Preview

Media Desensitization Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
160 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Media Desensitization Essay
The initial response of children and many adults to violent media is fear and anxiety (e.g., Cantor, 1998). When violent stimuli are repeatedly presented in a positive emotional context (e.g., exciting background music, sound eVects, visual eVects, rewards for violent actions in the game), these initial distressing reactions are reduced. One indicator that desensitization has occurred is observation of a reduction in physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate,
GSR) during exposure to real violence after individuals have been repeatedly exposed to media violence.
Once desensitization has occurred, new presentations of real violence instigate diVerent cognitive and aVective reactions than would have occurred in the absence of desensitization.
For

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Violent Media is Good for Kids,” the author Gerard Jones claims that violent media is good for children because it prepares them for violence in reality and teaches them how to control with rage. He argues against people’s view of violent media being negative influence on children. This view suggests that it is important to keep children away from violent media because it promotes imaginary gun battles, killing, blood, and violent fighting. In response, the author argues that such violence in media can give children a tool to master their rage.…

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In my opinion media shouldn't be held responsible for corrupting the society because there are many other factors which contribute to the corruption of younger kids in a society. Television, Music and video games are held responsible all the time when something goes wrong in a society regarding the kids. Factors like personal issues and lack of understanding and also the miscommunications between kids and the adults are other reasons which add up to the reasons for the "desensitization" of younger audiences. Regardless, media does have a negative impact on the society, especially the children`s, due to the popularity of media that is presented and promoted in our everyday life's. It allows younger viewers to believe that the media is more genuine than actual reality, therefore creating aggressiveness and attitude changes in youngsters, creating major impacts on the future of the society.…

    • 973 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Desensitization may be a plausible mechanism for heightened aggression. Yet, no previous research has examined whether desensitization explains the association between game exposure and aggression. For this reason, Engelhardt, Bartholow, Kerr, Bushman (2011) examined this association through an empirical experiment. After participants played a violent or a non-violent game, acute desensitization was examined using the amplitude of the P300 component of the event-related brain potential elicited by photographs showing real violence. Aggression was measured by the levels of undesirable noise blasts that were administered by the player to another participant. Results indicate that individuals whose previous exposure to video game aggression was…

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Is Media Violence Harmful?

    • 2052 Words
    • 9 Pages

    In several studies of violent media, the results have shown that exposure to violence in media have led to desensitization to the pain of others as well as general violence. In a study by Brad Bushman and Craig Anderson, both psychology professors, they studied the correlation between violent video games and movies and the likelihood of helping others. In one part of their study, the researchers focused on 162 adult moviegoers. The researchers created a minor emergency outside the theater where a young woman with a bandaged ankle and crutches dropped her crutches and had difficulty retrieving them. Half of the movie goers were tested before they went in to determine the average helpfulness of people entering the movie theater. The other half was tested after watching their movies. The results showed that those who just watched a violent movie took a 26% longer time to help the woman than the people who watched a nonviolent movie or none at all. In the other part of their experiment they had 320 college students play either a violent or non-violent video game for about 20 minutes. Several minutes after the participants would overhear a staged fight where the victim is left groaning in pain with a sprained ankle. While observing the participants, they found that those who played the violent video game took longer (73 seconds) to help the victim compared to those who played non-violent video games (16…

    • 2052 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Today, the media sees immigrants through tinted lenses put there by the media. For a long time now media stations have deemed immigrants as “illegal” and, therefore, brands people as a “special interest piece.” Activists have asked the media to stop using the “I-word” in hopes that the words can stop dehumanizing those that are here for a better life (Hesson). The way we view a group of people and where they “belong” or do not belong comes from our view of popular culture. It is only heightened in the media such as TV and movies that are great thermostats for our nation's outlook on immigration and if they can be fixed. Yes, the use of ethnically believed minorities on TV, magazines, and movies can be a sign of progress but does it also mean that Latin Americans are being accepted into the American subconscious? Unfortunately, we have a long way to go before the media can stop making those from a Latino background feel like they do not belong or unwanted in our world, other than to pick our vegetables and do menial…

