Media Violence has been a hot topic for many decades. Now it has become a problem because of the many technological advances. This can be an arguable debate between different people. Some argue that media violence has no harm but others disagree. The facts are stating that the television is turned on for more than eight hours per day and children spend two to four hours watching it. There are other media sources that most children have access to like movies, music, video games and internet. When children turn one years old they have already seen 200,000 acts of violence, including 40,000 murders. Most of our time is spend on media devices then other activities.
Media can have good affects one being fast and easy communication. Media Violence does affect us by making us more violent, more aggressive and teach us the wrong messages. It’s a proven fact that indeed media violence can make you more violent. Seeing violence on many of the products we use today makes us think that it is acceptable to use violence in real life. Through the click of a mouse you can get beheading videos, execution images, accident pictures, and gruesome scenes. That’s just form the internet, and there are still many types of media that are not listed. There are four types of violence that can be shown. Those four are unpunished violence, painless violence, happy violence and heroic violence.
Some may be better than others but all of them show violent acts. “We’ve heard it for years-a violent culture begets violence” (John-Hall 1) This question has been around for years but now it has become a problem because sources of media has dramatically went up. Violent media affects everyone, no matter what others think. There are people that do not agree that violent media causes violence in real life.
“Some people point out that violence is a fundamental part of human life, so media will necessarily contain it because media reflects reality.”(Nakaya 3) There is a lot of violence going on in the world, and the media just wants to paint a clear picture, for those that do not see what is going on around them. Reality should be shown but not in a way that people are disgusted and do not want their children around it. Reality should be put in a way that is appropriate for everyone. Aggression is also a problem connecting to media violence. Some parents complain that their children have become more aggressive after starting to play violent video games.
There is no way to prove that violent video games are the cause of that, but there are other evidences that show how violence media makes individuals more aggressive. “They contend that television and films can induce aggressive thoughts, provide models of violence to be imitated…”(Miller 2) This is not just someone’s opinion but its research done which shows that aggressive thoughts can come from violent media.
It is true that young people are playing violent video games that are not suitable for them. If parents can control and support their children, violent video games can be a way to decrease aggressive thoughts. “And parents are using video games as effective tools for raising their children.”(John-Hall 1) If parents can take responsibility for what their children play then the children can have fun and the parents can teach them something on the way.
It’s like putting a medicine in an ice cream. The kid likes it and the medicine gives its effect. Increasing violent acts are shown on the media that make some people believe that’s its ok to do those acts in the reality. For example a husband beating her wife in a movie can trigger a husband in the real life to do the same thing. People can learn different things from witnessing violent acts on media.
While some understand that media is a way of entertainment some do not and take in the wrong message. “All the major health organizations…have signed on to the position that media violence leads to real-world violence.” (Kevin W. Saunders, Pg.7) In the future this can be even a bigger problem because technology is ground by every hour. Soon, for some people media will be the only entertainment option. This will cause more violence in the real world. Others can disagree on this topic as well. Some say that violence in media can have two reasons. One of the reasons would be money. Many video games and movies make money because they include violence in their products.
They get big profits for just using some violence, they do not care how that violence is interpreted. Their purpose is for entertainment only. Some say that violence in media will show us what is going on in reality. “Some people out that violence is a fundamental part of human life, so media will necessarily contain it because media reflects reality.” (Henry Jenkins, pg.5)
Media is another source that will show people what is going on in reality. People that believe that violence is for the good, they think that when people watch violent acts, they will try to stop it in reality. This has been a hot topic for quite a bit. As technology grows this topic becomes even hotter. Going back two decades this problem wouldn’t have been as big as a problem then now. While some still think that showing violence would actually help, but it’s been researched that watching violence can cause aggressive behaviors which will eventually lead to violence. Violence in media has also dramatically grown over the past few years. There is no way to stop it now, but we have to learn how to control it and understand the right messages that its sending.
