Media Violence Essay

Television, magazines, radio, movies, and music are all forms of straighta dashs modern media. Is it possible that our modern media could be causing abuse rates to rise? Back in the 1920s, these medias came step up so that people could stay connected with what was going on around the world. Soon, the media became a form of entertainment. Over the last five decades, the rules and guidelines of media hold bottom changed dramatically. When the media first came out, it was all prohibited to even utter some(a)thing small give care pregnant on TV, or cursing in music.However, eventually the new entertainment became old, and the producers of the media had to find one and and(a)self ways to pass our interest. Therefore, the media starting making the previous prohibitions, non-prohibited so that they could keep our interest. In result, today the producers the media are showing mass murders and early(a) raving mad things on TV, worry showing murders and crimes. Music artists si ng about convulsive actions. In numerous peoples eyes, the world we know as media has left a state of innocence and entertainment, to a world of frenzy and indecency. A plethora of people would say that change in the media has created new issues.Often clock times, people inculpation our media for crime rates that have been skyrocketing in the last five decades, especially in adolescences. In fact, violent crimes in adolescence living in America have more than doubled since the 1990s. For this reason, we must(prenominal) ask, is media power the reason for this strong-growing behavior? afterwards reading many strives, such(prenominal) as Mike Males essay, Stop Blaming Kids and TV, and Sissela Boks essay, AgressionThe Impact of Media Violence, I substantialized that people cannot rightful(prenominal) pinpoint violent media as the effort of this new epidemic, because in reality the environments that kids live in nowadays plays a much bigger role.Therefore, through these essa ys, it became genuinely clear that media violence is not the biggest issue for violence, but perhaps these childrens interior(a)s and families. The first essay I read, Stop Blaming Kids and TV, by Mike Males, explains to the reader that the new pro open up aggressive behaviors of children have little to do with our new media and more to do with their home environments. To begin Maless essay, he starts by stating that many people turn over that media violence is the cause of the new crime rate increase.Males thusly starts to amount various groups that are strong believers of media violence be bad for kids and gives us many examples such as, Progressives are no exception. Mother Jones claims it has proof that TV makes kids violent. And the institute of Alternative Media emphasis, the average American child will ensure 200,000 acts of (TV) violence by the time that child graduates from mettlesome school (253).Males then goes on to argue that point by stating, None of these vari ed interests not that during the eigh puerile years between a childs possess and graduation from high school, thither will be fifteen one thousand thousand cases of real violence in American homes grave enough to make hospital emergency treatment (253). He then continues by singing us that the division of Health and Human Services said that in that respect are over 500,000 cases of abusive parents reported each year. After the De circumstancesment reported this fact, this report disappeared from the news completely after only one day (253).Another point that Males argues is that the Japanese and European kids have media just as violent as ours here in America and soon enough their crime rates are not nearly as high as ours. In fact, it is said that their crime rate are so low that their 17 year olds create less crime than our 77 year olds in America. Furthermore, Males then tells about his own personal experiences and what he has watched over his years of working with childre n. Through his own studies, he found that many of the kids who showed any acts of aggressiveness or violence had an unstable or bad home life.For example kids who have parents in jail or kids who have alcoholics in their families. Next, he tells us about the survey that he conducted in los angles from 400 middle school students. From this study he got that some kids parents are thither biggest influence. Thus, when a kid sees his/her parents doing something, or acting some way, they are far more same(p)ly to act just like their parents did. To back this statement, he provided us with yet another study from the Centers for infirmity Control, where they found that 75 pct of all teenage potentiometerrs come from homes where their parents smoke (255).Males then goes on to conclude his essay by stating, Millions of children and teenagers face real destitution, drug abuse, and violence in their homes. Yet these profound menaces continue to lounge about in the background (256) Maless main utilization of this essay was to bend the reader that violent media such as TV is not the only cause for why kids are violent. This essay was actually effective because he used many outside sources besides himself. He used a lot of logical appeals and even a few emotional pieces throughout his essay. For his logical appeals he used university, departments, and programs that deal with the youth.These sources tend to be in truth plausible and reliable. As the reader that makes us feel like what he is say is very factual because he got his information from trusty sources. In addition He researched other countries and media violence in their