Introduction
Media plays a major role in our society today. From character development to the risk of losing social values, many lives are significantly impacted by the media. Research on violent media content has revealed that media influence promotes aggression and violent behavior among victims who get exposed to such content.
These conclusions are commonly made when an analysis is based on television, film and violent video games (Anderson et al., 2003).
This paper explores the concept of aggression and media influence, by investigating the impact of violent media content like horror movies on views, thoughts, behavior and their viewpoint on the issue of media influence. Importantly, the discussion is divided into two sections, addressing ways of curbing media influence and a description of everyday life examples of aggression and media influence in the society.
What can be done to reduce the likelihood of aggression and media influences?
Due to the laxity in media regulation and advancement in technology, circulation of media content has become quite easy. For instance, one can access any movie or song online from any destination around the world. This has been augmented by information and technological advancements, which have taken place in recent years.
With the global use of mobile phones, which are web-enabled, people can access any information with minimum or no restrictions (Anderson et al., 2003). This, therefore, means that some strategies have to be considered, aimed at preventing the impact of violent media on youths and the entire population.
Notably, the influence of media widely depends on the level of exposure. In other words, people who are highly exposed to violent movies, television programs and other media aspects are more likely to be affected than those with a limited access.
Based on this argument, it suffices to mention that limiting the exposure of children to negative media content can be a way of reducing media influence on in the society today. Essentially, this limitation involves several organs, including parents, media houses and the government. Parents have a major role in controlling and determining what other family members get exposed to.
In other words, it is the responsibility of heads of families to identify television programs, movie series and video games that are fit for consumption, especially by young people, who remain vulnerable to violent media influence (Ostrov, Gentile & Crick, 2006). This means that parents ought to take a leading position in controlling what is viewed at home.
Besides guarding media diet for their children, it is equally important for parents to set the correct pace and become role models by watching movies and television programs, which are safe and free from violent scenes. In most cases, children may find it hard to stop doing something that is perfected by their parents.
Another way of preventing the occurrence of aggression as a result of media influence is discussion. While young people are the most exposed to the risk of being affected by violent media content, very few parents engage in discussions involving media violence.
Importantly, youths and teenagers prefer feeding on aggressive media content due to lack of information. With excess freedom from parents and lack of accountability, many see themselves as adults who can make independent decisions, regarding media dietary (Ostrov, Gentile & Crick, 2006).
It is necessary for parents to discuss with their children the impact of negative media and embrace the culture of watching movies and television programs, which are free from violence. As such, children make informed decisions even in the absence of their parents.
For a successful regulation of what the family is exposed to, parents are expected to be on the frontline in influencing the kind of movies or television programs to be watched. This ensures that interests of young people, which may be skewed towards violence, are not propagated in the family.
With most children spending a lot of their time watching television and playing video-games, there is need for parents to regulate the amount of time spent in front of a television set in order to strike a balance between entertainment and other healthy activities like physical exercises, eating, sleeping and studying (Ostrov, Gentile & Crick, 2006).
These activities need to be guarded against being substituted with violent media programs. Even though media is a major channel of disseminating information, parents have to regulate the time spent by their family members. Other psychologists propose that television sets should not be placed in bedrooms since children end up spending their time watching violent programs at night instead of sleeping.
As mentioned before, advancement in technology, has significantly contributed to the society’s exposure to media violence. However, this technology can be controlled so that children do not misuse it.
For example, access to the internet should be limited to discourage young people from accessing violent materials, including movies and pornographic content (Anderson et al., 2003). This can be achieved through installation of programs on computers, which filter and block certain sites, thus limiting access to violent content.
The government equally has a role to play in regulating media content. Many countries around the world regulate the kind of information, which is passed to the public. By setting standards, the government aims at ensuring that media companies do not air television programs, which are violent and unfit for consumption.
Media regulation can be achieved through enactment of legislation that protects the rights of viewers and ensures that violent media content is not accessed by children (Anderson et al., 2003). Criminalization of some media content like pornography is also important in order to limit the public’s access to such information.
Lastly, public awareness should be emphasized, to educate students and parents on the negative effects of media violence and its contribution towards aggressive behavior, which is common among students who spend a lot of their time watching violent television programs and video games.
Through such information, children become aware about the need of spending their leisure time productively through healthy activities like exercising, having enough sleep and eating properly (Nowak, Krcmar & Farrar, 2008).
Additionally, such strategies will be essential in helping parents to limit the negative impact of media in families. With current advancement in technology, it is important to note that negative media influence can only be realized through collective efforts, since it concerns the entire generation.
Examples of aggression and media influences
The concept media influence has been debated for several years in human history, especially with emerging advancements in television and film industry. Many analysts concur that there exists a correlation between aggressive behavior and the exposure of children to media violence.
In other words, viewing violent television programs and other forms of media remains a major cause of aggressive behavior in the society (Nowak, Krcmar & Farrar, 2008). This position has been held by a wide range of experts, who argue that media violence plays a major role in defining the behavior of those who get exposed to violent media.
In analyzing ways in which media violence affects the society, psychologists argue that children are impressionable. This implies that they view life from a different point of view as compared to adults, since they lack the ability to differentiate fiction from reality. As a result, their exposure to violent behavior means a lot in determining their character and perception towards life.
