Violence in the Media Makes Society More Violent - Essay Example

Violence in the Media makes Society more Violent Name Course Instructor’s Name 10th April 2010 Garbage In garbage out is a common term in computers (Coyne, 2007). They also say that what one hears or watches so much translates into behavior. It then goes without saying that violence in the media makes society more violent. Violence in the media could either be psychological or physical. Physical violence occurs in instances when the media and especially the television channels air programs that are violent or that have obscene scenes of violence. It could also occur when there are instances of violence around the world and they are constantly aired in the news whose main agenda is to keep the world on top of events (Haugen, 2007). Psychological violence on the other hand occurs when the minds of the victims are tortured and they are subjected to instances of torture. This paper focuses on putting across the point that media violence should be reduced so as to avoid influencing negatively on the society. It endorses the fact that media violence affects the rate of violence in the world. The question of whether media violence has caused real life violence has been asked again and again and the answer has varied between different groups (Andersen & Taylor, 2005). Some say yes and give support for this, others say no, and as well, they support their argument. Media uses violence as a way of entertaining the public and for some reason this gives them large audience. However observing closely the behavior of those people who are tied to watching such series, they most times tend to be violent. Such people are violent even on very light provocation (Coyne, 2007). This is because they are used to watching violent scenes and sometimes it becomes like an addiction. Some spend close to twenty four hours glued to their screens and this is all they watch. Their behavior more often than not becomes transformed to match what they watch. Good evidence that media violence even when used for entertainment causes real life violence is the ancient Egyptian society. In the period between 2000 B.C and 44 AD, they had an entertainment series that depicted the murder of their God Osiris and statistics collected in that season suggested that copycat killings were reported on very regular basis. This implies that most murder cases that were reported were in the exact same style that the Osiris God was murdered in that entertainment series (Kirsh, 2006). It was more like people were now deriving pleasure from these instances of murder and they were now making it into a common practice. This is a clear depiction of the fact that media violence inevitably affects the morals as well as the judgment of the viewers. Eventually as expressed in the above example they turn it into practice (Andersen & Taylor, 2005). The effect of media violence on children is a common question. Psychology studies suggest that the best times to influence an individuals mind is when they are still children (McKie & Singer, 2001). This they argue is because the brain is still young and it has a higher retention capacity. The psychologists further suggest that children who are exposed to ill treatment and negative abuse tend to grow into psychologically malnourished adults. This is when the argument of media violence and its effects on children arises (Coyne, 2007). It goes without saying that when children spend most of their times or whatever proportion of time watching scenes of violence their brains take it in and it definitely translates into behavior (Nofziger & Kurtz, 2005).. A good example is the behavior that children show after watching programs such as wrestling (Andersen & Taylor, 2005). It is clearly observed that after watching the program such as wrestling more often than not they will soon after the program ends starts to fight and pull those same moves on each other. They try to imitate whom they term as their heroes in those programs. They will climb on high walls or places and try to jump, and land on each other just like they observed in those programs (Haugen, 2007). Yet to the media the only mission of such a program is to entertain their audience. In fact due to, high demand that these programs may attract they tend to air more and more of these at the demand of the public. Nevertheless, evidently the youngsters are affected negatively. These programs that have scenes 5that are so violent affect the attitude as well as the behavior of these young stars and they might never recover from the effects as we saw what a child does when they are young is what they might do even when they mature for a long, long, time. Another form of media violence is exhibited in the video games that are readily available in the stores for teenagers. The games with obscene scenes most times are age restrictive. The nature of teenagers however is always to get what it is they know they are denied. This is mainly due to the inquisitive nature of these teenagers. The stalls will always give out the games to the teens so long as they pay the fee required (Haugen, 2007). Some of these games one earns points by doing what is termed as heroic. In some, one earns points by stealing drugs in stores. In others points are earned by shooting or gunning down the competitor o even by carjacking. When a child or a teen in that case plays these games they are likely to learn and be impacted negatively and this is believed to be part of what influences the errand kids who most times end up in the juvenile system for rehabilitation (Coyne, 2007). There are also games in which sexual and obscene sights are shown like wrestlers having sex with prostitutes and then beating them to death. This is further proved when these errand kids are in counseling classes and they reveal part of the cause of their behavior is because they want to be like their heroes in these games and also in the violent movies (Kirsh, 2006). Another very influential form of media is the movies, which are aired in the television channels, and they are also readily available in the stores. There are violent movies where by the good people find themselves in a situation where the only solution for them to get out of trouble is to be violent so as to defeat their rivals in the movie. Often times these are the heroes in these games and the people watching when they find themselves in such awkward situations result to violence (Andersen & Taylor, 2005). Music and music videos also have scenes of violence. A good example is Eminem’s song and video Kill you in which he plans to rape and kill his mother, which could very well influence a person who terms him as, his role model and hero. He also has a song Kim which advocates for date rape and this can also affect teens who view him as their role model because statistics show that he is popular with the teens and even adults and his songs advocate for disrespect for women (Nofziger & Kurtz, 2005). Another fact in support of this is that in areas. That are highly crime invested and each day there are either terrorist attacks, the scenes of violence being aired in the media is the order of the day. However, we find that to the children who watch these happenings and even adults are psychologically affected (Andersen & Taylor, 2005). They are running away from the fear and the terror of what if this happens to me. Therefore, they definitely look for a defense mechanism each time they see another murder or another attack and scenes of innocent blood shed. The cries of their hearts they so diligently seek to hide (Coyne, 2007). They react differently but they remain psychologically and emotionally affected. Some will tend to identify with war heroes in such programs as wrestling or in action movies as terminator and they term such people as their role models. Others will want to hide in a corner each time they hear of violence and they develop a phobia like behavior (Olson, 2004). It was also observed that the Romans of the past used to watch lethal sports. In those ancient days, bloodshed was the order of the day as it was reported on several occasions (Savage, 2008). In conclusion, media violence has brought to a rise the cases of violence in the society through affecting people either directly or indirectly. The direct proportion connection between people who commit crime and those who watch violent media series is a clear indication of the impact that media violence has on the society. It is there fore important that there be a guard or a ban placed by the government on the media on the content of the media programs. This should especially apply to the private media who air grotesque pictures in their programs. The other measure would also be to ban music that has violent scenes and whose message advocate for violence. They should even put charges on them so as to act as a warning to all the other musicians. The video games should also focus on more positive activities so as to influence positive behavior on those who watch them. This in turn will see to it that media affects the morals of the society in a positive manner and this will reduce the violent rates reported around the world. References Andersen, M. & Taylor, H., 2005. Sociology: understanding a diverse society, 4th Ed. London: Cengage Learning. Coyne, S., 2007. Does media violence cause violent crime? European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 13 (3-4), pp. 205-211 Doi: 10.1007/s10610-007-9044-5 Haugen, D., 2007. Is media violence a problem? New York: Greenhaven Press. Kirsh, S., 2006. Children, adolescents, and media violence: a critical look at the research. New York: SAGE Publishers. McKie, C. & Singer, B., 2001. Communications in Canadian Society, 5th Ed. Toronto: Thompson Educational. Nofziger, S. & Kurtz, D., 2005. Violent lives: A lifestyle model linking exposure to violence to juvenile violent offending. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 42, pp. 3-26. Olson, C., 2004. Media violence research and youth violence data: why do they conflict? Academy Psychiatry, 28, pp. 144-150. Savage, J., 2008. The role of exposure to media violence in the entiology of violent behaviours: A criminologist weighs in. American Behavioural Scientist, 51, pp. 1123-1136. Read More