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The Impact of Media Violence

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The Impact of Media Violence
The Impact of Media Violence While violence is not new to the human race, it is an increasing problem in modern society. With greater access to firearms and explosives, the scope and efficiency of violent behavior has had serious consequences. Day after day children and adolescents are exposed to violent media including television programs, movies, and video games; as a result there appears to be a strong correlation between these and aggressive behavior within vulnerable at risk segments of youth. People need only look at the recent school shootings and the escalating rate of youth homicides among urban adolescents to appreciate the extent of this ominous trend. However, The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has created a list of recommendations to address television aggressiveness. The causes of youth violence are multifactorial and include such variables as poverty, family psychopathology, child abuse, exposure to domestic and community violence, substance abuse and other psychiatric disorders, researches claim that children 's exposure to media violence plays an important role in the etiology of violent behavior. Unfortunately, not only violent images on television but also 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. The Academy of Pediatrics says: “More than one thousand scientific studies and reviews conclude that significant exposure to media violence increases the risk of aggressive behavior in certain children, desensitizes them to violence and makes them believe that the world is a ‘meaner and scarier’ place than it is.” It increases aggressiveness and anti-social behavior, makes them less sensitive to violence and to victims of violence, and it raises their appetite for more violence in entertainment and in real life. Another important fact, is how media violence is


Cited: "Media Violence." Pediatrics. Web. 03 Dec. 2011. <http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/95/6/949.short>. "The Impact of Media Violence on Children and Adolescents: Opportunities for Clinical Interventions." American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Web. 03 Dec. 2011. <http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/developmentor/the_impact_of_media_violence_on_children_and_adolescents_opportunities_for_clinical_interventions>. "Facts and Figures about Our TV Habit." Raw Living Foods Lifestyle - ChiDiet.net. Web. 03 Dec. 2011. <http://rawlivingfoods.typepad.com/1/2009/12/facts_and_figur.html>. "Charles 'Andy ' Williams - TIME." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. Web. 03 Dec. 2011. <http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,101847,00.html>. "Violence in the Media - Psychologists Help Protect Children from Harmful Effects." American Psychological Association (APA). Web. 03 Dec. 2011. <http://www.apa.org/research/action/protect.aspx>. Huesmann L. R., Moise-Titus, J., Podolski, C. L., & Eron, L. D. Longitudinal relations between children 's exposure to TV violence and their aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood: 1977-1992. Developmental Psychology, Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 201-221. "The Psychological Effects of Violent Media on Children." Psychology Classroom at AllPsych Online. Web. 03 Dec. 2011. <http://allpsych.com/journal/violentmedia.html>. "Tragedy at Santee." House Editorial. The Washington Times. 03 Dec. 2011.
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