Essay On How Media Has Affected Violence To Kids And Teenagers

Media plays a cardinal role in shaping our societies. As the technology is developing day-by-day, mass communication is becoming faster and easier compare to the past. Incidents and News are transported at a breathtaking speed from one corner of the world to another. In the past, we only had access to newspapers and radios but today we have access to the internet that is an integrated source of multiple resources. Another important breakthrough in the mass communication industry is the satellite T.V.
Materials broadcasted can have multifaceted effect on the viewer. It can have a possibility of educating the mass about a new concept or new idea or a political or ideological implication. Many advertisements, movies, T.V. series and shows circle around these concepts. There are many advertisements, movies, series, games, comic contents which are targeting, directly or indirectly, children and teenagers. Unfortunately, many companies, production units and brands are trying to take advantage of the innocence and tenderness of the young population to sell their products and services.
Let’s take the example of video games as they are very popular among the kids and teenagers. A lot of video games are designed with the theme of killing, assassination, fighting, hunting, wrestling etc. In short, a lot of violence. So, the ideology derived from these kinds of games is - killing is good and violence is an option.
For example, Carmegeddon. It’s all about killing people on the street in the most brutal ways. Think about a kid who grew up playing this game and when he will have his own car, what kind of driving he is going to do. Another example could be God of war II. One of the most brutal acts in this game is to slam the door on the head of another God numerous times until he is dead. What kind of impact will it have on a teenager?
The mass effect of these games could be the increase in the number of shooting incidents inside the school premises, children becoming insensitive to violent act, and accepting that violence is part of the society. Another drawback of such games is children can think that it’s easy to get away with killing or murdering. They never get to know the repercussions of such evil acts in reality. And they may perceive it is normal to kill and could be done to anyone. Many research works show the reflection of violent or aggressive behavior among kids who play such video games. And in extreme cases they become rebellious and challenge their own parents and/or siblings.
Television is another great impact on children and teenagers. As it is the easiest and the prime medium of entertainment, it is available in almost every house. The idea of entertainment has changed a lot over the period of time. These days violence, sexual contents, inappropriate language, abusive behavior, daring and adventurous acts give us real entertainment, or so do the media think. Most of the T.V programs, these days contain at least one or more of these attributes.
American Horror story, Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Bullet in the Face are to name the few. These T.V programs are full of graphic violence. These shows are famous for showing violent act on the screen like self destruction, destruction of material, and killing people.
Even the regular family shows display acts as slapping someone in the family, using disrespectful verbal or body language, act of conspiracy and betrayal inside a family, fighting and arguments between parents etc. Another graphical representation is on screen smoking, alcohol consumption, drugs, sex and/or violent sexual acts on T.V.
These information catches immediate attention of the children. As children are very prompt in copying what they see and hear, they produce the similar language or act in real life. Programs showing teenage behavior like stubbornness, bad attitude, drugs etc. may imply to a teenager that such behaviors are politically correct, normal and should be tolerated.
Apart from T.V series, if we talk about movies that’s another entertainment source which is polluting the young brains. War movies with lots of guns and artilleries, fighting movies with fancy weapons etc. instill aggressive thoughts in young brains. It’s the latest trend in movies to use young teenage looking actors and actresses. Now, the impact of this is:
- It largely influences the young teenage population as they idolize these actors/actresses. And they try to imitate their on-screen idols.
- As they see the use of guns and fancy weapons in the movies, they are also encouraged to use things like that.
Let’s consider Hunger Games Series, as it was one of the most popular movie series among the teenagers. One of the teenagers I talked to about this movie, told me that she idolizes the female character and she wants to be like her - a warrior. And in her ideology it’s deeply instilled, after watching the movie, she will have to fight in her life to get anything. It’s a competitive world and our fellow beings are cruel and inhumane.
Young viewers perceive themselves as the lead characters or one of the characters in the movie and are directly impacted by the on screen content. This can leave a child either with the thought of victimizing someone or with the strong fear of getting victimized. On the other hand, there are movies that contain adult contents and are only meant for a particular age group. However, these movies are easily available online and can be accessed by youngsters, thus exposing themselves to contents that are not comprehensible to their young brains. The educational impact of this mass medium is not very positive.
In some movies, they show that it is okay for some particular set of people to practice violence against another. For example, a hero in a movie can hit and kill the villain, and it is completely okay with the society and everybody. A villain is a bad character in the movie, and everybody hates him/her. These kinds of characterization may lead to hateful behavior in a child. It implies that it is okay to hate some people. Movies with misleading concepts are responsible for providing wrong education to young brains.
News channels and newspapers are equally involved in provoking inappropriate behavior in the young population. Many news channels provide contradictory, incomplete, manipulated and/or misleading information, due to political influence, social influence etc. Most of the news channels, these days, are more interested in capturing and broadcasting news about crime and violence. News such as murder, theft, rape, bank robbery, street violence, etc. are some of the most popular topics among the journalists. Sometimes they show very disturbing and violent content that can be very inappropriate for a particular age group.
News like scams and corruptions in the political systems, argumentative scenes from the parliament, unethical behavior of key authorities in the society like police, government officials etc. provokes behavior patterns which are anti-social. These information, whether true or false, can have a wrong political implication on a child’s mind.
Riot coverage from different countries is also very sensitive. As there were many riots in the recent past, those kinds of broadcasting occupied major portion of T.V. news, internet and social networking sites. Some times on site reports showing burning cars, bleeding victims, police hitting the mob etc. were aired on live T.V. These images, when frequently repeated, can have profound effect on children and particularly teenagers. Teenagers watching such contents may turn out to be hooligans and vandalize public properties in the near future. Thus, they become a threat to the society. Such images and information should be released with great care.
Newspapers also impact this age group as most of the time they give local news from the neighborhood or city. Thus, making the readers feel very close to the crime spot and in some cases encourage them to imitate such acts.
Internet is another medium which has a crucial role in mass communication. Since any kind of information can be accessed on the internet, it’s very difficult to provide restricted access to information. Children these days have direct access to the internet at school, in cafes, and at home. With the increase in the use of internet for the purpose of education etc., they come across many information and contents which are not meant for them.
Unfortunately, social networking websites are a platform for photo/video sharing, different threads, racial comments, sexual discrimination etc. With the increase in mobile internet technology, things are getting worse. Recently there was an incident of rape in Brasil, where a young boy tried to rape an adult woman inside a metro coach during the regular office hours. The youngster when apprehended and questioned, he told the officials that he came across some discussions related to rape and abusing women on a social networking websites. The group was discussing and planning to do such acts inside metros, buses and other public transportations, and that was his source of motivation.
Finally, it can be said that if media is not used in a responsible and controlled way, it can lead to disastrous results. And it’s a two way process. Parents should take equal responsibility. As more and more parents are working these, they are never near to their children to see what T.V shows their kids are watching, or what kind of magazines they are reading or what kind of content they are accessing on internet. Parents should involve with their kids and explain why some shows are not appropriate for their age, why some contents should not be accessed on the internet. They should constantly disapprove violence, abusive language or disrespectful behavior on T.V. And then, media should do their part as well.