How Is Media Violence Related To Violent Behavior

Violent media exposure of children or adults to violent media is a cause of aggression and violent behavior has been one of the most intensely debated issues in criminal justice and the broader populace. Concern have come and gone that media such as comic books, as well as television and movies, would lead to waves of rebelliousness, violence, and moral degradation. Sherry

Bandura’s hypothesis was “that children can learn about aggressive behaviors by observing the action of others” (Durkin, 1995).

In fairy tales, children are pushed into ovens, have their hands chopped off, are forced to sleep in coal bins, and must contend with wolves who've eaten their grandmother. In myths, rape, incest, all manner of gruesome bloodshed, child abandonment, and total debauchery are standard fare. We see more of the same in Bible stories, accentuated with dire predictions of terrors and abominations in an end of the world apocalypse that is more horrifying than the human imagination can even grasp.

Violent media has been proven time and time again over the past 60 years to cause increased aggression in children and young adults. The long term and short term exposure to violent media has been shown to cause “increased feelings of hostility, expectations that others will behave aggressively, desensitization to the pain of others, and increased likelihood of interacting and responding to others with violence” (Committee on Public Education). One of the most famous experiments done on the subject was done in 1961 by the psychologist Albert Bandura at Stanford University. In this experiment children between the ages of three and six were put in a playroom containing a many activities and toys (Cherry). One of those toys was a bobo doll; a 5 foot tall inflatable doll. An adult would enter and either play with the child from a complete ten minutes, the control group, or at some point during those ten minutes begin beating up the doll, the experimental group. They would also say things such as “pow” and “he keeps coming back for more” while attacking it (Cherry).

Media has dramatically changed over time from black white to coloured screens, from newspaper to having information on fingertips. Media has also become more violet in comparison to what it was over the past generations, as now video games and movies are action packed. The studies conducted by research scientist show various results from harmful to neutral effects of media, all these studies were children and teenage based it was not highly focused on adults.

Children tend to act more violently due over exposure to violent media. Interestingly, studies done by psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann, Leonard Eron and others show that being aggressive as a youth did not speculate that they would watch more television. This suggests that violent media portrayal is a cause rather than a consequence of aggressive people. However, later research by psychologists Douglas Gentile and Brad Bushman, suggested that media violence is just one of the many causes that inhibit rational thought. [http://www.apa.org/research/action/protect.aspx]

The media in today’s society is very influential on children. There are many things that children at a very young age are learning, for example violence. Many children learn violent behavior and they become violent and aggressive children because they are exposed to so much mature content. Many parents are not aware of what their children are watching, and without knowing it, their children are raised by the media. Many television shows contain a lot of violence, for example kids fighting each other, kids bullying other kids and kids yelling and disrespecting their parents. Unfortunately, at a very young age children are learning to be aggressive and violent because they are spending more time watching television than spending it

For years now, researches have been studying the correlation between violent media and the aggression in children. Undoubtedly the conclusion is that violent media does indeed increase the aggressive nature in kids.

Media violence is one of the most debated public issues society faces today. Television screens are loaded with the glamorization of weapon carrying. Violence constitute as amusing and trivialized. Needless portrayals of interpersonal violence spread across the television screens like wild fire. Televisions spew the disturbing events such as children being assaulted, husbands inflicting domestic abuse on their wives and children succumbing to abuse by their parents. Scenes of betrayal, anguish, infiltrate the television screen. Unfortunately, a child becomes subjected to media violence. Everything a child sees or hears in the media affects them in some way or another. The precise effects of media violence on children are

This supports the Social Learning Theories of aggression as the children learnt through observation of the role model, imitation of their behaviour and behaviour shaping. Also they received sweets and praise as a form of positive vicarious reinforcement thus meaning that there was a chance of repetition of the aggressive behaviour outside the laboratory setting. The vicarious reinforcement is also a direct consequence that will have an effect on the chances of the child repeating the behaviour. As if the child was punished they would have been less likely to act aggressively again.

In today’s world, there is an endless amount of information available to people everywhere around the globe. Mass media is definitely shaping our world, whether it is in a positive way or a negative way. Television and the radio waves provide us with hours of entertainment. The emergence of the Internet allows us to access thousands of pages of information within the reach our very own fingertips. But with the convenience of all this information comes along a certain level of responsibility. As a society, we Americans must decide what is appropriate information and entertainment for the masses to access and enjoy. But does today’s society give too much leeway in what it thinks as “appropriate?” Does increased

the Bandera’s Theory illustrates the Three Effects of Imitation for instance the modeling affect ,this can be explained when someone starts acquiring a new behavior. If a child continues to watch a martial arts tcv shows they are more prone to trying some off the moves that they see,it is human nature to imitate something or someone that attracts your intertset.This can open the door for Territoriality ,our text human puzzles defines this as Another explanation, attributed to ethologists, is based on the assumption that we are by nature aggressive. This explanation relies heavily on observations of aggression among nonhuman animals. It assumes that since aggression appears to be common among other animals, it must have a biological basis. This theory explains how certain stimuli in the environment can create a reason for aggression ,can sometimes be a survival characteristic .However, there is not clear evidence that humans have this ,but it is fair to say that we may have had instinctual tendencies .How can children be influenced by violence? ,when some children don’t ?.Research suggest children younger than eight may not be able to detruncate between reality or fantasy ,since children observe and imitating, and are able to adopt behaviors to different situations and environments ,it is concluded that media can influence children’s thoughts

            In recent times, the news media has cried out against violent media, painting it as the leading cause for youth violence. Following events such as the Columbine massacre, news sources have vilified violent media, claiming that it is a primary cause of violent behavior in youths. This analysis provides firm research on the subject from the opposing and supporting sources, giving a thorough definition to the term “violent media” and  brings forth evidence that other psychological effects and environmental factors are more significant causes of increased youth aggression than violent media.

As evidence has shown, children view many violent scenes while watching television, movies, or playing video games, but the question still remains: What psychological effect does violence in the media have on children? Research over the past 10 years has consistently shown that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between media violence and real-life aggression (Strasburger 129). Violence in the media can lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch the various programs. Of course, not all children who watch television, or movies, or play video games develop aggressive behavior. However, there is a strong correlation between media violence and aggressive behavior. A study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, examined how children's television viewing practices are related to aggressive behaviors. The results revealed that children who reported watching greater amounts of television per day had higher levels of violent behavior than children who reported lesser amounts of television viewing (Singer 1041). Witnessing violence is an important determining factor in violent behavior. The media serves as a means for children to witness violence. According to Bandura's Social Learning Theory, children imitate behavior that they see on television, especially if the person performing the behavior is attractive or if the

          Due to violence on television, children become less sensitive to that pain and suffering of others or to become more aggressive to others. It also makes children more fearful to the world around them. (Abelard 1) Viewing habits of children observed for many decades deduced that violence on TV is associated with aggressive behavior, more than poverty, race, or parental behavior. It also reported that a TV show contains about 20 acts of violence an hour.