Media Violence Sociology

I chose this topic because I want to be a videogame designer and I wanted to defend my right to create what I want. Unfortunately, after researching this topic it is clear that it is no longer possible to say violent media is completely harmless. Videogames and television do have harmful effects on children and young adults. Research has been done since the 1950’s and almost all studies show clear evidence that media violence does cause increased violent tendencies, desensitization, and antisocial behavior – which is the same as sociopathic and psychopathic behavior, it does not mean introverted.

The sense of what is right and wrong comes from within and is not influenced by what

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]

Violent forms of media do not have a direct correlation to real life violence. Over the last decade or two violence in movies, video games, and song lyrics has been increasing at a steady pace. As such when a tragedy occurs the media and government puts those forms of media under the gun and says they are the ones to blame. The truth is violence has been an ongoing occurrence before those mediums were even invented. While violent media does have some drawbacks it does have some benefits and does not make people go out and kill each other.

As I have already pointed out above, past research findings indicate that exposure to media violence does have a significant influence on violent and aggressive behavior. A study conducted by Bandure, Ross, and Ross in 1963 came to the conclusion that there exists a "powerful influence of televised models on children's aggressive behavior" (Rathus, 2012). In this particular study, one group of children was exposed to a film with scenes of aggression and violence. On the other hand, the other group (the control group) was asked to watch a film that was largely aggression-free. According to Rathus (2012), those children who were exposed to the film with scenes of aggression and violence "showed significantly more aggressive behavior"¦" This is a clear indication that exposure to media violence does indeed lead to an increase in violent/aggressive behavior.

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

Aggression can be represented as any behavior intended to cause physical, emotional, or psychological injuries to another person. Instrumental aggression can be characterized as acts used to obtain an object or privilege without intending to hurt another person. Hostile aggression is when a person tries to inflict the target with some pain and suffering. Playing violent video games could lead youth to act and think more aggressively.

An overview of the literature discusses the influence media portrays on adolescents. Some propose that the authors are projecting that the youth are negatively effected by the media. Others, however, believe that violence portrayed by the media does not have any real long-term effects on the well being on youths. The three articles selected consider their evidence for this controversial subject.

Violence in the media has become an overlying and controversial issue. On one hand, some people feel that Hollywood is becoming excessive with violence and should tone it down or remove it altogether due to the newfound correlation between fantasy violence and behavioral issues. Others note that movie producers shouldn't be held to blame for the issues of unsupervised kids and that aggressive tendencies cannot be simplified to a simple cause and effect relationship. Both authors of the passage work on each others' claims by arguing and correcting their proposals. For example, the second author uses a firsthand experience in order to protect her claims while the first author regards this as "flawed reasoning when it comes to violence in Hollywood

Hypothesis: The experiment aims to see if violent media has an effect on aggression in adolescent youth. The study hypothesizes that children specifically the experimental group those exposed to violent media will be more aggressive than those who weren’t exposed to violent media.

Violence in the media, like sexual representation in the media, is so common that they are often seen on a daily basis. As time and technology has progressed, violence has become a more prominent feature to certain types of media and is becoming less uncensored. Violence can now be seen across a wide range of movies, television shows, newspapers, magazines, video games, and even on Facebook. Mediums in which I see violent media the most is through movies, television shows, and Facebook. Each of these forms, I can easily say expose me to some type of violence several times a day.

After reviewing many case studies about whether excessive or extensive violent television news coverage leads towards violent conduct is up for debate. Interestingly enough many scientific organizations have openly stated that violent media coverage causes aggression, and examined the association between media violence and violent behavior. It has been reported that there has been more than 3,500 research studies to prove that there is in fact a connection between media violence and violent behavior. Out of these 3,500 studies only 18 of them have not been able to relate media violence and violent behavior. Clearly there is overwhelming evidence to prove this relationship is accurate,

According to E.F Dubow and L.S Miller, authors of Television Violence and Aggressive Behavior: Social Science Perspectives on Television, “Ignoring consequences of violence (including the pain of victims, the victims’ families, and the families of perpetrators) or depicting the consequences unreasonably sets in motion a destructive encoding process.” There could be found a direct correlation between aggressive behavior and violence witnessed on television. The more violence watched, the more desensitized a viewer would become. Dubow and Miller further state “viewers become [fearful] and begin to identify with the aggressors and the aggressors’ solutions to various problems.” It is this identification that causes violent behaviors to become encoded in the person’s mind when exposed to repeated violent acts. The person may then come to see the world as a bleak and sinister place. Along with this

Violent media comes in all shapes and sizes. Kids and teens are exposed to violence every day of their life. Through music, gaming, tv shows, and the internet. “Prolonged exposure to such media portrayals results in increased acceptance of violence as an appropriate means of solving problems and achieving one's goals”( Media Violence). This proves that violence will be a key to achieving an objective. This is a negative effect on an exposure with violent media, having kids believe that you can get what you want through violence. This also proves that if a child would see themselves as the good guy, everyone that disagrees with this child must be a bad guy, which can cause a problem in an everyday life. “Children in grades 4 through 8 preferentially choose video games that award points for violence against others, and 7 of 10 children in grades 4 through 12 report playing M-rated (mature) games, with 78% of boys reporting owning M-rated games”( Media Violence). With this exposure at hand, and rewarding kids to commit violent acts toward others is a shoddy misuse of the media. This proves that at young minds are shaped towards violence, which can cause problems when they get older.

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