Pretend you are a parent. You are at home and you see your child acting in a hostile and aggressive manner. You ask him where he picked up on this behavior. He replies, “I saw it on Television.” Television violence had a role in the child's behavior. Media violence can have a lasting impression on children, teenagers and adults not only through television, but also through video games. In the past two decades, there has been a significant increase in violent behavior in the United States (Merino 1). This is the result of exposure to violence. More than half of television programs and video games contain some type of violence. Perez Daly says, “’... children are likely to see 8,000 murders and at least 100,000 other acts of violence prior to leaving elementary school at age 12 years. ‘” (1). Exposure to media violence leads to aggressive behavior in children. With the right information about media violence, video games violence, and how parents can decrease aggressive behavior, people will understand the major effects violence can have on behavior.
Background
Children become regular consumers of media around two and three giving them one and an half hours per day of television (Interactive Media and Its Contribution to the Construction and Destruction of Values and Character 7). This increases as time goes by. Now, on average, children use between 38 to 45 hours of media weekly because of family bonding, a leisure activity for the parents, or just because kids are bored (Daly, Perez 1). Because of the amount of technology used, kids continuously get new ideas.
When a child learns values, they are supposed to learn it from their parents, church, schools, and neighborhood. Research shows, though, that a child spends 20 minut...
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“Children, Adolescents, and the Media: Seven Key Issues.” Pediatric Annals 39.9 (2010): 556 Web.
Daly, Laura A., Linda M. Perez. Exposure to Media Violence and Other Correlates of Aggressive Behavior in Preschool Children. American Press Inc, 2010. Print
Kane, Harrison D., Gordon E. Taub, B. Grant Hayes. “Interactive Media and Its Contribution to the Construction and Destruction of Values and Character.” Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education & Development. (2000): 1-10. Web
Merino, Noel. “Introduction to Is Media Violence a Problem? At Issue.” Editorial. Is Media Violence a Problem?. 2010: 1-5. Web
-----“Media Violence Causes Aggression in Children.” Editorial. Is Media violence a Problem?. 2010:1-6. Web
A "hot topic" of discussions today is the issue of violence in the media. After reading about the subject, I am convinced that media violence negatively affects the viewer. The most susceptible are the young.
There is a strong agreement among American society that violence in the country is on the rise. It is easy to see why this is a strong argument among the American people, especially because of the rising popularity of violent video games and television programs. However, as these violent video games and television shows are creating their own place in our society, the reports of violence among children are escalating. This correlation has been studied extensively in the scientific community in an attempt to discover whether media violence does negatively impact children but there has yet to be a consensus. There is a split between those that believe that children are becoming more violent because they are exposed to violent media and those that believe that correlation is not causation, who argue that media violence does not have any notable effect the youth.
Consistently, everywhere, in this century there seems to be some form of a TV screen. These screens appear in restaurants, schools, at work, at home, and quite possibly more. What is forgotten in society is how that screen may affect the lives of the children in this modern world. When children are constantly watching a television screen there may be consequences to their health and education. Most parents do not have the ability to control what is shown on TV. Many programs disagreeably display marathons after school and during holidays. Supposedly, adult shows are only showed late at night, but with movies becoming more and more explicit, even bed time can’t stop the most determined child. Children’s problems in education and health are a direct result of the amount of TV watched.
The controversy over whether or not violence portrayed on television actually affects children or not has been playing itself out for nearly three decades. When some of the first results came out in the 60s and 70s that made the first connections between aggressive behavior and viewing televised violence, the TV and movie industries denied that there was a connection. When studies found the same thing in the 80s, the FCC opposed any regulation (Hepburn). A writer for Direct Ma...
Since the 1950’s the number of households with televisions has increased from ten to ninety-nine percent. Over the past 30 years, there has been extensive research on the relationship between televised violence and violent behavior among youth, aacap.org. Eugene V Beresin, M.D. concluded in his article “The Impact of Media Violence on Children and Adolescents: Opportunities for Clinical Interventions” aacap.org.
Typically, randomized experiments have reveal that exposure to media violence can cause immediate increases in aggressive thoughts and tolerance for aggression in both children and teenagers. For example, in a study with young children (Drabman & Thomas, 1974, 1975; Thomas & Drabman, 1975), a brief violent video film clip were shown to the group of youngsters, it was then found out that they were slower to call an adult to intervene when they saw two younger children fighting compared to the peers who had watched neutral film. This shows that the single violent clip appeared to make the children more tolerant of aggression, at least for only a temporarily period.