    • 1343 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Within the past few years more and more attention has been drawn to the victims of eating disorders. These victims try to lose weight in anyway that they can. These disorders are caused by factors such as stress, family problems, and traumatic events. Despite the psychologically proven reasons, blame is still put on the media. To put blame on the media is ignorant.…

    • 1641 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most people who hear, read and or see about events like, the violence on television rarely give it a second thought. TV is just one way the mass media changes us. Violence overseas, in America and in third world countries are constantly in the news. You see dead people lying in groups, you see bomb destruction and horrific situations and you rarely process the whole amount of information being given to you. In government issues, we hear about illegal or immoral justice about our president, senators, or government elected people but we do not run to the phones and talk about it nor do we allow ourselves to get distraught over these things. We are becoming a deaf nation: we are desensitized because we are constantly being bombarded with news like this. We dismiss is rather quickly because in our minds we feel are hands are tied and we are trapped for many reasons. We might be going to a job that is demanding, have children and have many other important issues on our plates and do not have time to think about these issues. If we only heard about these issues once in a great while we then may act on those issues in a way which we would push our elected officials to act.…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Publicly supporting the idea of solving the issue of the homeless youth sends strong messages to not only civilians, but also to the homeless teens themselves. The value of taking steps to end youth homelessness must be seen by the general public and elected officials. Fostering Media Connections, a journalism-based company, harnesses the power of the media to advance child welfare and juvenile justice reform by covering emerging solutions to the system’s challenges (Mission Statement). In a recent conference, Fostering Media Connections taught participants how agencies can devise captivating messages aimed at different audiences (Lightfoot). A few strategies on how to deliver compelling messages included using traditional and new social media (Lightfoot).…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mental disorders are often negatively portrayed in the media. Syndromes are misrepresented or represented in a harmful, stereotypical fashion which gives an unfavorable and inaccurate understanding of the disorder to the general public. Misunderstanding is perpetuated by stigma regarding mental health issues. Stigma in the media cause individuals with mental disorders, such as depression, to feel a sense of shame in regards to their mental state of health. This shame prevents these individuals from seeking the necessary psychological and medical help that they need and can actually cause an exacerbation of symptoms. This paper argues that popular media is significant in shaping the public perception of mental disorders and current portrayals are often harmful in nature.…

    • 638 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Violent Media Essay

    • 1310 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Gerard Jones is quite a fan of The Hulk and Tarzan comic books. In his essay “Violent Media is Good for Kids” Jones argues that the violence in those and other comics teach valuable lessons that will help children understand difficult emotions. Jones states that in “try (ing) to protect our children from their own feelings and fantasies, we shelter them not against violence but against power and selfhood.” Throughout the essay Jones relies on personal anecdotes that reveal his opinions about violence in comics and other media instead of citing formal research. Jones’ personal experience is that violent media is not generally harmful, and fills an important place in childhood imagination and play.…

    • 1310 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Media Essay

    • 897 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Disney has impacted the lives of children for more than three decades now, and has been influencing the way they think even at a young age. It supports and actually created the idea of how different gender, race or age group should be treated. Unintentionally, we pick up morals from Disney of how to deal with certain gender groups. In addition, Disney has put women into different stereotypes that the representation of women and femininity is narrow in the media. Images of women did not change, women are still differently stereotyped and the different representations of the characters inside Disney leads to the narrow representation of women in the media.…

    • 897 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everywhere we look social media, TV, Radio and even in our everyday lives, our gender identity and roles are determine by societies rule. Since the day we are born, actually it goes as far as the day our sex is discovered. Since sex and gender, specific roles could not be more stereotypical, and even more that sexuality has become an obsession. To the point that everywhere you look you can see the roles gender and sex play in our everyday life. “In today’s society we are expected to conform, portray and adhere to strict social standards set forth to preserve our sexual identities. With research on gender, sex and sexuality becoming more prevalent, a deeper understanding can be had of how each of these co-exist in the human body and how each can be better understood as fluid or existing on a spectrum.” (Dillon C.)…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Media Relations Essay

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The goal of Media Relations is to establish proactive, positive media relations to minimize negative press coverage of sensitive issues and build community support for school policies and initiatives.…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays