The Media Violence Debate
THE MEDIA VIOLENCE DEBATE
Introduction
Television and video games are favorite ways teenagers spend their leisure hours. Parents and teens themselves have wondered about their effects because of numerous concerns raised with regards to the negative influences that these form of entertainment bring. Many of today’s children grow up with a television at home or even in their own rooms and there have been studies dedicated to the analysis of their impact of a young child growing up to adolescence. Young children are heavily influenced by television and video games, many of which are educational. While there are fun educational shows and games that benefit educational development for young children, the choice of video games and television shows are different when they grow up to be teenagers. This is when the problem begins. The negative influences of television and video games are aplenty. Flipping through the channels would surely show situations of violence, sex scenes and explicit conversations, alcohol and drug use, cursing and verbal obscenities, bad body image reflections, and more. Visiting a games arcade would not only hurt one’s ears because of the noise of gunshots and obscene shouts from the games played, but also expose one to bloody and highly violent ways of killing people. These situations can affect teenagers differently.
With some good things that can be learned from many television shows (documentaries and educational shows, for example) and video games (motor skills development), the negative effects of these forms of media outweighs the positive ones. This paper aims at discussing the effects of media particularly on the debate that has been going on with the ill-effects of media violence. Moreover, it provides a bird’s eye view and analysis on the influences of media violence especially on children.
Relevant Research and Authors
Featured in The Guardian
Introduction
Television and video games are favorite ways teenagers spend their leisure hours. Parents and teens themselves have wondered about their effects because of numerous concerns raised with regards to the negative influences that these form of entertainment bring. Many of today’s children grow up with a television at home or even in their own rooms and there have been studies dedicated to the analysis of their impact of a young child growing up to adolescence. Young children are heavily influenced by television and video games, many of which are educational. While there are fun educational shows and games that benefit educational development for young children, the choice of video games and television shows are different when they grow up to be teenagers. This is when the problem begins. The negative influences of television and video games are aplenty. Flipping through the channels would surely show situations of violence, sex scenes and explicit conversations, alcohol and drug use, cursing and verbal obscenities, bad body image reflections, and more. Visiting a games arcade would not only hurt one’s ears because of the noise of gunshots and obscene shouts from the games played, but also expose one to bloody and highly violent ways of killing people. These situations can affect teenagers differently.
With some good things that can be learned from many television shows (documentaries and educational shows, for example) and video games (motor skills development), the negative effects of these forms of media outweighs the positive ones. This paper aims at discussing the effects of media particularly on the debate that has been going on with the ill-effects of media violence. Moreover, it provides a bird’s eye view and analysis on the influences of media violence especially on children.
Relevant Research and Authors
Featured in The Guardian
References: Earles KA, R Alexander, M Johnson, J Liverpool, and M McGhee. 2002. "Media influences on children and adolescents: violence and sex". Journal of the National Medical Association. 94 (9): 797-801. Greenfield, Patricia Marks. 1984. Mind and media: the effects of television, video games, and computers. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Halloran JD. 1975. "The Mass Media and Violence." Forensic Science. 5. 3: 209-17. Kamalipour, Yahya R., and Kuldip R. Rampal. 2001. Media, Sex, Violence, and Drugs in the Global Village. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. McLuhan, M. 1964. Understanding media; The extensions of man. New York: McGraw-Hill. Rehnstrand, R. 2005. The longitudional effects of media violence (television and video games) on violence in children into adulthood. Starred paper (M.S.)--St. Cloud State University. Rushdie, Salman. 2001. Reality TV: A Dearth of Talent and the Death of Morality. The Guardian. Tate, E. and McConnell, K. 2001. The mass media and violence from McKie, Craig and Benjamin Singer, (eds.) Communications in Canada Society, 5th edition. Toronto: Thompson Educational (TEP)