Media Violence
Violent movies and television shows have been popular since the 1960s. Westerns and Police shows have kept us entertained with gunplay and car chases. Movies and television shows has become more violent over the years. Politicians, like Al Gore and Bill Clinton, have officially asked the producers and television stations to tone down the violence in their products and try to have more family orientated messages. Ratings and advisories have been introduced to play a role in viewing decisions. Many studies have concluded that the violence shown on television and the destruction portrayed there, has lasting negative effects on those young adolescents who view it. Violent images on television, as well as in the movies, have inspired people to set spouses on fire in their beds, lie down in the middle of highways, extort money by placing bombs in airplanes, rape, steal, murder, and commit numerous other shootings and assaults. Over 1,000 case studies have proven that media violence can have negative affects on adolescents. It increases aggressiveness and makes them less sensitive to violence and to victims of violence, and it increases their appetite for more violence in entertainment and in real life.
This is when children receive the full force of the violence in television; studies conducted have shown that children either imitate their heroes or let the actions of these heroes influence their aggressive actions. Parents see the television as a babysitter and let their children sit in front of it, absorbing everything they see mindlessly, while the parents do chores or work. Many studies have demonstrated the link between violence on television and aggressive behavior in children. When an adolescent is desensitized he or she are insensitive or nonreactive to violence. Some argue that it is not the media to blame but to focus on other issues such as: drugs, inadequate parenting, availability of weapons, unemployment, etc. The group that watched the slasher films measured lowest in empathy for the victims in the experiment (Cannon 394). In New York, a 16-year-old boy broke into a cellar. The movie Home Alone, which has been shown on network television, is an example of violence that is portrayed as humor. Precautionary actions have been introduced to try and reduce this connection between violence on TV and aggressive behavior. Media violence is damaging to young children, because they cannot tell the difference between real life and fantasy. Children who see violence on television may be less empathic toward real-life violence. He suggested sending the teacher poisoned candy as revenge as he had seen on television the night before. The heroes may have good values, and the message may be pro-social, but it is conveyed in ways that make violence seem justified. Todd Gitlin author of studies of television and mass media argues that violence portrayed on television does not cause young adolescent teens to commit murders or violent acts (Gitlin 396).
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