Overview
Media violence is considered complex. Therefore, its meaning is explained in different ways according to how one views the whole perception. According to David & Hertz, (2007) one of the simple definitions of media violence is the exposure of fights, murder, and forms of injustices through the televisions to the public. When defining media violence, one should keep in mind the ideas like; the aims of media violence that are; do they point at passion or retaliation? The being consequences: whether financial benefits or death and finally, the techniques in media violence like handful fights or shootouts. When watching the television, one can make personal judgments on defining media violence by counting the violence deeds and noting the victims and the offenders. In the addition to that, take note of how these characters are diverse in gender terms class and race. Finally, assess the results. By so doing, one can make conclusions such as the kinds of violence that are frequently used whether fist fights or shootouts, how the violence are altered over time and the intensity patterns that emerge when considering the race, gender, and class of people.
A definition of Media Violence
The given guidelines can help one to have a clear understanding of media violence and therefore, from their experience and concentration when watching the television, be able to define media violence. In the attempts to limit media violence, there are arguments that the psychological impacts of media violence have caused hostile behaviors amongst individuals especially the youths (David & Hertz, (2007). The aim of this article is to show the effects, both positive and adverse, of media violence to the adolescents. Various ideas and claims on media violence have been brought up. Some researchers argue that incidents like shootings in high schools are not contributed by the violent videos watched by these students. Additionally, the claims strive to explain that there are no links between violent videos and the youth crimes and violence due to dating cases. Moreover, they believe that the violent video game has not contributed to increased violent crimes. The researchers believe that the criminal cases among the youths have reduced since these youngsters became familiarized to violent video games.
Exploration of Media Violence
Contrary to all these assumptions and ideas are given by the researchers; others claim that video games can lead to increased criminal cases among the youths and conflicts. In addition, they believe that these violent videos represent violent acts but do not portray the consequences of the violence. Hence, the aspect aids in reducing the youth’s exposure to the dangers of these vehement videos. The extreme videos also can play the role of stimulating the children to the practice of violence. Apart from the above arguments, there are yet other groups of scholars who have declared that other than media violence, there are other pertinent aspects of life that a possibility of risk to the lives of the adolescents. The factors include education, domestic life, discrimination, and poverty. The given issues are not considered much yet they are a barrier to health living among the youths (David & Hertz, 2007).
Most violent video programs are claimed to be targeting the adults and so the adolescents are not supposed to view them. The problem comes in when the parents fail to watch these young ones carefully, to ensure that they only watch what is meant for them. For instance, a Norwegian research that consisted of twenty adolescent boys at risk reported that inadequate parental guidelines towards what the kids watched, is one of the main predictors of future development antisocial behaviors than the violent shows watched. The parents face some challenges when trying to solve this problem. One of which is offering free access to the videotapes by those trading to the youths. The underlying aim of the respective groups financial benefits. Therefore, they allow the adolescents to purchase the cassettes without considering the motives of the videos; also, whether they are appropriate to these young once or not (Strasburger, 2010).
A majority of research studies have been carried out in the past years on media violence. Scholars have come up with various effects of watching violent videos on the adolescents. Many laboratory experiments have been carried out since the 1950s, and they have consistently revealed that disclosure to violence is associated with high blood pressure, increased respiration rate ad heartbeat together with a greater readiness to cause pain to others (Strasburger, 2010).
Therefore, the adolescents being the largest group involved in watching these videos, end up having poor health conditions. Nevertheless, others have criticized this idea since it only focuses on the short-term outcomes besides the artificial nature of the observing environment. Other studies have stated that these violent videos scare children, especially at a young age. The children experience a long-term effect that is extreme in adolescence. Their behaviors are social lives affected by the media violence. Therefore, they end up lacking proper means of interacting and the confidence to face people or crowds. In addition, their courage is deteriorated.
