There are many implications on society due to violence in the main stream media. I will write about the implications of TV violence, video game violence, and violence on the news and bring you my point of view on it all. There are many forms of violence in the media today. The most relevant are violence on TV and in movies, video games, and the daily news from around the world. Violence can be found in sports such as boxing and mixed martial arts and even hockey and football.
The increase in violent crime by youth is an alarming trend that has many contributing factors. An environment where violence is fed to our youth daily from all avenues including, home, school, and the media can only reinforce the concept of violence as the answer to our problems. Who has the answer for such dramatic damage in our society? Experts who have studied youthful offenders state that most of them grew up in broken and abusive families marked by drugs and alcohol, violence and mental illness. Abuse at such an early age can lead to aggression and violence (The New York Times, 2000).
By setting an example of violence, the media has taught children to resort to physical violence when feeling angry. Everything from films, shows and even the news displays violence. The violence on television depicts people killing other people for power, money or just ‘because‘. Violence is everywhere on television. People can’t escape the violence in the media; just watching television exposes people to violence.
It is necessary to take a closer look at whether or not violence in the media really is responsible for this development and then to examine what censorship may entail before taking such a far-reaching decision. Many concerned people, ranging from worried parents through to reputable psychologists, deplore the ever-present nature of violence in the media, claiming that this is the reason why people are increasingly prepared to commit violent acts. They argue that violence is being propagated as normal or even entertaining. Violence is in the newspapers, on the news, in film plots and in cartoons. Violence is a source of laughter in children's programs; films present it as staple fare; it is served as pseudo-information in sensation-hungry newspapers and on reality TV; and it is even glorified by some musicians in their lyrics and performances.
Many people attribute the increase in violent youth to the increase of violence in the media. There is a common belief that television, films and video games are to be blamed for making children deem that violence is not only acceptable, but a necessary way of solving conflict. Some blockbuster movies that top the charts tend to be action-packed, such as the Terminator in 1984 or films about superheroes that save the day by destroying the villains. Superman, Batman and Spiderman are the perfect examples. The youth are then influenced by observing these behaviours and mimicking the actions of these so-called heroes.
Unfortunately, many of today’s television programs are violent. So does TV influence kids that violence, drugs, alcohol and sex are ok? How much violence, drug references, alcohol usage, and sex references does the average American child come across? How much of this do they take in? Hundreds of studies have found that children and teenagers that watch television may: • Become “immune” or numb to the horror of violence • Gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems • Imitate the violence they observe on television; and • Identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers Also, Extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness.
The migration of others into this country by illegal means has risen astonishingly. This act leads to higher crime rates in larger metropolitan areas. These immigrants are responsible for a significant percentage of trafficking, both human and drug. This is just the beginning of the issues that affect the criminal justice system. Many organized crimes have evolved from illegal immigrants, not to mention the bridge that has enabled cross-border terrorism.
None the less, there are many studies that have been conducted over the years on television but the issues is still prevails. Many researchers recognize that violence that is portrayed through television is a danger. One issue that is also faced is our focus on television violence should not take attention away from other cause of violence in our country such as: drugs, availability of weapons, unemployment, etc. It is a challenge to decide how the violence on television affects society because television affects people in different ways. There is an important problem with the violence on television is that as a society, we are going to have to acknowledge and face it as a whole.
With the new DVD that shows sex and violence or computers that gives kids access to unauthorized sites, technology is something that many parents need to look out for. As technology continues to forge ahead concerns about its effects on the general population are raised. Whether it is microwave ovens causing cancer or cell phones causing accidents, people are always interested in researching, and often accusing, these new products. Such is this case with videogames. Ever since PongÒ swept the nation, scholars have been researching videogames effects on children.
In the movie, they gather to fight not out of spite or hatred for each other but because fighting is a common medium of release for them. Various studies conducted state a direct correlation between the aggregate of time spent watching violence portrayed in media, the television in specific, to aggressive behaviour in adulthood. Aggressive behaviours in children are also observed to increase when they are exposed to violent media because they seem to take it as an encouragement of sorts, because new forms of aggression are brought to their notice. The Tasmanian Devil in Looney Toons and Baby Looney Toons is an example of a violence in children’s entertainment.Berkowitz says that a number of different aversive stimuli, frustration for example, may initiate aggressive responses but aversive stimuli alone do not by themselves orchestrate aggressive behaviour; they simply bring about a readiness for aggressive action. Only if appropriate aggressive cues are present as environmental stimuli, will such conduct surface.