Television violence affects all who view it, but its biggest effect is on children. Children’s minds are like a blank page. Television is writing violence on that page. Television violence is one of the causes of aggression and violent behavior in children. This problem is not new, but in recent years it has gotten worse. In the last few years, violence in television programs has increased greatly. A study in 2000-01 compared to a study done in 1998-99 showed that violence is, in fact, on the rise. Verbal violence, coarse language, alone increased by a staggering 78% (Lavers). How did violence become so prevalent on television? Sadly, violence is what the people wanted to see; it sells. Society has slowly put its guard down allowing violence to creep in. Now we are faced with this detrimental situation which we have created.
Woodard, E.H. & Gridina, N. “Media in the Home 2000, The fifth annual survey of parents and children.” The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, PA. Feb 2001. 20 Mar 2008 .
Television has both positive and negative effects on children between the ages of two and five. Some research shows that violence in the media can be linked to aggressive behavior in children. Though, some researchers disagree with this statement and believe that there are other factors, besides television, which cause children to become violent. The following essay will reflect both sides of this argument.
Television violence causes destructive behavior in children, however; television can be a powerful influence to young viewers in our society. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming are very violent. Many researchers like scientists, pediatricians, and child researchers in many countries have studied to find out what it is about television violence that makes it such a big affect on the way kids act and behave. Sometimes, children think that is a normal thing in our real life, by watching only a single violent program, which can increase aggressiveness on children and become violent, aggressive, and vicious.
Furthermore, television violence causes aggressive behavior in children. Many people believe that children who watch violent television programs exhibit more aggressive behavior than that exhibited by children who do not (Kinnear 23). According to the results of many studies and reports, violence on television can lead to aggressive behavior in children (Langone 50). Also, when television was introduced into a community of children for the first time, researchers observed a rise in the level of physical and verbal aggression among these children (Langone 51). The more television violence viewed by a child, the more aggressive the child is (“Children” 1).
Ledingham, Jane E., Ledingham C. A., & Richardson, John E. (1993). La violence dans les médias: ses effets sur les enfants. Retrieved October 28, 2009, from http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/H72-21-91-1993F.pdf
By the time a child reaches the age of one, they see about 200,000 acts of violence on television. (Nakaya, 3). The Media has been becoming more and more violent over the years. A poll in an issue of Times Magazine, from 2005, showed that 66 percent of Americans think that there is an abundant amount of graphic acts of violence on televisions (Nakaya, 18). People are exposed to thousands of acts of violence through video games, television, and movies. Many studies show that media violence increases violent behavior in in humans. Studies show, violent video games, and graphic television have physiological effects on children. The government has very few regulations on media violence. Some people believe the government shouldn’t limit content because others might be insulted by its material. Media violence is such a broad topic and has such a large presence in daily lives, so we cannot simple get rid of it. The Federal Communications Commission stipulates, “By the time most children begin the third grade, they will have spent the equivalent of three school years in front of a television set.” Even though the government shouldn’t censor the media, Media violence is becoming a serious issue because it is becoming more violent, it makes people behave violently, and it has little regulations.
“One of the notable changes in our social environment in the 21st century has been the saturation of our culture and daily lives by the mass media.”( Ray & Ramjat, 2010 ). Media is defined as “all means of communication, whatever its format” (Reid, 1994, pg.51). It means that media can be in any form include symbol system as variety as print, graphics, animation, audio, and motion pictures. For example, radio, television, movies, video games, cell phones, magazines and computer networks. All of these media have assumed central roles in the children’s daily lives. Nowadays, parents live in a world where media are always competing and changing and the media is increasingly important part of the family’s lives. The various kinds of electronic media that we have developed at 21th century are very powerful. This powerful electronic media can benefit as well as harm the children and community depend on how they use it.
No single factor can cause children or adults to act aggressively. Instead, it is the accumulation of risk factors that leads to an aggressive act. Hundreds of studies look into the issue of violent media, it always seems to end up the same place with three major effects including increasing aggressive behavior in a variety of forms, desensitization, and spurs fear. Not every viewer will be affected noticeably, but we know that every viewer is affected in some way. Some have argued that violent media are the primary cause of mass shooting. Others have argued that there is no solid evidence of any harmful effects of violent media. But it is clear is that exposure to media violence is one of risk factors increased aggressive behavior, desensitization, and fear.