FREE ESSAY ON VIOLENCE DEPICTED IN THE MEDIA

VIOLENCE DEPICTED IN THE MEDIA

There is endless controversy today concerning society being highly affected by media
programs displaying violence. The National Association for the Education of Young
Children (NAEYC) reports that violence in the media has increased since 1980 and
continues to increase. Thousands of studies have pointed to a relationship between media
violence and real life crime. Years of research show that exposure to media violence
causes children to behave more aggressively, both immediately and in their adult years.
This "aggressiveness" has lead violent acts in the past. These events could have been
avoided if violence was not viewed on television. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms
guarantees "the freedom of the press and other media of communication" under Fundamental
Freedoms. In other words, it is considered justified to portrait violence in the media
and allow it to have an affect on society. Aggression is not the only issue involved.
Statistics show that children who spend more time watching violent TV programming are
rated more poorly by their teachers, rated more poorly by their peers, and have few
problem solving skills. 
Media professionals believe that television has no effects rather than those intended.
They conclude that television does not lead to aggressive behavior. A study done by
Feshback in 1971 suggested that watching television actually decreases the amount of
aggression in the viewer. They believe that history has shown us that violence issues
will not influence a child's mind.
Society cannot continue to allow our future generations to be exposed to violence
portrayed in the media today. The Canadian government should set limitations to the
amount of violence depicted on television. Fundamental freedoms, concerning the freedom
of speech among the media, should limit the violence portrayed. The need for change and
action regarding this matter would change the generations to come. By no longer running
violent programs for children, it enables society to progress in a peaceful, non-violent
atmosphere.
Allowing the violence on television to continue would be killing the world. The violence
today depicted on television has already affected our country. If these violent programs
continue to run, the world will soon be in chaos. 
As a result of television violence, people have died and crimes have been commited. In
Nevada, one teen-aged boy was killed and two others seriously injured while lying down
along the centerline of a highway. The boys admitted that they were imitating a scene
from the Touchstone movie, "The Program". The accident and publicity made Touchstone
remove the scene from the movie, yet leaving other violent scenes, including one in which
a student purposely smashes his head through a car window. In Ontario, a five year-old
boy set his house on fire, killing his younger sister. The boy's mother blamed his
actions on the MTV show "Beavis and Butthead". The latest incident relating TV violence
to real-life violence is the schoolyard killing of five people in Arkansas. Two young
boys aged 11 and 13 killed four schoolgirls and a teacher. Mark Huckabee (Arkansas Gov.)
blamed a national culture of violence "fueled by film and television" for the killing. "I
think what makes all of us angry is that our culture would create the kind of atmosphere
where an 11 or 13 year old student could feel that the way to respond to whatever kind of
anger is inside of them, is to take weapons and shoot their fellow students and teachers"
Huckabee told CNN. "But I'm not sure we could expect a whole lot else in a culture where
these children are exposed to tens of thousands of murders on television and movies and
we desensitized human life" he said. These few of many incidents prove to us that society
is obviously being influenced due the violence featured on television.
Some so-called "experts" say that violent children's programming is no different from
fairy tales, and back then when there were no televisions extremely violent tales of
heroes and villains had no effect on the children. However, television is very different
from fairy tales, and stories told by people for many reasons. First, children are visual
learners. Television is more visual, more striking, and intense than tales that are read
to children. Having tales read to by parents allows commenting and discussion about what
happened in the story, and what could have been done. Reading stories outloud gives
parents the opportunity to share family values with their children. On the other hand,
television doesn't provide for discussion, only the dicouragement of it. (Shhh!! Be
quiet, I'm trying to watch!!) Some believe that television does not lead to aggressive
behavior, yet hundreds of studies have shown aggression is the result of witnessing
violence on television.
Many children have come to see violence as a normal and accepted way of life. Researchers
have determined that the high level of violence in our society is being made worse by so
many children having a regular habit of watching media violence. The Mediascope National
Television Violence Study proves that there are three main effects that TV violence has
on children; learning aggressive attitudes and behaviors, becoming desensitized to real
world violence, and developing a fear of being victimized by violence (aka "mean world
syndrome"). On television, violence is the attractive, effective, and perferred solution
to conflicts. Dr. D. Pearl of the National Institute of Mental Health argues that
"television tells people to be violent" (Devore p.21) The viewers watch so many violent
acts on television, it causes them to think violence is an accepted way of life. A study
has shown that "young children in a group that watched a Power Rangers episode commited
seven times more agressive acts in a following two minute play period than did a control
group" (Boyantis, 1995, p.53) Children who often view violence on television may lose the
capability to deal, protest, and become distressed by real acts of violence. They become
less bothered by violence and see nothing wrong with it. For example, in several case
studies "children who watched a violent program instead of a non-violent one were slow to
intervene or to call for assistance when they saw younger children fighting or playing
destructively." (Featherstone p.3) As a result of the tremendous amount of research done
in the past years, we can conclude that violence on television is clearly influencing our
children in negative ways.
Violence illustrated in the media today poses a threat to our society, our children and
generations to come. We can continue to ignore the issues and let the media control the
future of our world, yet the concequences are deadly. Children have always been more
vulnerable to influence, thus the future of society depends on how our children view the
world. By limiting the freedom of speech, in relation to media and violence, our world
can become a safer place for everyone, and the generations to come can grow up
peacefully. Society values safety, and by exposing our children to media violence we are
placing the future of our nation on a thin rope.