Peoples Reaction to Media Violence - Research Paper Example

People’s Reaction to Media Violence Introduction The sphere of media has reached a significant level of development, bringing many benefits and making human life much easier. It is possible to receive information in any point at any time, the news is available twenty-four/seven, and entertaining purposes are easily reached. Like any phenomenon, however, media now abounds in violence, which adversely affects people’s minds. The purpose of this paper is to investigate which way media violence influences human life. Hypotheses The hypotheses of this paper are that the media violence affects human activity, and the effects of such influence may be long-term and very negative, and that people must react to such phenomenon, probably, in a defensive way. Methodology The methods chosen are the reference source studying and analysis of the information about modern investigations in the field of media. Results There is no unified and generally accepted definition of media violence today, however, the meaning of the words making the concept is clear: media violence is any act of violence displayed in the media – TV, games, cartoons. Any act of violence is understood under the word ‘violence’: any kind of abuse, murder, physical and mental harm. Taking into account an extremely wide spread and easy accessibility of television and internet to anyone, violent content is shown to the part of society which may be not ready for such scenes – the children. The researches on media violence and its effect on children started in the early 1960s, and then the first results stated already that children’s exposure to movies and television violence increased the violent behavior risk. (Huesmann, 2007). A research of the 1970s in this field showed that a child which was about to finish elementary school had seen about eight thousand scenes of murders and more than one hundred thousand of other violent actions on the screens of their TVs. (Grimes, 2013). Another point of concern which changes people’s, especially, children’s, perception of violence as a totally negative model of behavior is that violence on the screen is often presented in a playful form as a means of time passing and entertaining of the movie characters. In this regard, children may adopt the same behavior motivating it by the fact that the TV provides such an example, and the characters behaving this way enjoy it and are very rarely punished for it. This way, the borderline between the real violence and the fictional one gets lost, and children do not realize consequences of their violent behavior not only for the others, but also for themselves. (Grimes, 2013). Not only the scenes of violence damage children’s psychics, but also these scenes are mostly accompanied with the presence of weapons in hands of the movies and games characters. Weapon is a thing which today related mostly to self-defense rather than to attack the others, and also a thing that should be used and possessed responsibly. Weapon is also represented in cartoons in an entertaining and playful way, making children used to images and application of various its kinds, and playing with peers after watching cartoons with weapons use is often accompanied by injuries and damages. When a child is asked about the reasons of such behavior, the answer is that such scenes are present in cartoons and the characters do not bear any health damages, which is a proof of loss of the border between the reality and the imagination. (Saturnine III, 2004). The above mentioned information refers to a passive kind of media – watching movies and cartoons. There is another kind of media called interactive, and it comprises computer, video and other kinds of games. It is called interactive because a player, unlike the film viewer who only perceives the plot, takes his own actions and influences the development of the gameplay, and he is usually not limited to any constraints and can use any means for completing the objectives of the games. Most games today contain various weaponry, especially an extremely popular game genre today – shooters, and easiness of its application – by just clicking the mouse or keypad button – leaves no time to have a think about the consequences of such actions, as well as about interpolation of such behavior to the reality, when such actions would seriously injure the real people. This creates a habit of perception of violent behavior and taking it for granted, and modern society faced several accidents which were caused by excessive playing games involving shooting activity. In 1999, there was an accident in Brazil: one day, a 24-year-old Mateus da Costa Meira, a student of medical educational institution and a supposed ‘computer devotee’, entered a cinema in San Paulo and started shooting, as a result of which three people were killed and eight were wounded. The investigation held after the accident proved that the man had excessive passion to computer games, particularly those offering a big amount of violent shooting as an element of the gameplay. (Mullen, 1999). A recent accident in Sandy Hook Elementary School, shooting by Adam Lanza, a 20-year-old student, shot 6 adults being members of staff and 20 children, also was related to computer games influence: the investigation showed that Lanza played Call of Duty, a game famous for its realistic weaponry and physics regarding injuries and wounds (Grimes, 2013). These accidents make people react to their adverse influence on both the criminals affected by violent computer games and their victims suffering from their unacceptable behavior. Brazil, for example, after the above mentioned accident in San Paulo banned violent computer games, such as Mortal Kombat, Doom, Blood, Requiem, Duke Nukem, and Postal. Punishment for violation of the local Ministry of Justice order – selling the mentioned games – was very severe: a fine of about 11,000 US dollars per every day. Parents are also forced to react to violence in cartoons and TV content. The recent research proves that violent behavior imposed on the children by the TV content has long-term effect because children accept this model of behavior and apply it for a very long time. (Thoman, 2011). As it is practically impossible to change the schedule of the TV films and programs and modify the content shown on the screen – this has become commercialized, and money paid for it matter more for TV companies than children’s health – parents feel themselves left alone to struggle against this harmful influence on their sons and daughters. Because of this they have developed their own techniques of resistance which include the following actions. The first method is reducing children’s exposure to violent media content: it is obvious that the less a child watches violent films the less influence it causes. Parents limit children’s time spent in front of the TVs, and they also control random watching: many parents suggest that children should not do it without parental control. The second technique is modification of the violence scenes seen by the children: parents discuss them with their children. “Dont simply say to kids, "Violence is bad for you and you shouldnt watch it." Instead, encourage them to develop an awareness of violence when they see it and understand its consequences through their own experience. Critical-thinking skills will stay with kids when you can’t be there.”, advices Elizabeth Thoman, a leader in the media literacy sphere. (Thoman, 2011). The third way to decrease harmful impact of violence is a search for the activities which could substitute watching TV: when a child takes up a new activity, it becomes interesting and takes much time, which means decrease of the time devoted to useless sitting in front of the TV. The fourth method, talking with other parents, is helpful first of all for the parents themselves, as they share their ideas and experience on how to avoid exposure of the children to media violence. The fifth and the last recommendation is bringing the problem to the national level – parents’ participation in nationwide debates on how to amend the TV content and to consider its influence on children audience. (Thoman, 2011). Conclusion The problem of media violence has become very actual since media wide expansion. The scenes of violence get more and more widely used in media products, and exposure to violent media content adversely affects humans: it was reported of at least two cases of shooting in public places with casualties influenced by excessive playing violent computer games – San Paulo theater, 1999 and Sandy Hook Elementary School, 2012. This proves the first hypothesis of the paper – media violence adversely affects human beings. The second hypothesis – adverse influence of media violence has long-term effects – has also been proved, because Elizabeth Thoman’s research states that children exposed to violent media content tend to choose aggressive behavior model on a long-term basis. (Thoman, 2011).   Works Cited Grimes, T. Define Violence in the Media: Column. 2013. Web. 26 April 2015. Huesmann, L. The Impact of Electronic Media Violence: Scientific Theory and Research. 2007. Web. 26 April 2015. Mullen, M. Brazil Bans More Games. 1999. Web. 26 April 2015. Saturnine III, R. The Adverse Effects of Cartoons on the Minds of Our Children. 2004. Web. 26 April 2015. Thoman, E. What Parents Can Do about Media Violence. 2011. Web. 26 April 2015. Read More