countries, which was really advanced because what he found in those countries, was that even though those countries play the similar violence and aggression on their TVs, they have a lower berth crime rates which really helps back up Maless point. Thus, for these reasons this essay was very effective in persuading the reader that TV i s not to blame for this aggression.The second essay that caught my attention, Aggression The Impact of Media Violence, by Sissela Bok, also explains how there is not just one thing that affects why kids are so violent but a myriad of things. As Bok begins her essay she states, hitherto if media violence were linked to no other debilitating, it would remain at the nerve centre of public debate so long as the widespread opinion persists that it glamourizes aggressive conduct, removes inhibitions toward such conduct, arouses viewers, and invites imitation. (224).Next, she goes on to tell about how 21 percent of the American public blames television more than any other factor outs for teen violence. It is said that the media makes up for 5-15 percent of the societal violence. Furthermore, she then writes about Centerwalls study which was published in 1989 which states that if television had not been created he believes we would have 10,000 less homicides each year (227). However, S issela fights back to this statement by addressing that Mr. Centerwall did not take into consideration of other things that were going on at the time, like shifts in policy and population.Therefore, she persuades us that media is not a for sure thing to blame for the increase homicide rate. She continues her personal credit line against blaming media violence by writing, We may never be able to trace, retrospectively, the specific set of television programs that contributed to a situation persons aggressive conduct. How can anyone definitively pinpoint the link between media violence and the acts of real life violence? (228). Nevertheless, Mrs. Bok tells about her research on homicides in America and how the children homicide rates have escalated greatly, and then concludes her essay by sayingAmerica may be the only society on populace to have experiences what has been called an epidemic of children killing children, which is ravaging some of its communities today. As in any epi demic, it is urgent to ask what is it that makes so many capable of such violence, victimizes so many others, and causes countless more to live in fear. some(prenominal) role media are found to play in this respect, to be sure, is part of the problem. Obviously, not even the total elimination of media violence would wipe out the problem of violence in the United States or any other society.The same can be said for the proliferation and easy access to guns, or for poverty, drug addiction, and other risk factors. As Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith puts it not an either or. Its not guns or media or parents or poverty. (228-9) Boks main purpose was to persuade the reader that media violence is not the only contributing factor into this new profound violence in children. She explains that there are many other factors like these kids home environments. This essay was effective because Bok used a lot of really good sources such as associations, psychologists, and studies, as salubrious as man y statistics that she provided for us.She also made it very clear that she had researched this composition quick deeply by going way back into the level of childrens violence in previous decades. She provided us with a very well displayed argument and even showed some of the opposing side. However, she always fought back with the opposing arguments with a better argument really building her argument into a good one. In consequence, Boks essay was a very effective essay and does persuade the reader into believing that media violence is not the main cause of aggression in children.Overall, Mr. Males and Mrs. Bok both had very good arguments. They both expressed their opinions and the found facts and proof to help back there thesis. While these essays did not completely take the same stand, these authors had similar views to an design on media violence. In both of essays they uses logical and credible sources. In addition, in Mr. Males essay he also included a few emotional pieces, about his work with the children. Both of these essays specifically focus on the outcome of the kids and how media violence has affected them.However, both essays would like to say that media violence is not the pinpoint cause of why kids are being more violent nowadays, as opposed to in the recent decades. After reading these essays I do have to say that now I dont believe that media violence is the may cause for aggression in adolescence. Furthermore, so who is to say that media violence is causing this aggression since there is no evidence? Better yet, why arent we looking at other oppositions such as childrens home environments? Either way this is an epidemic now, and its time we fill how to change it.Its time for the communitys to get involved in helping to cede this epidemic. Perhaps this could be through offering more rehab programs for parents, or instruction to the children with deep levels of passion and hatred. Maybe its through offering anger management programs thr ough schools, or spreading awareness, because in any situation, no matter the cause, this violence is happening, and we cant stop it until we try. So like Sissela Bok and Mike Males, lets look at other oppositions, and learn how to stop this violence before it gets even more out of control.