John Murray, a professor at Kansas State University, stated in his research that when children as exposed to violent television programs at an early age, then they grow up possessing antisocial behaviors. They, therefore, become a group of criminal at adolescence. In addition, the young children expose to violent videos tend to believe that what they see portrays what life is. There is great danger in this since they grow with the idea that life is not fair, and so this demoralizes them especially in the adolescent stage when they are driven emotions.
Increased number of watching hours and accurately, watching violent television programs by the young ones, has significantly contributed to trauma cases developing in such children at an adolescent stage (Strasburger, 2010). The reason being, when watching these videos, one is likely to experience nervousness, depression, and stress. More research carried out has given the report that too much exposure of violent videos to the youths especially the adolescents, has contributed to lack of sleep amongst them. In extreme cases, there are many cases of nightmares. Therefore, fear is instilled in them. They feel stressed and worried when night comes in. Lack of enough sleep also affects the performing of their daily activities, making it even worse, leads to poor performance in their class work.
It is also evident that most youths who watch these videos have trouble in distinguishing between the realistic series and real life. They may, therefore, end up taking some ideas from the practical programs and try to relate them to real life situations. The result being, they can be misled and handle life the wrong way. An investigation was held in 1994; the result of it was that the adolescents are likely to tolerate violent actions if only they spend most of their time watching videos that contain violence (David & Hertz, 2007). The prolonged exposure to violent portrayals can lead to desensitization to violence. They can become more willing to admit abuse from others and spread violence themselves. Hence, they consider any violence around them as normal and so, cannot resist them.
Adolescents who are great television viewers and explicitly violent show are likely to have an ingrained belief that the neighbors are not trustworthy. The view makes them separate themselves from people close to them and in fact, they prefer staying alone rather than associating with the people. Teenagers also tend to have an assumption that the rate of crime is increasing even if it is not. Since they watch repeated violent shows in the televisions and relate them to real life situations. Therefore, this gives them a wrong perspective of what the real world contains. They end up handling life in the wrong way. Other studies have revealed that extensive watching of the violent videos by the youngsters has brought the idea in their minds that there is a high risk of being the victims of crime. They develop a tendency to relating what they see in the movies with the real life situations. Thus, believing that crime is everywhere and they can be victimized any time (David & Hertz, 2007).
Many studies have been conducted that have related the watching of television with immoral behaviors. Bandura undertook one of the modern research in 1963 (Strasburger, 2010). He had different groups of young adolescent boys; he then had the first batch of the kids watch a video of a model kicking and punishing a plastic doll that was inflated. Another group of the boys was those who did not watch the show. When these two distinct groups were then placed in a playroom, it came out that the kids who watched the movie portrayed more aggressive behaviors than those who did not watch the film. He was able to confirm the investigation that, most of the youths who attend violent program tend to be more immoral.
In 1972, Bandura’s research was further confirmed (Strasburger, 2010). The research examined the teen’s readiness to hurt the fellows after watching hostile television programs. Two groups of the youngsters were made to watch different television shows, one being a regular show, another one being, a non-violent show. Afterward, it was noted that the group that watched the violent show were ready to cause harm than the lot that did not watch the violent movie.
Other studies have shown that children and especially the young adolescents between the ages of eleven to twelve years who watch violent programs have developed a habit of not sharing their items after much exposure to violent videos, they tend to believe that others can destroy the things in committing violent actions. They, therefore, keep the objects for safety purposes and loss avoidance. Exposure to media violence has also been a contradiction of religious customs and beliefs. Most of the youngster who frequently watches the violent clips fails to observe the religious norms. The reason being, media violence exposes the adolescents to murder cases and crime, yet religious beliefs discourage the incidences of death.
In some cases, the youths have the habit of watching the television programs that contain violence trust that fear of crime are an individual difficulty (Ferguson, 2011). Therefore, they end up not sharing these concerns with their elder ones and causing psychological effects to them. Due to this, their social lives may be significantly affected. Further research was done to confirm that the adolescents that are heavy watchers of violent movies believe that the world is dangerous to be. The fear becomes a significant barrier to positive attitude towards life. Exposure to actual life violence together with media violence creates excessive violence in a youth's mind. Therefore, at this-this age, they are likely to use violent images from the television to make their identities as an anti-social group member. Violence increases with a higher amount of television watching amongst the youths.