By the fact that young people do not have the ability to recognize fiction from reality, they are prone to mimicking what is propagated through the media. Mimicking of certain behavior further arises from the desire to be associated with particular characters in movies, television programs and even video games.
Students who are highly exposed to media violence are like to pursue an aggressive course while at school and at home. Consequently, they resolve to violent ways of solving problems like fighting and punching. It has been found that this category of students, exhibit high levels of aggression and may become socially unfit.
While at school, they are frequently punished for harassing or bullying others (Nowak, Krcmar & Farrar, 2008). This manifestation is usually based on behavior, which is borrowed from the media, coupled with the desire of becoming like their favorite media personalities.
Notably, the impact of media violence in children is also related to the age of children being exposed. For example, older children are more likely to be affected than younger ones. When students are exposed to this kind of violence, they develop subconscious ways of reacting towards a given conflict.
In most cases, they prefer using violent means to address such issues through a plan, which undergoes development as long as one is exposed to violent media content. Through social learning and mental construction, children get convinced that violent means can be applicable in finding solutions to problems in life (Nowak, Krcmar & Farrar, 2008).
Besides emulation, children consider violence observed in television, films and video games as entertainment, which has to be enjoyed in one’s life. In other words, victims would consider bullying to be a justifiable way of creating humor at school or at home.
Similarly, children become conditioned to view violence and terror as a way of making others laugh and break the monotony of doing one thing (Sanderson, 2009). Due to high exposure to media violence, cases of shooting have become common in schools and colleges. Many psychologists perceive this to be as a result of an influenced mind, which causes a student to kill anyone who seems to block his path.
Besides being seen as a form of entertainment, the reward system of most video games and violent films motivates children to become violent in the society; it recognizes the most brutal and violent character as the winner (Sanderson, 2009).
Consequently, students who get exposed to media violence believe that violence pays heavily and that one needs to be aggressive in order to succeed in life. Within this context, some students may resolve to violence while handling issues in life, with the aim of being rewarded.
Another example of the impact of negative media influence is the low level of discipline. Students who get exposed to violent media content are likely to be involved in cases of indiscipline as compared to those who feed on filtered and safe information. Indiscipline cases are common at school and at home, where children may engage in use of rude language when communicating with parents, teachers and even colleagues.
This is quite common in cases where students are exposed to long hours of media violence. Notably, one’s response depends on the level of exposure, with addicts being more prone to indiscipline cases (Sanderson, 2009). In order to tame such students, most teachers resolve to punishment and suspensions from school.
These resolutions imply that victims spend most of their study time attending to their indiscipline, instead of concentrating on their studies. Exposure to media violence, therefore, deprives children their study time, a phenomenon, which is likely to affect class performance. Instead of concentrating on class work, most of them end up spending more hours attending to punishment, resulting into poor performance.
Furthermore, watching of violent movies and television programs contributes to waste of time among students. For instance, research shows that most children spent a lot of time watching television, movies and playing video games more than they do while studying and attending to their homework. Additionally, addicts of media violence spent all their leisure time feeding on the same or discussing related issues or topics.
This constitutes to wastage of time, since other important activities like studying and exercising are left unattended to. Furthermore, most victims are seen practicing what their best role models perfect. This may include, training to fight, shoot or even kill. Victims may also engage in games, which help them to develop violent skills observed in movies and video games (Sanderson, 2009).
Another effect of violent media influence is vandalism. Research indicates that most children who spent a lot of time watching violent programs are prone to vandalism at school (Anderson et al., 2003).
While at home, such children are likely to cause destruction in the kitchen by say, breaking utensils carelessly, without having afraid of being punished. Similarly, these students end up man-handling school property without the fear of facing the law or being questioned by the school administration. Oftentimes, these students see no fault in breaking the law as long as goals are met.
Nevertheless, many researchers have found out that the there exists a correlation between violent media and drug addiction. Since most actors in violent movies are usually drug addicts, viewers are likely be influenced by their behavior.
Through emulation, most students who feed on such materials adopt the use of drugs as a way of identifying with them. Due to drug and substance use, the society may witness rampant aggressive behavior (Anderson et al., 2003).
Conclusion
Media plays a significant role in shaping the behavior and character of children who latter become adults. However, media violence has been blamed for deteriorating societal values and security.
Ranging from bullying to vandalism, violence in media continues to affect young people around the world. Importantly, there are several proposals, indicating the way such effects can be eliminated. Commonly proposed methods include regulation of the media and education.
References
Anderson et al. (2003). The Influence of Media Violence on Youth. Iowa State University. Retrieved from www.thepci.com/articles/anderson_Research.pdf
Nowak, K., Krcmar, M., & Farrar, K. (2008). The Causes and Consequences of Presence: Considering the Influence of Violent Video Games on Presence and Aggression. Presence: Tele-operators & Virtual Environments, 17 (3), 256-268.
Ostrov, J., Gentile, D., & Crick, N. (2006). Media Exposure, Aggression and Prosocial Behavior During Early Childhood: A Longitudinal Study. Social Development, 15 (4), 612-627.
Sanderson, C. (2009). Social Psychology. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.