violence and the media (mid term)

Jose Pena
Professor: Lucca
4/28/2010
Mass communication


Violence and the media


Is the media responsible for the increase in violence? I believe the media has its influences as does any form of entertainment, but to say that it's one hundred responsible for the increase in violence is a bit far-fetched in my opinion. In this article i will be presenting facts, along with some of my own theories to prove why the media is not responsible for the increase in violence.

Reason one: my beliefs on violence as a whole

Violence is a part of society, and everyone's social life. One way or another you've all experienced violence, you've all had violent thoughts, and at one point in time you all gave into to the aggression within you, getting straight to the point violence is a part of all of us and always has been even before the media. It's a normal part of human nature, it sinks right down to our primal roots, I don’t believe its a disease, I just think it's something that people are over analyzing (this is just my opinion of course). There are things in our life that makes us angry i mean downright pissed...a lot of people can deal with the pressure others react in excess and either commit murders, or portray acts of domestic violence, or turn to crime (which most of the time is out of desperation and has nothing to do with influence) at the end of the day it all comes down to the mind state of the individual.

I mean if i can differentiate fiction from reality, right from wrong but some other person can't what should be held responsible?, television? or the individual?, What about when all this violence occurred before television, what was to blame?. There are millions of people out there like me (you're probably one of them), im sure you've seen your fair share of violence on television war movies, crime stories did that make you want to kill someone?, did that make you want to commit a robbery?, why cant we admit that we find it intriguing? And that we need it. It's like our momentary buzz away from reality, a moment where we get to live the life without actually living the life, a necessary "Evil" that helps us vent. This brings me to my next point.



Reason two: media violence helps us maintain sanity.

As weird as it may sound think about it. Without looking for facts or statistics think of yourself and how you feel, and what you do when you’re angry. Ever had a day when you were really pissed to the point that you felt like snapping and lashing out on the first sorry person who stared at you wrong?, or maybe you just came out the wrong way to certain people because of your frustration. Now imagine yourself in your state of anger listening to the angriest music ever something that relates to your situation, or is just downright violent in content, the lyrics are raw and the message is aggressive.

Now you swirling your head back and forth your feeling it you start to sing the lyrics and get into it your venting, isn't it a beautiful thing when your angry and you hear music about breaking someone's neck?. It may sound sadistic but in truth your just releasing all that aggression that was pent up in you, and stopping a potential lash out. The same can be said about television, sometimes when people are angry they put on a show or movie it can be violent, or not, through it they can get their mind off things and place their focus on what's in front of them until they feel better. Even i from time to time put on grand theft auto and just go on a shooting spree it's surprisingly effective (if you can differentiate reality and fiction) and it does relieve stress.(these example don't apply to everyone but it's still something to consider). But if that doesn't sit well with you or convinces you enough here is a quote from (feshbach 1961)"One such condition is said to occur when viewers are deficient in the ability to invent aggressive fantasies, the entertainment of which Feshbach hypothesizes is helpful in self-control of aggressive impulses. Television violence, it is argued, supplies material for such
fantasies, thus reducing aggressive behavior.

Another condition is said
to occur when the television violence creates aggression anxiety, which
leads to the inhibition of aggressive impulses". We can settle for that or go back to the historic roman circus days where they started off with calm civilized entertainment, which out of repetition and boredom played host to rape and violence, which later became even more grotesque as the audience demanded more and thousands of people were killed for the audiences entertainment, Take your pick.




Reason three: we need violence.

for those who believe violence has no use, or isn’t necessary, violence is a way of control and everything needs a certain order to it. Sometimes the only way that can be achieved is through violence. As Philip Atkinson said "The truth that the law is only maintained by the tacit threat of violence is forgotten by most citizens who rarely breach any major law, and are willing to pay the fines imposed by the official discovery of their misdemeanors such as speeding. Even those who steal or murder generally accept the notion that public discovery will demand private penalty. However the reality is that without the threat, or actual use, of violence by law officers, the law would be ignored. People can only enjoy their property and liberty within a community because of the community's readiness and ability to inflict violence upon lawbreakers". The world we live in won’t allow us to always resolve things through peace, (just throwing that out there).


Reason four: The facts/conclusion

(Cyber College, TV. violence article)"If you eat something that you have not tried before and immediately get sick, you will probably assume there's a direct relationship between the two. And if at some later date you forget about your first experience and eat the same thing again, and immediately get sick again, you can be fairly sure that whatever you ate makes you sick. No rocket science here, just clear cause and effect. Unfortunately, the cause and effect in many other areas of life are not as readily apparent". The problem with this whole debate is the simple fact there is no real bad guy to blame, just endless theories. Millions of people view media violence daily and have been doing so since they were children, many are unscathed by it, except for that small percentage which a lot of people seem to be focusing on. I’m not saying that people aren’t influenced by media violence, im not saying or denying that crimes weren't committed because of it. I’m simply saying that there's always going to be two groups of people in every problem (the affected and unaffected) and fortunately the percentage of affected is small. We cant blame TV. violence only. because that’s a small part of everyone's life people go through many things in their life that make them who they are, living conditions, parents, friends, education etc. not media violence. Everyone is capable of thinking before they act, the problem is people just need something to blame, so ask yourself now who's responsible the media or the individual?.

In closing I would like to say that i hate television I rarely watch it, we just couldn’t flourish together.

The end

where im up to

so far im still sticking to my claim that media is not responsible for the increase in violence. and im currently researching the relationship between the two so far its a work in progress.