Term paper on The Media And Violence

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The Merchant Of Venice
When William Shakespeare wrote, The Merchant of Venice, he included a female character that influences the play dramatically. In most of Shakespeare's plays, the women have little power and intelligence. In The Merchant of Venice, however, Portia is a woman that saves the life of a man with her wi

The Messiah Stones
The main character in The Messiah Stones is John McGowan. He has a wife names Sarah, a son names Joshua who is eight years old, and Oliver who is six years old. His Dad left him when he was nine years old because he went to Jerusalem for an archeological dig and never saw him again after h

The debate regarding the media's relationship to violence in society has been a hot issue for most of the past century. From the beginning of the wide use of mass media, from films to radio to television, researchers have tried to explain any association or correlation between media effects and violence. Of particular interest and concern has been the issue of violence in the media and the impact that this has on children. Although important research efforts have increased our understanding of the topic there is still a great that needs to be done in terms of the application and implementation of the findings to policies and television programming.

It has become generally acknowledged by many communications studies that exposure to violence in the media can both influence an increase in the observer's use of violence to resolve situations as well as a desensitization to acts of violence. This exposure to violence in the media makes viewers less critical of real life violence. Since the mass media often represents violence as "happy violence" devoid of pain, suffering and consequences they are not providing the viewer with an accurate or realistic portrayal of violence. Many studies have also confirmed a commulative effect of exposure to violence so researches have tried to trace patterns from childhood exposure to adult social behavior.

In the 1960's the government made a concerted effort to increase the understanding of media effects as well as the influence of violence on television. The National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence was in charge of investigating these issues and making recommendations to the President. The media task force's report was titled "Violence and the Media". It was believed that real violence was caused in part by the desire of action groups for media attention. It was also thought that violence in society could be reduced if the news gave groups the ability to enhance their communication. A particular focus of the study was the media's portrayal of violence and the public's personal experiences. The violence in television was shown to be the majority of people's primary source or experience of violence. This reported the media's ability to socialize the viewers to the norms and values of the culture. Previously the ability of television to do so had been disputed the media was seen to only be a reinforcer and not a creator. Television was also believed to have the effect of creating or supporting the "scary world view" that the world is violent and that to survive people must be violent. This study laid a strong foundation from which future studies drew.

The Surgeon General's Report on Television and Social Behavior (1971) was a highly criticized study because of the vagueness of its implications but progress in the field of study were still made. The studies were based on content analysis of TV violence with particular attention to modeling and observational learning as evident in the subjects. The conclusions...