How Is Violence in the Media Perceived in Society

The world today has a variety of problems and violence is one of the most prominent. It is seen on the front page of the newspaper and as the "Top Story" on the eleven o'clock news. Unfortunately, it is also widely used for entertainment purposes. In the New York Times a 1998 article by Faye Fiore stated: "On average last year, one act of serious brutality was found for every four minutes of entertainment." Today, violence is a major part of electronic games, television, and the film industry. Violence becomes such an everyday scene for us that many believe it desensitizes us to the real world. That is why the majority of the time violence is perceived as the cause of many of society's ills. One individual who feels this way is the author John Grisham. John Grisham had a friend who was killed by two young lovers whom he believed were influenced by the Oliver Stone film "Natural Born Killers". This belief was not unsubstantiated. The young female said that the two lovers watched the film shortly before embarking on their journey. She said that her boyfriend was greatly influenced by the film. Grisham was extremely angry at the way the killers', Micky and Mallory, violent lifestyles were glamorized in the film.
Grisham felt that this type of glamorization leads the youth of America to approve of this type of lifestyle. Oliver Stone disagreed with Grisham. Stone believes that violence is in some instances necessary for an artist to get the point of his work across. He believes that an artist's freedom of speech allows him to do whatever he wants to in his work regardless of the social implications. Stone condones violence in the media. Another area of the media where violence is perceived as entertainment is the electronic gaming industry. There is a game called Soldier of Fortune which was is scheduled to be released soon in the US. This game is designed along the same lines as games such as DOOM and Quake; but it has one important