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With an uprise of violence in the media today, it is important to evaluate how exposure to such media may affect its viewers, especially children. Conclusive studies have been ran that indicates there may be a connection between aggressive behavior in these adulesents and violent materials such as movies, television shows, and different forms of art. These materials have been suggested to have short-term and long-lastings effects. In the article, “Sizing Up the Effects”, Sissela Bok illustrates the potential dangers that violence in the media can have on adulesents, affecting their decisions and behavior.
In 1993, the American Psychological Association released a report, based on their annylisis of previously made studies. They noted that “children’s exposure to violence in the mass media, particularly at young ages, can have harmful lifelong consequences”. They believe there are three ways that violence in television can affect children, besides an increase in violent behavior, which consist of paranoia induced by fear of becoming a victim, increased desensitization to violence, and an increased appetited to view violence or expose themselves to violence.
These effects have been named by Ronald Slaby, a member of the APA commission, as “the aggressor effect, the victim effect, the bystander effect, and the appetite effect”. These accusations reveal that viewing violence has a relationship with violent behavior but does not directly contribute to causing violent actions. Some organizations are noticing these effect and trying to reduce levels of violence in television such as The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the National PTA. Violence viewed by children in television and movies has been increasing significantly in past years.
In the early 1990’s, researched found that the average child who graduated from elementary school has witnessed 8,000 murders and over 100,000 acts of violence in the media. This number is growing as cable channels have made the viewing of violence on television accessable at all hours. An increase in the production gore and slasher movies is a contributing factor to these increasing numbers. Most of these movies not only contain graphic material of violence, but also sexual material. In the past, it would have been obscene to witness this sort of roductions but due to the desensitization of our senses to these sort of nature, it is becoming easier accessable. Perhaps one of the most effective attributes in commiting an act of murder or rape is that of desensitization. James Giligan, a psychiatristwho studied homicides of violent men, noted “what is most startling about the most violent people is how incapable they are, at least at the time they commit their violence, of feeling love, guilt, or fear”. it is indisizive, but realistic that violence behavior in people could be an indirect effect of viewing violence in different media sources.
Whether it be a lyric in a song, a murder in a movie, or rape in a television show, all may contribute to our desensitization to witnessing such materials. If a person were to watch an episode of “I love Lucy”, from the 50’s, and and episode of “CSI”, from today, they would notice the difference in violence and even sexuallity as the characters of “I love Lucy” even slept in seperate beds. The fact that a child can turn the television on at any hour of the day and be able to witness a murder or rape, i believe, is not socially correct.
Because of this exposure to violence at such a young age, a child can become more comfortable with the thought of commiting an act aggression towards another child. I also believe if a parent does not want to expose their child to such violence, they should put parental locks on their television sets. It is a parents resposibilty to raise their child and make decisions that may effect their social growth and life. It is not realistic to say that the viewing of violence in the media is a direct cause of murders and violent behavior in our youth.
Plenty of people who have witnessed television programs involving extreme violence will never commit an act of violence towards anyone. Someone who has never watched a movie involving a murder may still commit homicide just because it is our human nature to fight for what we believe in. The only way to conduct a valid study of the effects of violence in media would be to completely do away with any movie or television programming involving these acts, from when a society of children are born until they die. You would then have to expose half of these children to violence and note whether they have a higher crime rate.
Only then would anyone be able to say whether murders and acts of aggression or a result of watching violent materials. There will always be murders and acts of adultery, with or without exposure to violent material in the media. In Sissela Bok’s article, she argues the effects of violence in media on children in the world today. Some studies have led to organizations to claim that it does have an effect while others say it is not a direct cause of aggressive acts in adulesents. With so much of these violent materials in the media being exposed to children, it will be interesting to see the effect it has on future generations.