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The Effects Of Media Violence On Children

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Many video games, television programs, adverts, films and music lyrics depict different forms of violence. Some people feel that there is too much violence exposed in the media. Many studies have made the claim that the media is responsible for much of the violence seen in the world we live in (List and Wolfgang). However, people have choices and responsibilities we cannot allow ourselves to blame it on other things such as the media. The violence seen in our media has an impact on both adults and children. Since children are also exposed to various forms of media, there has been additional concern for how they process and think about the violence they see, read or hear. Excessive exposure to media violence can also affect people in many ways as they can become disturbed and develop serious fears of being victimized in real life. Nevertheless, the entertainment industry and those in favor of the media argue that censoring these images or music will not solve the problems of a society, which is already violent.
In the book Violence, Society and Radical Theory William Pawlett discusses Freud’s approach to violence and society. He says, “that society or civilization exercises a powerful restriction, containment and discipline upon both the thought and behaviors of individuals” (Pawlett Chapter 2). Freud’s position is “often viewed reductively by critics who claim that it concerns a speculative and deeply metaphysical ‘death drive’ at the origin of human acts of violence”

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