For instance, only ten percent of American households had televisions in the 1950s (Ferguson,2011). The rate of crime during this time was minimized, compared to now that; ninety-nine percent of the home has televisions. In addition to that, it is reported that most of the children have the televisions in their bedrooms. They, therefore, watch the videos without parental care or guidance.
There is a revelation that nowadays children spend at least twenty-eight hours in a week watching videos. They spend most of their time on televisions than in school. It gives clear evidence that videos and explicitly violent programs have significantly contributed to crime amongst the adolescents. According to Strenziok & Moreno, (2013), children in the United States of American are likely to view more than two hundred thousand movies consisting of at least sixteen thousand murders before the age of eighteen. In addition to that, the television shows present approximately eight hundred violent acts within an hour; children’s shows, specifically cartoons, offer up to twenty violent actions at a time. Tentatively, there is excess exposure of the youths to violence through media. The youths have therefore viewed the world as a place of violence. Therefore, they are unable to differentiate between fantasy and facts. Violence is thereby seen as a usual occurrence. Violence in the movies in most cases conveys a model of conflicts.
As noted by Krahé & Möller, (2010), the violent movies intend to reveal to the viewers that champions are passionate, and, as such, are compensated for their actions. At least every youth desire to be like the heroes, therefore, they tend to imitate the steps followed by these champions to reach their desired ends. The stars turn to be their role models. Due to this, they keep in mind ideas like being advisable to carry guns and other weapons to knock off the criminals. In addition, this is precisely how is it portrayed in most violence movies. Cases of gun shooting in most schools arise due to such perspectives.
A typical situation of using violence for a moral case may interpret in day-to-day life into a reason for using violence to strike back the observed victims. Thus, defenseless teenagers who have been ill-treated mat be tempted to solve their problems by the means of violence. Inappropriately, there are rare representations of nonviolent conflicts in the televisions. Moreover, children watching violence in the videos view violence as an element of life, and in the long-run, fail to empathize with both the criminal and the victim.
Adolescent are exposed to violence in different ways. The first means is by giving an easy way to access video games and internet. Secondly is through the music videos that consist of interpersonal vehemence. Therefore, this calls for great concern about the sites that may support violence. There should be restrictions on exposure to the ways of obtaining the firearms in the movies. Additionally, provision of information on production of explosive weapons on the movies should be banned. Parents are therefore advised by the experts to help in controlling media violence exposure amongst the adolescents (Krueger et al., 2010). Therefore, they should limit the hours the children spend in watching the televisions to at most two hours a day. Furthermore, they are advised to ensure that they join the adolescents while watching.
Contrary to the presented arguments, some of the scholars who encourage social media claim that not all cases of crime are driven by watching violence in television. They argue that media violence brings about positive impacts to the adolescents. According to them, the youths who watch violent programs frequently do not suffer from fear of evils, as compared to the ones who do not view these videos. They further explain that the teenagers get used to these violent actions and so will not live with fear. Additionally, they state that the youths who are exposed to media violence have the real definition of what violence is and the different forms of violence. Therefore, they hardly involve themselves into violent action due to persona awareness. The researchers believe that the youths should be allowed to view the movies so that they can spread the awareness, which will subsequently help in fighting violence among citizens. Furthermore, they are the future parent and leaders, so the will not find it hard to educate the future youngsters (Krahé & Möller, 2010).
Conclusion
Excessive exposure of the adolescents to media violence is a significant threat to the whole world. The reason being, they grow to be a wicked nation that is full of negativities including health wise. Violent media is killing the lives of the adolescents and deteriorating their performances, both in schools and at home. Therefore, it is advisable that people should stand firm and fight this disaster. Moreover, the struggle against media violence should start with the parents, the doctors, and even the political leaders.
