Term paper on Media Violence

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media violence
media violence By: kenny fuller E-mail: austin_106@hotmail.com Kenny Fuller Health The Impact of Media Violence I was reading in some of my information and it was talking about how “monkey see, monkey do” is a popular saying now days. Sixty years ago the television was invented. People looke

Media Response To National Crises
During the first half of the 20th Century the nation and the media had to face some of the gravest crises in modern history. Media responses to these crises suggest the basic questions about the relationship between the media and modern society. In a final analysis the media during the national

Media Violence and “Real-life” Violence

There is a general consensus among people that media violence fosters deviant behavior in children. However, some argue that media violence has no effect on its audience. Nevertheless, there has been a tremendous amount of research that proves that violence on television and other forms of mass media profoundly influences the minds and actions of children.

Some may argue that violence in the media does not have a detrimental effect on children. Instead, it is believed that other factors, such as biological, psychological, and social, effect children more than media. The biological factors that have an effect on children and their capability and likeliness to perform violent acts are central nervous system malfunctions, vitamin or mineral deficiencies, chromosomal abnormalities, and a genetic predisposition toward aggression. Psychological factors are psychopathic personalities, unhealthy relationships with parents, and mental illness. Social factors that contribute to aggression and violence among youth are their social surroundings, ethnicity, poverty level, religion, family structure, and upbringing. None of these factors include the possibility that violence in the media may be conducive to violence in the lives of children.

However, studies done on the effects of media violence have proved that violence on television does in fact have destructive consequences in the lives of children. American children watch an average of three to fours hours of television a day. Television is a dominant influence in cultivating values in children and shaping their behavior. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming is violent. Many studies on the effects of television violence on children and teenagers have found that children can become “immune” to the revulsion of violence, accept violence as an acceptable way to solve real-life problems, imitate the violent acts they see, and begin to identify with the characters on television.

The National Television Violence Study and thousands of others have proved that media violence can lead to aggressive behavior in children. These studies have found that 61 percent of all television programming contains violence, and that children’s shows are the most violent of all which is very frightening. The study has also found that by the time an average child leaves elementary school, he or she will have witnessed 8,000 murders and over 100,000 other acts of violence on television. The amount of violence during Saturday morning cartoons is higher than the amount of violence during primetime programming. Media violence is especially damaging to children under the age of eight because they cannot distinguish between real life and fantasy. Violent acts on television may seem real to young children, and can thus be distressing...