Media Violence essays

Media Violence essays Today it is very common in industrialized countries for a household to have at least one television. In fact, it is so common that it is difficult to imagine a household without TV. This shows just how important television is. Today the television has become a constant companion to many children. Television has all but replaced written material. Unfortunately, violent television programs are endangering our society. Violent images on television, as well as in the movies, have inspired people to set spouses on fire in their beds, lie down in the middle of highways, extort money by placing bombs in airplanes, rape, steal, murder, and commit numerous other shootings and assaults. Over 1,000 case studies have proven that media violence can have negative affects on children as well. It increases aggressiveness and anti-social behavior, makes them less sensitive to violence and to victims of violence, and it increases their appetite for more violence in entertainment and in real life. Media violence is especially damaging to young children, age eight and less than one, because they cannot tell the difference between real life and fantasy. Violent images on television and in movies may seem real to these children and sometimes viewing these images can even traumatize them. Despite the negative effects media violence has been known to generate, no drastic changes have been made to deal with this problem that seems to be getting worse. We, as a whole, have glorified this violence so much that movies such as "Natural Born Killers" and television shows such as "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" are viewed as normal, everyday entertainment. It's even rare now to find a children's cartoon that does not show some type of violence or comedic aggression. What we do not realize though, is that it is the children that are ending up with problems. Unlike most rational, educated adults, many children are gradually beginning to accept violen...