Unit 6 Assignment: Annotated Bibliography On Media Violence

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,

The debate whether violence in the media increases aggression in children has been going on for decades. There have been hundreds of studies, experiments and articles supporting and opposing both sides of the argument. This essay is going to examine an article supporting and an article opposing the debate. The articles include “The Influence of Media Violence in Youth” which supports media violence causing aggression through the use of evidence that includes short and long term effects of media violence, theories as to why media violence causes aggression, factors that influence aggression and ways to counteract the negative effects (Anderson et

“There is increasing evidence that early exposure to media violence is a contributing factor to the development of aggression” (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podolski, & Eron, 2003). Huesmann and Kirwil (2007, p. 545), argue that an individual’s aggression and violent behaviour are not only caused by emotional, mental and physical circumstances but also the environment plays an equally vital role. They further on state that hastening violent behaviour in the short-term sense is due to disclosure to violence, which can be either through media, computer games and violence that they observe at home, school and their social environment. This paper intends to comprehend media violence and its effects on humanity by understanding the issues that

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.

Whether exposure of children or adults to violent media is a cause of aggression and violent behavior has been an intensely debated issues for many years. Since violence in the media has been a hot topic in society, I decided to create a theory called toxic media theory, and base it off of the statement that there is a positive correlation between crime and toxic media. An assumption of this theory is that criminal behavior is normal and learned. The process of learning criminal behavior is similar to the process in which normal behavior is learned.

The concept that the media and violent video games have an effect on aggression and violent behaviour in youth is one that I have heard speculations about in other classes and ultimately agree with. In the article by David Grossman, titled Trained To Kill, he presents the idea that while it is against human nature to kill one’s own kind violence in the media has led to an increase in criminal acts committed by youths (Grossman, 2000). Overall, I agree with his argument because the common theme of violence in media leads to desensitization, and creates a conditioned response to violent situations. However, since the 1980’s we have seen a decrease in homicides in Canada, which contradicts Grossman’s theory.

Many research suggested that viewing of violence increases the probability of behaving aggressively. They stated young people may be affected by repeated violent scenes in video and computer games which induce aggression-related thoughts and feelings, and reduce pro-social behaviour (Browne & Hamilton-Giachritsis, 2005). Also, news report of violent murderers or suicides easily draw public attention while some teenagers may attempt to imitate such kind of crime behaviors showed in the media and hence resulted in copycat crime (Coleman, 2004). Therefore, prevention of frequently exposure to violent news, videos and computers is considered as an effective way to reduce the effect of mass media.

There has been continuous research with regards to the relationship that exists between media violence’s and the behavior of the viewers. Some of this research has focused on children and teenagers. Despite most of them indicating the absence of a strong relationship with real life violence, there have been proof that it affects other aspects such educational performance and social relationships.

Violence can be seen everywhere even when we are not looking for it. Specifically on television, video games, and on the web. Something as simple as turning on the television and watching the morning news can even portray some violence. Many experts have debated over whether violent media has any effect on a child’s behavior. I think that many people don’t see this as an issue. Possibly because we have integrated violence as a part of society. But I feel that excessive exposure to violent media will have negative effects on a child’s psychological health and well-being.

With the evolving of the technology, children easy access to the variety of these different media forms, many of which have high levels of violent content. Nowadays, just by clicking on the screen, children observe tons of news regarding to murders, beatings and sexual assaults. Eron and his colleagues conducted the research show that before finishing the elementary school, the child would have witnessed 8000 murders (Eron, 1993). Other media such as movies, video game, the Internet seems to be effective methods of informal observational learning and also correlate with youth exposed to violence. Violence in the media is going to be considered if it fires violence in the real world. Yet, there are many investigations concluding that the relationship between media violence and aggressive behavior is strong (Anderson et al., 2008; Dubow et al., 2010; Fanti et a., 2009).

The rampant pervasiveness of societal violence has been ascribed to the dynamic fluctuations within the modern world, one of which is the media's extensive use of violence. Media violence and its influence on society's operation has inspired fierce debates for countless of years, since the broad use of television from the mid-1900s through the flourishing industry of new technology that are accessible today. Several independent individuals, institutions, and peace advocates claim that the graphic and the boundless depiction of violence in movies, television programs, video games, social media, and other various sources is motivating violent behavior among today’s individuals. The continual bombardment of adolescent minds with clear and

Does entertainment influence society's attitude towards violent behavior? In order to fully answer this question we must first understand what violence is. Violence is the use of one's powers to inflict mental or physical injury upon another; examples of this would be rape or murder. Violence in entertainment reaches the public by way of television, movies, plays, music, and novels. Through the course of this essay it will be proven that violence in entertainment is a major factor in the escalation of violence in society, once this is proven we will take all of the evidence that has been shown throughout this paper and come to a conclusion as to whether or not violence in entertainment is justified and whether or not it should be

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.

There has been numerous scientific literature materials that have been associated with media violence. This brings out the simple cause-and-effect relation that exist between the media and the societal behavior and perception of mass media violence and crime. It is this vein, that mass media crime has been attributed to the consequential outcomes of consumer behavior, attitude and character. Mass media-violence viewing that involves unhealthy images, video games, films, and T.V series on the cable among other programs that justify murder, carjacking, robbery, abduction, rape and other crimes. The media has therefore, contributed immensely to development of negative behavior and change of character and attitude especially among the young children and the adolescents (Haerens, 2013).

Previous studies have expressed their interest in the topic regarding the media’s influence on violence. For example, it examines whether violent video games increases the probability of individuals engaging in violent activities such as