Visual Media Violence And Its Effects On American Culture

The Effects of Visual Media Violence In recent decades, media has become an increasingly popular and important part of the American culture. Media has many positive uses throughout daily life; media plays a large role in the entertainment industry and allows easy access to important news and other information to anyone at any time. Although media is an important and widely used part of our culture, many people worry that media can have a variety of negative effects. As media becomes more and more prevalent in society, its effects become greater and greater. Violent media can encourage aggressive and antisocial behavior among people. This is a growing problem because the youngest generation has been exposed to more media than previous generations. In America today, children from age eight to age eighteen use the various types of entertainment media six hours and twenty one minutes per day on average (“Media Violence”). It is estimated that the average American child will have seen
The context in which violence is portrayed has a big effect on how it affects people (“Media Violence”). When viewing violence teaches someone how to be violent or encourages him or her to be violent, it will affect people negatively. When viewing violence teaches someone about violence but does not encourage him or her to be violent, it will have less of a negative effect on most people, and in some cases it can even discourage the use of violence in real life. Some media accurately portrays the consequences of violence, such as the loss, the hurting, and the grieving it causes; when a person can associate these negative effects with violence, they are less likely to become aggressive in their behavior. On the other hand, when media does not illustrate the negative effects of violence but instead just uses violence as a way to interest its audience, it can very easily negatively affect people’s behaviors, thoughts, and