Media ViolenceIntroductionAt first, we must define the “negative effects” of children’s behavior. “In 1991, children under the age of ten committed more than 1000 acts of aggravated assault and 81 cases of forcible rape.
Juveniles 12 and under committed …murder, robbery, larceny-theft, and forcible rape”(http://www.
cwrl.utexas.edu/~tonya/Film/film_violence.html)Ever since the media begging to play a role in the children’s lives, it has been the subject of debates about their positive and negative effects.
In the today’s world, the media violence poses an intimidation to the public health; also it leads to an increase in the real world violence and assault. The media violence is a vast term which includes television, video games, the internet, and so on. According to the psychological research, the violence aired on televisions adversely affects the children’s health, on both ways physically and mentally. (Valkenburg, 2004)The three major effects of seeing violence on media are:“1.
Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others.2.Children may be more fearful of the world around them.3.
Children may be more likely to behave in aggressive ways toward others” (http://www.abelard.org/tv/tv.htm)A study revealed the facts that the average American child will have eyed 100,000 episodes of television violence, plus 8000 scenes of murder; by the time he or she finishes the 6th grade or about thirteen years old.
Another study conducted by Barlow and Hill, in 1985, disclosed the facts that approximated a standard of one violent scene occurs in every sixteen minute on the British T.V. Many institutions have reported the fact that the children’s bad behavior have increased in the classrooms and playgrounds during the past ten years or so. (Hough and Erwin, 1997)An enormous range of violence programs are available for children which encourage them to commit the act of violence and to do something harmful like the same as they have watched on the T.
V. In Elizabeth Newson’s terms, “media violence represents a form of electronic ‘child abuse’, which we must have the courage to regulate and resist” (Barker and Petley, 2001)Children’s who watch media violence have a greater possibility of display violence and belligerent behavior later in the life as compared to the children’s who have not seen violence on any sort of a media whether it is T.V, video game, cinema, etc. Besides this, violence is a most important cause of deaths among children’s – they commit suicides, homicide and so forth.
Moreover, in the US family, physicians warn parents about the effects of media violence on children.”1. Children will become anti-social and aggressive behavior. 2 Children may become less sensitive to violence and those who suffer from violence.
3 Children will desire to see more violence in entertainment and real life. 4 Children will view violence as an acceptable way to settle conflicts.” (http://www.mediafamily.
org/facts/facts_vlent.shtm)While telling the hazards of violent programs which are aired on the media, Hannah Davies said, that “Without experiences of play, enough sleep, quality family time, good nutrition and addressing problems thrown up by the dominance of electronic media, we are creating a toxic childhood situation.” She further said that, “the impact on future society, as well as individuals, looks bleak. Sue says: Without getting the right sort of experiences, children are going to grow up less bright and less able to behave in a social manner” (Davies, 2006)Another researcher said, who has been studying violence in the media that for many years “more plausible that exposure to TV violence increases aggression than that aggression increases TV-violence viewing”.
(Cheryl Wetzstein, 2003)In an article published in the Demand Teachers Newspaper, Alled Blake writes that parents who are denying for taking the responsibilities of their children’s behavior in the colleges and schools should be punished. He also disclosed the facts in his article that teachers say “some parents encouraged by Government promises to give them more power, abuse or even attack school staff themselves, members of the Professional Association of Teachers” (Blake, 2005)However, the telecommunication act 1966 that urges parents and guardians that they should adopt technological tools that allow them to block the violent programs on any sort of media; for instance, channel blocking devices and so forth.In this regard, program broadcasting companies have developed a rating system that restricts the under age viewer’s. The chip technology in T.
V has played a tremendous role – it made it possible that the viewer cannot see those channels which have been blocked by the parents. By doing all these things, children can only see those programs which are informative and entertaining rather than watching violent programs.Moreover, another area of concern are home videos and electronic games, although much have been done to restrict the under age viewers to see violence, but the present scenario demands more from the government and media presenters. A study showed the facts that parents are not very much concern about what their children are watching on the TV and home videos, on the other hand, news channels have become the primary sources for getting information, and students are relying more and more on the news channels for getting information rather than to contact with a teacher, and consequently, it creates a communication gap between students and teachers.
ConclusionThe world has been changed; the media presenters and parents should ponder seriously about the media violence and have to be proactive rather than reactive. I believe that we need to pay more attention on this issue rather than be only on the lip servicing; when we say that our children are the upcoming heroes of the nation, but on the other hand we fulfill their violent demands, for instance, electronic guns, and violent games and so on, what is it?. Parents should know about the prime hazards which are associated with the media.However, the important fact that we cannot ignore is, the television is not always creating a bad influence on children if we use it in a good way.
There is strong evidence available that shows us the media is helping children in their academic lives, for example, in completing school assignments, a student may need computer and access to the internet. Finally, according to the some researchers, if we use the media in the right direction, the media will outweigh the negative effects. Works Cited Aled Blake .Western Mail, “Punish Parents of Out-of-Control Pupils, Demand Teachers”.
(Cardiff, Wales)July 29, 2005 page no 5 Cheryl Wetzstein, the Washington Times. “TV violence linked to aggression; children’s viewing tied to adult acts” the Washington times, march 11, 2003 Children and television violence – Abelard http://www.abelard.org/tv/tv.
htm Accessed, February 20, 2007 Childhood Exposure to Media Violence Predicts Young Adult Aggressive Behaviorhttp://www.apa.org/releases/media_violence.html Accessed, February 20, 2007 Edward L.
Palmer Brian M. Young the Faces of Televisual media Teaching, violence, Selling to Children (2003) Hannah Davies “Talking about Their Generation”. The journal (new castle England), august 17, 2006Hot Topics | MediaWise.orghttp://www.
mediafamily.org/facts/facts_vlent.shtm Accessed, February 20, 2007 HealthyMinds.org – Psychiatric Effects of Media Violencehttp://www.
healthyminds.org/mediaviolence.cfm Accessed, February 20, 2007 James Potter, Stacy Smith “The Context of Graphic Portrayals of Television Violence.” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media Vol.
44 2000 Kristin J. Hough, Philip G. Erwin “Children’s Attitudes toward Violence on Television” journal of psychology, vol.131 (1997);Martin barker, Julian petley, routledge, edited by Martin Barker and Julian Petley the media/violence debate Second edition (2001);Mary R.
Jackman (2002). “Violence in Social Life”. Annual Review of Sociology”;Nancy Signorielli and George Gerbner violence And Terror in the Mass media An Annotated Bibliography (1988);Patti M. Valkenburg University of Amsterdam.
Children’s Responses to the Screen A Media Psychological Approach (2004) Rafael Art. Javier, William G. Herron, and Louis Primavera “Violence and the Media: A Psychological Analysis.” International Journal of Instructional Media, Vol.25, (1998)
