Violence in the Media - Research Paper Example

Taking a modern example of a person glancing through the pages of a newspaper, who happens to see an illustration of a man drenched in blood, what effect could that person have had upon seeing such a horrifying picture? Negative emotions such as fear and disgust would have developed in his heart. It is natural, there is no doubt. But after the development of this negative emotion, would it lead to any kind of violence on the part of the person? The answer is probably a YES. Understanding the Meaning of Violence and its Historical Existence Violence has been described as an “intentional physical or/and psychical damage to a person, a living being or a thing, through another person.

” (Arnold, 2007, p. 2, as cited in Kunczik, 1994, p. 15).Violence in the media is, however, not a phenomenon of the present. Some historical works and events also display and promote acts of violence such as one of Shakespeare’s play called the Hamlet contains fighting scenes, where fighting is an act of violence. Media was not that developed in historical times. However, the current media which includes: television, newspapers, video games and mainly the internet, giving easy exposure of information to the society, has further helped the escalation of the display of violence; consequently, bringing more negativity into the society.

Violent representations are so deeply ingrained in our culture. Story telling, master pieces of literature and art, fairy tales and folk-lore, theatre and opera of historical times also contained the element of violence. And presently, the television programs, movies, children cartoons, newspapers and the internet are not free from the depictions of violence. Ubiquity of violent representations has become a part of everyday life for the society. Turn on the television or pick up any newspaper, one may surely find some element of violence in them.

For example, a television program showing a documentary related to the war on terrorism is a form of violent display or showing the aftermaths of a natural disaster. (Trend, 2007, p. 3, 4). Affects of Media Violence on the Society Depictions of violence through media have affected the society mainly in a negative way. Scientific studies and research have also found out the existence of some negative behavior due to media violence; especially among the children and the youth of today. Two major affects that will be discussed here are: aggression and depression.

These affects are mainly psychological in nature and may also lead to physical violence. One may have observed aggressive attitudes among children who play video games which are violent in nature such as fighting games or any other game that has a difficulty level so high that a child is unable to win the game. Such games make a child aggressive because he wants to win the fight or any difficult game. Aggression is displayed through a physical or verbal attack. A verbal aggression, for example, is when children tend to say bad words and a physical aggression can be seen when they hit each other if one of them is winning and the other is loosing.

Albert Bandura performed a study recently in which he found out that aggression is a learned behavior. He took the children