The amount of violence in the media has grown over the years. Violence is portrayed every day through television, video games, movies, music, toys and other media. Most of the long term effects of violence in the media are more severe by television, movies, or music. Studies show that people who watch a lot of television behave more aggressively. Not only can it make you more aggressive, but you will be more prone to use violence and aggression as a way of solving conflicts. Viewers tend to see the world as a hostile place and be less trusting of people. These negative effects will be accelerated as violence becomes more graphic in the media. This is an effort to attract and hold the audience. Entertainment violence in the media can affect both children and adults. Examples of violence in the media is shown through cartoons and wrestling.
Although there have been some studies directing the influence of adults and mediated violence, children are more effected by violence in the media. An average American child will watch three to four hours of television a day. TV can be a powerful influence in developing and shaping behavior. Many studies on children and teenagers have found that they become immune to the horror of violence, accept violence as a way to solve violence, imitate violence they observe on TV, and identify with certain characters.
Two mass communication theories that best describes how mediated violence affects members of our society is the modeling theory and desensitization theory. Based on the modeling theory, children will watch the violent acts performed by a character in the media and try and reenact that behavior. Children believe that this violent act will become useful in handling a relevant situation. The media content from which the child watched is usually always rewarded for their violent acts and never punished. This is one reason for why kids believe it is acceptable to perform violent acts to others. The next hypothesis to explain the link between media violence and aggression is the idea of desensitization. According to this belief, with repeated exposure to media violence an emotional adjustment takes place and such levels of anxiety diminish over time. A studied showed that the lower the level of negative emotion towards media violence may reduce the urgency to respond to violence in the real world.
One of the worst mediated contents to portray violence to children and adults is television. Children’s main time for viewing television is between the hours of eight and nine. George Gerber believed that all violent media should be blacked out during this time. Cartoons outperform any other show on TV for violent acts.
For example, on an episode of Pokémon, the violent acts were physical, verbal, and intimidating. The episode took place at a grand festival where Dawn and Ursula batteled to move on to the 16th round of the challenge and potentially win the contest. Dawn and Ursula’s Pokémon’s characters fought against each other, while dawn and Ursula told them what powers to use. Gabite and Flarech were Ursula’s Pokémon characters, and Mamoswine and Pachirisu were Dawn’s. The amount of physical violent acts was numerous. Ursula used intimidation and verbal factors towards Dawn to make her feel powerless. The violent acts were rewarded to Dawn when she won the fight.
A wrestling match is another example of a violent act performed on Television. The extreme championship wrestling episode displayed two characters named Boogeyman and Paul Burchill. The two men’s alter ego were portrayed as overly powerful. The fight consisted of countless acts of physical, verbal and intimidating violence. Burchill started off winning the fight by hitting the Boogeyman over and over again. Then, while Burchill was feeling powerful Boogeyman started to beat up Paul. Once the tables were turned Paul’s sister Katie stepped in and starting hitting the Boogeyman, to protect her brother. The Boogeyman grabbed Katie by the arm and dragged her into the ring. Paul grabbed his sister and they walked away. The fight was disqualified because of outside interference. Wrestling is a major sport watched by individuals all over the world. These individuals believe it is acceptable to beat each other up and be rewarded for it. These shows are just a few examples of how violence in the media can influence the public.
A wrestling match is another example of a violent act performed on Television. The extreme championship wrestling episode displayed two characters named Boogeyman and Paul Burchill. The two men’s alter ego were portrayed as overly powerful. The fight consisted of countless acts of physical, verbal and intimidating violence. Burchill started off winning the fight by hitting the Boogeyman over and over again. Then, while Burchill was feeling powerful Boogeyman started to beat up Paul. Once the tables were turned Paul’s sister Katie stepped in and starting hitting the Boogeyman, to protect her brother. The Boogeyman grabbed Katie by the arm and dragged her into the ring. Paul grabbed his sister and they walked away. The fight was disqualified because of outside interference. Wrestling is a major sport watched by individuals all over the world. These individuals believe it is acceptable to beat each other up and be rewarded for it. These shows are just a few examples of how violence in the media can influence the public.Most scientists conclude that children learn aggressive attitudes and behavior from violent media content. They also can agree that parents can be a powerful force in moderating, mediating, and reducing such influence. Parents can protect their children from TV violence by paying attention to the programs their children are watching, set limits on the amount of time they spent watching TV, or block the violent programs. A V-Chip can be installed by the parents to block out certain programs they don’t want their child to watch.
The result of violence in the media causes people to behave more aggressively, and favor violence as a way of solving conflicts. Studies show that media violence has a desensitization effect on viewers. These negative effects become an effort to attract and hold TV audiences. In looking over the evidence of the increasing level of violence in the media, TV is affecting children and adults in a harmful manor. As a result, specific levels of violence are becoming more acceptable over time. If violence in the media cannot be erased altogether then it is up to the parents to monitor the programs their child watches.
