates the viewer about violence being ok to do and there will be no punishment. Another short term is that the viewer will become desensitized of violence. With these immediate and short-term effects, a long-term effect of a violent lifestyle as adults can develop in the viewer. Violent tv shows can lead a future generation to believe that violence is an everyday thing and it is ok to be violent.

“In 1972, the Surgeon General issued the following warning on violent TV programs: “It is clear to me that the causal relationship between televised violence and antisocial behavior is sufficient to warrant appropriate and immediate remedial action. … There comes a time when the data are sufficient to justify action. That time has come.”” (Steinfeld, 1972). In the decades since hundreds of studies have been done on the effects of violent media exposure and violence. 1972 was an age of censored television violence, and violence on television was still seen as detrimental too many people. Here now in 2014 with television shows seemingly being uncensored with the amount of violence shown and the language used,