Negative Effects of Media Violence on Society Essay -- Media Argumenta

Negative Effects of Media Violence on Society    Given the importance of social learning in contributing to violent behavior, we should pay careful attention to the kinds of role models we provide to one another. A powerful source of role models is located in almost every home: the television. Television is the source of more knowledge in the past several decades than any other type of knowledge distributor, such as books and news papers. It is by far the most influential invention of the twentieth century and has established more role models than radio or magazines combined. But to some the role models that are established through the media and television are not upstanding citizens like Ronald Reagan or Larry King, but instead psycopath murderers and serial killers such as David Koresh, Timmothy McVeigh and Charles Manson. Not only are people mesmerized by the media attention that these types of people receive but they are also taken away by the movies that portray the bad guys as tough fighters who can kill people w ith the snap of a finger. Stars such as Steven Segall, Juan Claude Van Damme, and Sylvester Stallone have done as much to the rise in violence because of the media exposure as the actual killers and murderers. "Violence seems to be something everybody feels they can recognize when they see it, yet it is difficult to define unambiguously. Many different definitions are now in use, and there is much disagreement about them.(Wober 41)" Violence is at an all time high because of the sales and publicity that it receives from the public. One of the biggest problems in this day and age is the violence in the media and on television. The media has taken the first amendment to an all new level b... ...ogress and Implications for the Eighties Vol. 1: Technical Reviews. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. 1982 4. National Institute of Mental Health. Television and behavior: Ten Years of Scientific Progress and Implications for the Eighties Vol. 2: Technical Reviews. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. 1982 5. Pearl, David. Violence and Aggresion: Television at the Crossroads. Society, Vol. 21, No. 6, 1984 6. Rowland, Willard D. The Politics of TV Violence. Beverly Hills, CA:Sage Publications, 1983 7. United States Government. Violence on Television. Report. House of Represenatives. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1977. 8. Van der Voort, Tom H. Chidren and TV Violence: Perception and Experience. Swets and Zeitlinger, 1982. 9. Wurtzel, Alan. Television Violence and Aggresive Behavior. Et Cetera, June, 1977.