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¶ … Media Violence
Blaming Social Violence on the Media
Violence in the media has statistically increased in the last decade, yet incidences of societal violence have not risen along with it. This contradicts the claim by many that violence in television shows, the movies, video games, and music has greatly contributed to the depravity of those exposed to such violence, including children. While increased exposure to the media presents increased exposure to its contents, and thus subjective violence, if present, theoretical implications depicting media as the primary stimuli to the committing of criminal acts has not been objectively proven.
Prior to evaluating evidence for or against causative violence in the media, the concept of violence must first be analyzed. According to the National Television Violence Survey (NTVS), violence can be defined as the "overt depiction of a credible threat of physical force, or the actual use of such force intended to physically harm an animate being or group of beings." Professor W. James Potter, who is well written on the subject of violence in the media, has noted a "profound difference...
However, the public does not maintain the same perception. The significance of this observation is that the varied definitions of media violence bewteen the public and scientists make it difficult to determine accurate effects of violence in the media.
Brandon Centerwall, a prominent opponent to violence in the media, responded to contested opinion by restating that his theory should have been based on a two-factor model, considering sources of violence-causing factors outside of the media. He conceded that economic conditions are the predominant factor affecting murder rates. As he stated, "It goes up in bad times and when times are good it goes down.'" He correlated the effects of television with economic conditions by explaining that violence in the media eventually saturates societal influence, reaching a steady-state affect on murder rates, thus becoming negligible in the face of fluctuating economic conditions. Also, famed criminologist…
Bibliography
Felson, Richard B. (1996) "Mass Media Effects on Violent Behavior." Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 103-128.
Levine, Judith (2000). Shooting The Messenger: Why Censorship Won't Stop Violence. New York, NY: The Media Coalition, Inc.
Potter, W. James (2002). The 11 Myths of Media Violence. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications, Inc.
Rhodes, Richard (2000). "The Media Violence Myth." American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. Retrieved 25 Feb. 2004. http://www.abffe.com/myth2.htm
Media Violence The potential relationship between media violence and actual aggression comes to the forefront of public discussion, but unfortunately this discussion rarely takes into account the science related to the relationship between media violence and aggressive behavior. In particular, there is a widespread assumption that media violence directly causes aggression and aggressive behavior, and this assumption has become so common that even secondary scholarly discussions of the evidence have taken
This source is particularly important for the topic of media violence because it proves how children are vulnerable to every example of violence they witness, even those which are apparently harmless. Sparks G.G. & Sherry, J. & Lubsen, G. (2005). The Appeal of Media Violence in a Full-Length Motion Picture: An Experimental Investigation. Communication Reports 18.1-2 . Violence is mostly present in the media because of its marketing potential, as it
Because there was not the time or means to get a very diverse population of individuals, there may be some limitations when it comes to social class as well as previous levels of aggression in the children and youths. There are only two girls compared with the eight boys. This may be considered a limitation as well, but more parents of boys answered the ad and this may be because
Media Violence The role of media content in the violent activities has been found to be prominent in the real life events and it has been observed that the individuals tend to adopt the violent acts by means of their cognitive learning and social process. There exists stimulus which makes individuals to indulge in the media illustrations and cause them to replicate these actions in the real life. Moreover, the existence
In contrast, Cline, Croft and Courrier, writing in "Desensitization of Children to Television Violence," reports that the facts bear out the truth of the problem, namely, that children who watch too much television become insensitive to real violence and see it as a way to solve personal conflicts with friends, schoolmates and their siblings. Likewise, D.G. Singer in "Does Violent Television Produce Aggressive Children?" declares that "Most researchers conservatively estimate
In 1999, the average person in England and Wales watched 26 hours of television and listened to 19 hours of radio per week - this amounts to 40% of their waking life, and the figures are higher for youth and in particular working class youth (Young). Not only has the quantity of media usage increased, but the level of violence depicted in the media has increased dramatically, due in part