References
David-Ferdon, C., & Hertz, M. F. (2007). Electronic media, violence, and adolescents: An emerging public health problem. Journal of Adolescent Health, 41(6), S1-S5.
Krahé, B., & Möller, I. (2010). Longitudinal effects of media violence on aggression and empathy among German adolescents. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 31(5), 401-409.
Ferguson, C. J. (2011). Video games and youth violence: A prospective analysis in adolescents. Journal of youth and adolescence, 40(4), 377-391.
Strenziok, M., Krueger, F., Deshpande, G., Lenroot, R. K., van der Meer, E., & Grafman, J. (2010). Fronto-parietal regulation of media violence exposure in adolescents: a multi-method study. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, nsq079.
Strasburger, E. (2010). Health effects of media on children and adolescents. Pediatrics, 125(4), 756-767., V. C., Jordan, A. B., &Dinnerstein,
Strenziok, V. & Moreno, M. A. (2013). Children, adolescents, and the media. Pediatrics, 132(5), 958-961. Journal of youth and adolescence, 40(4), 377-391.
An Annotated Bibliography
David-Ferdon, C., & Hertz, M. F. (2007). Electronic media, violence, and adolescents: An emerging public health problem. Journal of Adolescent Health, 41(6), S1-S5.
Youths' access to advanced media is upcoming, and this sudden increase of technology has got its risks and benefits. Concentration is emerging on the risk of youngsters to turn into victims of violence committed by peers with latest technology. The Centers for illness Regulation and avoidance organized a panel of professionals in technology and adolescence violent behavior to examine the risk. The issue of the journal of teenager wellbeing presents the information and proposal for future guidelines agreed upon at the meeting. The piece of writing in the Journal support the discussion that electronic violence is an upcoming community health difficulty in necessary for extra occurrence and research to support the growth and assessment of efficient avoidance programs.
Krahé, B., & Möller, I. (2010). Longitudinal effects of media violence on aggression and empathy among German adolescents. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 31(5), 401-409.
The writer reports a study showing the relationship between adolescents' usual habit of using media violence and hostile behavior and empathy, the investigations showed important way from media aggression usage to advanced physical violence and lesser empathy. The overturn paths violence or empathy to violent media usage was insignificant. The relations were alike for both boys and girls. No associations were established between disclosure to aggression and non-violent media.
Ferguson, C. J. (2011). Video games and youth violence: A prospective analysis in adolescents. Journal of youth and adolescence, 40(4), 377-391.
Strenziok, M., Krueger, F., Deshpande, G., Lenroot, R. K., van der Meer, E., & Grafman, J. (2010). Fronto-parietal regulation of media violence exposure in adolescents: a multi-method study. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, nsq079.
The majority of adolescents use most of their free time watching television movies that show violence. However, the level of media violence use and the harshness of violence displayed influence youngsters’ brain function. An examination of skin performance reaction, brain commencement and useful brain connectivity to violent media in healthy teenagers was done. Therefore, related useful magnetic character imaging test, topic constantly analyzed media videos that portrayed different levels of violent behavior.
Strasburger, E. (2010). Health effects of media on children and adolescents. Pediatrics, 125(4), 756-767., V. C., Jordan, A. B., &Dinnerstein,
Research has revealed that media can offer information about harmless health practices and also promote public connectivity. Nevertheless, current proof increases concern about media's impacts on violence, substance use, sexual behavior academic problems and, messy eating. Advice is given to parents and policy makers for means of increasing the benefits and limits the danger of media to the adolescents.
Strenziok, V. & Moreno, M. A. (2013). Children, adolescents, and the media. Pediatrics, 132(5), 958-961. Journal of youth and adolescence, 40(4), 377-391.
The writer states that there is a continued concern by proof about the possible dangerous impacts of media images and messages; nevertheless, significant positive and impacts of media use should be documented.
