Is society’s violence the media’s fault? This is the question that has been asked since before television was in every house. Of course there are the different types of media today ranging from newspapers to online reports and stories.
There have been arguments upon arguments about this issue and over 3,000 studies conducted. Unfortunately, there isn’t one single result, there is only an array of supposed answers to this undying question.
Theatrical films raised more concern and had a lot more violence.
Television violence affects youngsters of all ages, of both genders, at all socio-economic levels and all levels of intelligence. The effect is not limited to children who are already disposed to being aggressive and is not restricted to this country.
Technology today isn’t helping everyone to feel better about this dilemma. It is actually going to get worse before it gets better. There isn’t only movie or news reports someone can watch to see violence, but also the new video game craze. Video games have become an enormous industry in the past decade. People from 4 year old to 70 year old own their own Sega Genesis or Nintendo Play Station. Of course there are a number of games to choose from…but what is the highest wanted game? None other than Mortal Combat.
The name speaks for itself. Just for the record, this game consists of choosing a character, a weapon and then fighting another character until one is dead. It also is equipped with sound effects for when someone is punched or stabbed, and also shows the blood flowing from the body when hit.
So many studies have been done on the effects of media violence on children. Most are concerned with the results, especially parents. If the government, parents or others are so concerned with the effect of their child seeing violence on the television.
Parents need to draw the line between appropriate and not appropriate. It would be a nice convenience to have a rating system on the television, but parents should be aware enough of what their children are doing and watching-that they are the rating system themselves.
The question now is what is happening to help this situation currently? The answer is quite relieving. All of the networks are on their “tippy toes” so they won’t get a bad name. The Entertainment Industries Council, which distributes suggestions to the writers and producers of network shows and TV movies on social issues, is now meeting with writers to develop ways for dramatising conflict without violence and showing the consequences of violence.
What is the effect of violence in media with children compared to with adults? Children model behaviour they see in the media. If they don’t see the consequences of violence, it will teach them that violence doesn’t cause serious harm. Adults see more violence in the media than actually exists in real life.
There is also discussion of violence on TV not having any effect at all. People have seen so much that they don’t really think about the actual act occurring on screen.
People have become used to seeing violence on television, but this has become somewhat surreal to them. They don’t think of it as reality until it happens to them. When Violence happens to people or their families, they become eyewitnesses to is violence. They have personal experiences-compassion sensitivity, fear. People haven’t lost that.
