Effects of Media Violence on Youth
Combating the Effects Media Violence on Children
“You better run for your life if you can, little girl, hide your head in the sand little girl, catch you with another man, that’s the end’a little girl. I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man…”
Most of us would be shocked by these words, but these are actually the lyrics for Run for Your Life by the Beatles. Other songs like Foster the People’s Pumped Up Kicks (All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run faster than my bullet) and Offspring’s Beheaded (Chop off her head, she falls to the floor) have similarly violent lyrics. So the question arises “Does such media violence really have an effect on society, especially upon the youth?” The effects of media violence have been a hotly debated topic over the past several years, and such events as the shootings at Columbine, Colorado, Newtown, Connecticut, and Aurora, Colorado, have left many with the opinion that media violence is to blame for the increased violence we see among our youth. Much research has been and continues to be done on the effects of media violence on youth, with most experts agreeing that media violence does indeed play a role in the rise we see in underage, violent crimes. In order to curb these obviously negative effects, both the media and parents need to actively strive to protect children from these harmful influences.
First, a realistic definition of media violence needs to be established. Media violence encompasses so much more than violence presented in a television program. The term media refers to all substantive forms of communication such as radio, music, music videos, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet. Today, all of these forms of media contain varying degrees of violent content. In fact, according to Media Violence (2001) today’s mass media programming contains an alarming percentage of violent content. One study reported in Pediatrics analyzing music videos found that
“You better run for your life if you can, little girl, hide your head in the sand little girl, catch you with another man, that’s the end’a little girl. I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man…”
Most of us would be shocked by these words, but these are actually the lyrics for Run for Your Life by the Beatles. Other songs like Foster the People’s Pumped Up Kicks (All the other kids with the pumped up kicks you better run, better run faster than my bullet) and Offspring’s Beheaded (Chop off her head, she falls to the floor) have similarly violent lyrics. So the question arises “Does such media violence really have an effect on society, especially upon the youth?” The effects of media violence have been a hotly debated topic over the past several years, and such events as the shootings at Columbine, Colorado, Newtown, Connecticut, and Aurora, Colorado, have left many with the opinion that media violence is to blame for the increased violence we see among our youth. Much research has been and continues to be done on the effects of media violence on youth, with most experts agreeing that media violence does indeed play a role in the rise we see in underage, violent crimes. In order to curb these obviously negative effects, both the media and parents need to actively strive to protect children from these harmful influences.
First, a realistic definition of media violence needs to be established. Media violence encompasses so much more than violence presented in a television program. The term media refers to all substantive forms of communication such as radio, music, music videos, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet. Today, all of these forms of media contain varying degrees of violent content. In fact, according to Media Violence (2001) today’s mass media programming contains an alarming percentage of violent content. One study reported in Pediatrics analyzing music videos found that