Violence in the Mass Media - Term Paper Example

8 December, Violence in the mass media: With the rise of technology, many new forms of media have surfaced that have served to influence the society as a whole in their own respective ways. Commercials displayed on internet and television that are specifically meant for juveniles are so numerous in number that they are accounted for at least $ 12 billion a year of the industry’s total expenditure on ads and commercials, exposing a child to more than 40000 commercials on average annually (Dittmann). Being an intrinsic trait of the American culture, mass media assumes huge tendency to influence people (“Mass media”). This paper discusses some of the potential ways, violence in the mass media has affected the society. Ethical and moral issues: Because of the violence displayed in the media, a lot of ethical and moral standards have been challenged. In a conservative society, children are denied access to vulgar material at least till the time they reach adolescence. This can fundamentally be attributed to the fact that access of children to sexually explicit material rises negative thoughts in them and affects their psychological health adversely. Not being in a position to understand the gravity of such things, children fall prey to them and indulge in negative activities that are detrimental not only for their physical health, but also their social life. An individual’s social interaction is an outcome of the way he/she thinks. By altering an individual’s thoughts, violence in the mass media tends to alter the whole society negatively. There has been a rise in the cases of violence ever since the mass media was introduced into the society. Number of murders, rape, thefts and robberies has sky-rocketed in the contemporary, mass media influenced society. A lot of research has been conducted to justify this. As a result of the display of increasingly violent issues on media, the moral and ethical values and norms are at stake. It functions like a slow poison. In the start, people are highly allergic to the vulgarity displayed on media, and condemn it in all possible ways. People tend to switch off such channels. Gradually, people tend not to turn off the television but prefer to watch such shows alone. With the course of time, people develop endurance to such an extent that they can see the same shows with family. Gradually, what they see becomes a part of their life and they start indulging in similar practices in their own practical life. Ultimately, the whole society adapts itself to the trends displayed on mass media. Therefore, violence displayed in the mass media becomes part of the culture and finds its roots in the intrinsic ideology of people. Stakeholders: Children are the biggest stakeholders in this matter and gain the maximum effect than any other age-group of people. What children perceive and what they do reflects what trends will be followed in the society in the future. Today’s children are tomorrow’s parents. They will teach their children in the future what they learn today. Mass media is the conventionally employed as the biggest source of information in all societies all over the world in the present age. Children are the biggest stakeholders when the effects of violence in mass media are considered. The agencies that are benefiting from the violence displayed in mass media are the corporate bodies that make media a fundamental means of business. Particularly, violent shows benefit the forces such as police in that police tends to discover newer ways in which crime may be done. These days, there is a general trend all over the world to display such programs in the television that discuss crime cases like murders, rapes etc. The acts of violence is displayed in the form of melodramas, or short duration screen plays. In order to lend them a touch of reality, actors play specific roles and practically display the way a crime had been conducted. Such an overt expression of violence may be detrimental to the innocent minds of little children, though on the other hand, such programs become a good source of information for the concerned agencies. Means and methods can be developed to help avoid such situations after an awareness has been created about them through media. Third type of stakeholder is the criminals themselves, who are both positively and adversely affected by the violence displayed in the media. With an increase in awareness among the public in general, it becomes increasingly difficult for the criminals to practice violence in the conventional ways and they have to make more effort to discover new ways of conducting similar violence. This is one way mass media positively affects the society. However, the education it offers to the children is more destructive for the nation. Hence, violence in the mass media can not be justified merely for the help, it provides to the anti-criminal agencies. Some morally relevant facts about violence in mass media:  An analysis of the 33 most liked and played video games among elementary children and others between grade 4 and grade 8 suggests that as many as 21% of such games require the children to achieve goals based upon violence against women (American Academy of Pediatrics cited in Vickiilene). However, these facts highlight only a certain type of violence i.e. against women. There are yet other types of violence that the mentioned percentage of video games does not cover. Such violent acts include but are not limited to murder, abuse (both verbal and physical), humiliation in public and physical assault ranging from slap to murder. Past research has shown that an average individual in US has viewed 200000 acts of violence just on TV till the time he/she turns 18 (CNN, US), what to talk of other forms of media. (Kelemen) recorded the number of violent acts viewed on screen by American child on average. As per the statistics noted by (Kelemen), an American child watches as many as 12000 acts