Term paper on Violence In The Media Effects On Society

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Why Do People Like Scarry Movies?
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Violent behavior of individuals may be linked to media violence. There are a number of different ways that people can be influenced by media violence. Who will be affected, by what material, and in what way is difficult to determine. Media violence does not only include television and movies, but local news as well. There are ways to prevent media violence from corrupting one’s own behavior. It is the responsibility of the public to voice their opinions and speak out against television violence.

There are several studies that prove that violence in the media has a direct influence on the behavior of those that are subjected to it. Gerbner and Gross found that violent acts occur on American television at a rate of five acts per prime-time hour and eighteen acts per weekend daytime hour. These statistics have not changed much since 1981 (Huesmann, Eron, and Legerspetz). There are a greater number of television programs available in Canada and the United States. Children can watch violence at almost any time of day if they wanted to.

Many children act out or play games that they see on TV. An example of this is WWF Wrestling. Children see this type of violence and believe that it is an acceptable and fun thing to do. Children soon begin to act out towards other children as well as towards animals. They fight instead of play at recess. And if no one stops his or her erratic behavior it doesn’t take long before the media turns a good kid into a bad one.

In 1985, the American Psychological Association (APA) took the official position that television violence can cause aggressive behavior (Zuckerman, 1996). They did this because of continuous behavioral effects demonstrated by patients that could be linked to film and television. What people were watching on TV was corrupting the way people looked at themselves. Many people were receiving treatment for negative feelings towards their bodies and their love lives. Patients were feeling that if their lives weren’t as great as the lives of the people on TV there must be something wrong with them. As well psychologists were seeing an increase in atrocious violent acts by patients. The same acts that had been portrayed in recent movies or television programs.

Many people allow the media to influence their lives. It is not necessarily a bad thing if people use the media to better their lives. When violence is imitated it causes reason for concern. Many people are petitioning to have a stronger control over the context in which the violence is portrayed; the age of the viewer; and the participant's ability to differentiate between fantasy and reality, and justified or unjustified use of force.

A famous example of this in Canadian history is the petition set forth in November 1992 by then thirteen year old Virginie Lariviere. This was shortly after the rape and murder of her young sister. Virginie Larivière presented then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney with a 1.3-million-signature petition. Larivière was convinced that media violence had played a role in her sister's death, and her petition demanded legislation to ban gratuitous violence on television (Vivian Maurin, 292).

She decided something needed to be done when she was attending the funeral of her 11-year-old sister Marie-Eve Larivière. Marie-Eve had been robbed of $6, then raped and finally strangled. "I kept asking myself why anyone would want to do that to Marie-Eve, and it suddenly occurred to me that it might well be the result of all the violence that my sister and I used to watch on television." Larivière thought there might be something wrong with her reaction, but she decided that something needed to be done. Eight months later, in mid-November, Virginie’s petition was in the office of the Prime Minister (www.media-awareness.ca, #2).

Media violence can lead to aggressive behavior in children. There have been over 1,000 studies performed that can confirm this. An average Canadian child will have been subjected to more that 12,000 acts of violence through media by the time they reach the age of twelve (Vivian & Maurin, 292). By age eighteen, the average American child will have viewed about 200,000 acts of violence on television alone (Media Violence, 53).

The level of violence during Saturday morning cartoons is higher than the level of violence during prime time. There are three to five violent acts per hour in prime time, versus twenty to twenty-five acts per hour on Saturday morning. Media violence is especially damaging to young children (under age eight) because they cannot easily tell the difference between real life and fantasy (Pomeroy, 15). Violent images on television and in movies may seem real to young children. Viewing these images can traumatize them.

Parents can help children develop media literacy skills by helping children distinguish between fantasy and reality (pomeroy). Teaching children that real-life violence has consequences is very important. Discussing what those consequences may be is a good way to deter the child from recreating actions that they saw on TV.

Distinguishing between fantasy and reality is not only difficult for young children but it can be difficult for older people too. The best example of this occurred on April 20, 1999, two troubled teens walked into Columbine High School with murder on their minds and changed the lives of the students and teachers at that school forever. The shots were heard around the world thanks to the media. The two boys Eric Harris (eighteen) and Dylan Klebold (seventeen) liked the movies Reservoir Dogs, From Dusk till Dawn, Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers; movies with very violent themes. In their rampage and letters to their families and even on Harris’ own web site the boys quoted these movies. They were heard saying that blowing their classmates away was almost as fun as Doom and Quake. Two very violent and very popular video games (gurlpages.com).

Copycat Rampages began almost immediately. It was argued that movies and media violence caused these two boys to lash out at the world. The reasons behind the copycat murders were never linked to anything other than people agreeing with Harris and Klebold’s ideology. It seems the news media is always eager to jump to conclusions that put blame on others. When the blame falls on the news they are very quick to retreat.

If the media coverage had not been so large and so compelling to watch, there is no question that some of the people killed by...

JOURNALS:

- Huesmann L. Rowell. Leonard D. Eron, Kirsti Legerspetz, IntervenA'ng

Variables in the TV Violence-Aggression Relation: Evidence From

Two Countries, Developmental Psychology, Vol. 20, No.5, 1984, pg.

746-775.

- Zuckerman, Diana M., Ph.D., Media Violence, Gun Control, and Public

P li@c , American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol. 66, 1996, pg.378- 388.

- Media Violence, AAP Committee on Communications. in Pediatrics,

Vol. 95, No. 6, June 1995.

BOOKS:

- Vivian, John, Peter J. Maurin. The Media of Mass Communication: 2d Canadian Edition. Scarborough, Ont.: Allyn and Bacon Canada, 2000.

- Lang, Annie. Measuring Psychological responses to media. Hillsdale, N.J.:Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, publishers, 1994.

- Pomeroy, Dave. Video Violence and Values. New York, N.Y.:

Friendship Press, 1990.

Web Sites:

- http://gurlpages.com/reb-vodka/

- l.= http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/issues/violence/viostory.htm

- 2.= http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/issues/violence/resource/ articles/child.htm

- http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/world/americas/newsid-331000/33189 9.stm

Class:

- Eisler, Lauren D. The Sociology of Mass Media in Canada: 244.3.

Saskatoon, Sk. University of Saskatchewan, Term 1,2000/2001.

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