Violence and Media (Research Paper Sample)

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Violence and Media
Violent activities have been in the human societies for long periods of time. Currently, increasing violence in the society is one of the main problems affecting the modern society. It is now easier for most people to access explosives and firearms, which make the efficiency and scope of violent activities in the society to have serious consequences. In recent years, there have been several reports of school shootings. The rate of adolescent homicide cases has also escalated at high rates. The major causes of youth violence include several variables such as psychiatric disorders, youth’s exposure to community violence, poverty, child abuse and substance use.
However, the recent research literature has shown that the increased rate of violent behavior among the youths has been influenced by their exposure to media violence. Even though it is hard to determine the number of children affected by media violence, research shows that media violence is a major factor influencing violent activities in the youths. How dangerous is violence, media to youths and kids? In trying to answer this question, this essay will discuss violence media and its effects on youths. The paper will also provide possible solutions on how parents can control the amount of influence that media has on their kids.
In a research done in 2009 by the American Academy of Pediatrics, media violence contributes to nightmares and aggressive behavior to the victim. A report released by ISRA on media violence shows that many studies have been conducted, which have shown that watching violent movies and television programs affect the mind of the consumer, which increase their chances of developing aggressive behavior. Published meta-analysis of the effects of violent video games on the player shows that an exposure to violent games makes the player have an aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, aggressive behavior and decreased pro-social behavior and empathy (Sparks, 107). Experts claim that in most homicide cases, the victim and victimizers know each other pretty well, have conflict going on and have a weapon with them. However, in rare cases, hit men kill strangers.
Professional pediatrics claims that there is a lot of new evidence of how fast-paced, violent video games affect the brain functioning of the player if the player is highly exposed to them. The high exposure dampens the emotional responses of the player, while his or her executive control of external factors is decreased (Sparks, 106). However, the professional pediatrics also claims that the fast-paced video games have some positive effects to the development of the player's mind. They can improve the spatial-visual skills of the player. They also improve the ability of the player to extract any information from a source, for example, a computer screen.
Media violence has been on the rise, where it has reached dangerous proportions. It does not require a keen observer to note that televised content and movies contain violence. One of the main effects of the increased violence in media is that it has distorted reality. The main problem is that most people live in the televised fiction, which makes fictional word to be their reality. According to research done, an average American spends approximately five hours per day watching videos, with 98% of the videos being on normal TV sets. In the modern TV programs, almost two-thirds contain physical or verbal violence.
Researches also show that most video games contain some violence, with the producers receiving most of the blame. According to experts, the video game producers are only concerned about making more money, which make them ignore the age of their potential audience (Sparks, 107). Entertainment nowadays is seen as a form of propaganda for violence. In addition, violence in the media has made it easier for the gun manufacturing companies to market their guns. Gun manufacturers do not need to advertise their product since it has already been made by the entertainment industry.
In defending their argument that violence in the media does not affect youths, some people question how televised violence can result in aggressive behavior in an adolescent. However, researchers have shown that young children have a tendency of imitating the aggressive acts they see on their televisions when playing with their peers (Sparks, 107). Before children reach four years, they are not in a position to differentiate fact from fantasy, which makes them see violence as a norm. The violence shown in movies and television shows a method of conflict resolution, which is frequent, inconsequential and efficient.
In all movies, heroes are usually violent, where they are considered heroes due to their violent behavior. These heroes are always seen as role models by the youths. Youths see it “cool” to carry explosive or automatic weapons to beat the bad guys. Even though most movies show typical scenarios where the hero uses violence for the right cause, youths may translate this into their daily lives. Thus, they can easily use violence when dealing with anyone they perceive victimizers, justifying their actions. Hence, an adolescent who has been offended may result to using violence as a way of solving problems (Kirsh, 214). It is so unfortunate that the media shows very few, if any, nonviolent ways of solving the conflict. Additionally, youths who are used to televised violence become desensitized to it, where they see it as part of their lives.
Children and youths are exposed to new ways of violence. In a recent study, about 15% of music videos show interpersonal violence. Children and youths are also subjected to violence through video games and the web. Even though there is no much evidence on the amount of violence that the internet contain, there is great concern about websites that may be of great influence to youths. For instance, there are sites that provide information on how one can create an explosive device. Other sites reveal how one can easily acquire firearms (Kirsh, 214).
Experts have also researched on how violent video games affect children and adolescents. According to experts, violent video game characters can be seen as role-models by some youths. For example, players in the Grand Theft Auto have a false belief of heroism in them, where they try to emulate some of the activities in the game. This is a great concern to the experts, who believe that video game players as well as television viewers should always be passive.
Managing violence in kids
The good news is that parents can control how violence in media affects their kids. Even though experts claim that there is no factor that can make a nonviolent person aggressive, violent behavior in kids can be facilitated by the kids’ heavy exposure to aggressive media. Adolescents exposed to a lot of many risk factors such as conflict at home and aggression in their parents have a high likelihood of behaving in an aggressive manner.
However, parents can expose their kids to the media that show and reflect their personal values. The recommended media should also object stuff that does not reflect the personal values of the parents. Media and technology offers great benefits to the human race, which include the ability to teach them valuable skills. One of the ways how a parent can contr...