of violence every year on screen. In the beginning of 1990, MTV showed 22 violent acts on the average every hour, half of which were based on extremely severe physical assaults. In the same report, it is mentioned that only within three years from 1990, number of violent acts per hour rose to 38 particularly in the prime-time shows and the programs also increased in harshness and violence. From 1993 to 1997, number of violent acts watched by a child per year rose from 10000 to 12000 respectively. Later years recorded higher numbers against more violent shows (Kelemen). Crime in the society is enhanced as more violent programs are displayed on the media. (Kelemen) also mentioned in his article that number of criminal cases per hour rose on the average from 6.2 to 30 from 1952 to 1992 as the society became more and more influenced by media. Possible courses of action to combat the evils of mass media: Media has propagated to the roots of society and it is indeed, very difficult to block children’s access to it. However, measures need to be exercised so that the potential ways in which violence in mass media damages the society can be minimized. Parents can play a big role in minimizing the susceptibility of little children to gain the impacts of violence in mass media. Much of the tendency among children to gain the influence of violence in such forms of media like video games can be attributed to the fact that parents generally tend to be ignorant of the activities their children are indulged in. Many parents hardly find time to supervise the routinely activities of their children. In a vast majority of cases, both of the parents are working, hence spend most of their time outside the home. Children take advantage of their busy schedule and fall prey to the violence in mass media. A research carried out by Walsh investigated juveniles to learn the trends generally prevalent among their parents with respect to supervision of the children (PAMF). Many of the children that were involved in the study mentioned that their parents paid little attention to the kind of video games they played and also did not know the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rating of the games they played (PAMF). Many even said that their parents did not impose any time limitations upon them as they played the video games. Hence, the children were totally on their own. Parents should keep an eye on their children. Likewise, child care providers should supervise and monitor the interaction of children with all forms of media including television, film and video games (APA). Government should primarily ban all violence based programs as they do more harm than good. Similar attempts have successfully been made in the past. For example, “Plato proposed to ban poets from his ideal republic, because he feared that their stories about immoral behaviour would corrupt young minds” (Chandler). Television should ensure the labeling of all programs as per the level of violence they project. There should be clear indication of the type of material contained in the program in the label. Technology should provide parents with room to customize the television programs as per the level of freedom they want to provide their children with, and parents should be educated on such procedures by government for free. Schools should include such subjects in the curriculum that would educate the children on the negative aspects of viewing such programs, so as to inculcate an urge to avoid such programs. The predictable effects of each action: There may be irritation among the public in the initial days of implementation of such strategies, yet public agitation can be regulated by indication of the results of display of violent programs on television. Labeling the television programs will decrease unnecessary interaction of children with violent programs. Parents will have great relief to have such technology that would allow them to limit their children’s exposure to violence in media. Music has always been a source of influence for public. Evaluation of possible outcomes: Violence in the mass media has been one of the topics, that have invited huge debate in the contemporary society, ever since the evolution of mass media (“Children and Media”). Media has played a big role in spreading the awareness among masses in general, and has influenced the mentality of the juveniles in particular. Music has all the power to mould human beliefs gradually and effectively (Lewis 94). Therefore, production of such music should be encouraged that would educate children on the negative aspects of violent media. Parents, mentors and artists should collectively struggle to limit child exposure to violent media. Works cited: Chandler, Daniel. “Television Violence and Childrens Behaviour.” 22 Dec. 2004. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. . “Children and Media Violence.” Advameg, Inc. 2010. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. . Dittmann, Melissa. “Protecting children from advertising.” American Psychological Association. vol. 35, no. 6. June 2004. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. . Kelemen, Lawrence. “What they dont want you to know about television and videos.” 28 Dec. 2002. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. . Lewis, G. Craig. The Truth Behind Hip Hop. USA: Thomson Nelson. 1982. “Mass Media and Violence.” n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. . “The Impact of Video Games on Children.” Palo Alto Medical Foundation. 2010. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. . Vickiilene. “Do Violent Video Games Influence Children.” LoveToKnow Corp. 2010. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. . “Violence in Mass Media”. American Psychological Association. 2010. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. . “Youth violence puts the spotlight on mass media.” CNN, US. 26 March 1998. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. . Read More