Jimmy N. O’Brien
1/5/09 Shoe p. 1
Media Violence
Do you know how many acts of violence you have seen on television in your life? Well, if you are at least 18 years of age then chances are you have seen at least 200,000 acts of violence while watching TV, and also 40,000 murders. Violence is everywhere and it is becoming more and more common each year. Without even trying one could probably name 30 movies and a dozen television shows that feature a strong amount of violence. But violence isn’t just on TV and in movies, but all types of media. One can find violence in magazines, posters, websites, video games, and even violent lyrics in music. It is almost difficult to keep track of, and that is a reason it is becoming such a big problem. Violence has become so common that people lose sight of the effect it has on people, especially children and young adults. I already mentioned how much violence one sees by they time they turn 18, but have you thought about the affect that violence has caused? One could argue that violence is in the news and is just a part a daily life, so parents should shoulder the responsibility of what is right and wrong. However, one cannot forget that parents are not always able to around their children 24/7 and therefore this theory is hard to put into action. Therefore, no matter how one looks at it, violence in the media negatively affects children and young adults.
One of the first arguments against media violence’s negative affect is the fact that the violence in the media often depicts the truth. One of the most basic examples of this is the news. People commit crimes everyday and people believe that not reporting the violent crimes would be doing an injustice to the public. There is no denying that violent crimes are committed everyday and it may not be right deny people the right to know what is going on around them but there are other ways of informant that lessens the chances of children being over exposed. A simple solution could more detailed newspaper sections, or web sites where adults easily access the news they want to see without affecting the children in the household.
Along the same lines many people believe that it is Americans right to see what they choose wherever and whenever they want. Limiting violence could be like limiting freedom of speech. However, in the same way that one cannot make threats to the president, or bully someone online there are modifications and limitations to all American rights. This is because we need to live in a way that makes society safe for everyone. Allowing children and young adults unlimited access to violence is not going to be safe for society.
Furthermore, it is believed by some that parents should be responsible for monitoring their children. If a parent doesn’t want their child to be exposed to violence they can simply limit the amount of news they watch or even monitor their child’s television viewing. It is common belief that there are movie and game ratings to help guide parents and children in the right direction. Also movies can rated R if they have too much violence in them. These claims are not entirely accurate and movie and game ratings are often very misleading.
On the contrary to some of the previous beliefs there is overwhelming evidence suggesting that violence in the media is negatively affecting children and young adults. One of the big factors in media violence is the tendency for it to increase the viewer’s aggression. This leads to a worse outcome in almost any situation, especially if it is involved with a conflict where arguing can lead to fighting or other destructive behavior. This was proven by a simple experiment. The experiment was conducted using homonyms, which are words that are either the spelled the same, or pronounced the same way, that showed that people who witnessed violence were more prone to aggressive behavior. The experiment simply showed subjects a violent film and then tested them with different homonyms to see which word they would first relate to…
A common misconception is that people can simply follow the Movie and Video game rating system. The current way movies and video games are currently rated are skewed and often very inaccurate of the amount of violent content. One of the main reasons for this is simply because they not rated simply based on violence. A movie can get away with a low rating and sustaining a great deal of violence because they cut down on cursing, sexual conduct, and other inappropriate behavior. Along those lines, ratings are also given on a scale of “appropriateness.” This means that producers can get away with more in their content is relatively appropriate. But who is to judge on what is appropriate and what is not?
Even if a game is teen/ a movie is pg13, there could still be high amounts of violence, because ratings are heavily based on appropriateness and sexual continent and doesn’t use violence as a main deciding factor. Therefore a the companies making the movies and games can play the system.
What would you be like if your parents never told you that fighting was bad, and never warned you about the consequences of violence? You would you end up in a lot of trouble, that’s for sure. The fact that parents can not always be watching children and so many ways for children to access violence it is very dangerous for them. One of the major problems with the media is that it makes violence more acceptable and less punishable. In today’s society fighting is almost entertaining and encouraged. For an example all you need to do is think about when a fight breaks out in the lunch room. How many kids do you see trying to break up the fight? Few if any, however crowds of kids gather round and practically cheer on the fight. This is the direct effect of the way violence is portrayed in our society. For example, television and movies often never punish violence and sometimes even reward it. What happens in any basic action film is the protagonist, who often is not government official, either kills people or beats them half to death. Thereafter he gets the girl, possibly a sum of money and maybe even a paid vacation. Never does the violence punished in anyway. In reality if someone decides the take the law into their own hands things don’t end as nicely, but children do not always no that because of what they have taken in from the media.
Conclusion…
Overall, exposure to violence in any way makes people make worse decisions and associate violence with acceptable behavior. It is evident that people have become more familiar violence and do not think twice about the effects of viewing violence for entertainment. Many studies support raised aggression after viewing violence and it needs to be contained.
Furthermore, there needs to many changes to the way we approach violence in the media. I believe we need to start with improving the grading system of movies and video games and adding in a new grading system for each individual television program. We also needs to have and increase on the restrictions on all forms of violent media, such as age requirements for certain games, CDs, and movies. Music is a commonly ignored form of media and we need to be careful to remember to look at parental warnings and have them graded with violence being a more heavy factor in the equation.

Works Cited
Anderson, Craig A. "Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts,." Psychological Science Agenda. Oct. 2003. APA Online. 13 Dec. 2008 .
Bushman, Brad J. "Role of Cognitive-Emotional Mediators and Individual Differences in the Effects of Media Violence on Aggression." 1990. American Psychological Association. 4 Dec. 2008 .
"Exposure to Violent Media: the Effects of Songs With Violent Lyrics on Aggressive Thoughts and Feelings." 2003. The American Psychological Association. 8 Dec. 2008 .
Rich, Michael. "Pulling the Plug on Entertainment Industry Ratings: In Reply." 6 June 2007. Pediatrics. 28 Nov. 2008 . This article gave me information on the reliability of movie and video game ratings. It took into account how is rating them and by what standards.
Roberts, Donald F. "The Effects of Violent Music on Children and Adolescents." 2 Dec. 2008 .