Violence In Media: Effects Of The Violent Media

Violence in the Media
The social environment has a strong influence on nurturing a child. Parents and guardians need to be aware of the environment they are raising their children to instill good manners and behavior in them. It is not in dispute that the media is part of the life of an individual owing to its benefits in business, education, and entertainment. It is for this reason that everyone should be aware of the media content.. Although the media aim at promoting the well-being of the people, its content could jeopardize the welfare of the vulnerable groups in the community such as the children and the adolescents. Violence in the media threatens the cohesion and safety of people in the society. The programs that are aired and printed articles to some great extent propagate violence in the society. This paper examines violence in the media and how they can be regulated to ensure the safety of all people in the community.
Background Information
The media usually plays a very big role in influencing public perception.Most of what is in the public domain usually emanates from the media. They are responsible for providing vital information that ensures the public remains informed of the current affairs (Gentile, 2014). People rely on the media to convey certain messages to the targeted personalities. The contribution of the media in promoting business through advertisements cannot be underestimated. It helps an organization to market its products and services and to increase its popularity within the targeted market,thereby realize increased sales and returns.
Media discussions are critical in educating the public by empowering them with the information they need to improve their livelihoods. Much of what the society knows when it comes to how to deal with issues,matters concerning health,and generally,civic education,is influenced by the media. It is also of the essence to appreciate the role of the media in entertainment. The airing of TV programs provides entertainment for the family. No doubt, the media is an almost inevitable component of people’s lives (Gentile, 2014). The preceding makes it imperative to ensure that the programs being aired and the printed articles do not propagate violence, but instead instill good morals in the society. The failure to regulate the media production can negatively affect the public, particularly the children who are unable to make informed decisions regarding what content should be consumed. There is therefore,an ever-increasing need for there to be regulation and control of what comes out of the media houses.
Significance of the Topic.
The media plays a significant role in entertainment and education, aspects that make it inevitable for people to rely on it (Gentile, 2014). Whereas grownups can evaluate the content of the media to know what to consume or ignore, children are at a high risk of media violence due to their immaturity and curiosity to try what they see. The media plays a role in the upbringing of children,since it airs programs that can be entertaining and nurturing to these kids,such as cartoons. However,putting cartoons aside,there is a lot of violence being aired by the media. Media violence has adversely affected the wellbeing not only of children, but also the public members at large.
As time progresses and the generations change,it seems like for the media to be taken as serious about its business,then the bloodier its coverage ,the better. This has resulted in some unwritten competition between media houses,airing scenes to do with violence,while at the same time oblivious of their respective audiences. The media programs in the edutainment industry have been characterized with increased violence, an aspect that threatens the wellbeing of the society. Conferring to Gentile (2014), understanding the media violence is vital to formulating strategies that will ensure children and vulnerable population are protected. It will also help an individual to appreciate the significance of evaluating the media productions and products and to determine their suitability for family consumption. Itwill help the viewers and the listeners to shun away from violence that undermines community cohesion and integration. This will encourage healthy behavior and practices that promote well-being of the society.
Effects of the Violent Media.
As part of any development process,growth taks place through mimicking behavior. This also applies to kids as well as aolsents who are still in the growth curve. Children and adolescents acquire behaviors through observation, viewing, listening, and imitating other people (Ferguson, 2015). This can be injurious to this population group due to the fact that they look up to them every day. A child, who is constantly exposed to violent programs, will tend to imitate the violent nature of the actors in the movie or video game to overcome challenges in life. It is even quite disturbing to note that violence is now a fad in the current society. Youngsters are continuously being attracted to violence and so-called ‘thug’ life,as they deem it ‘cool.’
This contributes immensely to their acquiring undesired behavior from what they see, read, and even discuss with their peers. It is crucial to instill healthy behavior among the youth to help them cope with pressure in life instead of creating an enabling environment that promotes violence. Studies have shown that media violence contributes enormously to adolescents and children adopting aggressive behavior that endangers their well-being and that of the others in the community (Ferguson, 2015). Violence has adversely affected learning processes in schools. This makes it imperative to protect the vulnerable groups from the media violence to promote their learnin...