Media Literacy And Violenve

Media Literacy and Violence

Violence is defined as the act or an instance of violent action or behavior .Media is an enormous source of violence is our society. For example, there is violence in video games, Television and motion pictures. Violence refers to extreme much forms of aggression, such as physical assault and murder. "All violence is aggression, but not all aggression is violence" according to Craig A. Anderson and Brad J. Bushman (2001).

First of all, video games are a great source of entertainment and growing rapidly in our society. We believe, there are positive and negative impacts with different types of video games that are available. Some video games are positive for kids who don't like to study or read books, but will play educational games. To illustrate it, Leap Frog is a hand held educational video game system geared towards kids ages 5-12. This type of system offers games according to School Grade K-6. The games are for approximately twenty five dollars each and can be found in various stores such as Wal- Mart or Target. In our opinion, it's worth the price because your child will sit down and actually study without realizing it because they think it's just another video game.

On the other hand, video games have had a negative impact across the country. "The U.S population consumes much media violence. Youth between the ages of 8 and 18 spend more than 40 hours per week using some type of media, not counting school or homework assignments" according to Rideout, Foehr, Roberts, and Brodie (1999). For example, children and teenagers prefer to play video games rather than doing their homework. According to Walsh (1999)" by the end of the 20th century, even more graphically violent games became available to players of all ages". We believe that video games influence a person's behavior. For Instance, one great example of a game that has a lot of violence, bad language, and indecent exposure is" Grand Theft Auto San Andres ". Grand Theft Auto Sand Andres involves gangs in which you have to defend your territory and take over other cities by using different types of weapons and vehicles. According to Iowa State University, Department of Physiology (2001)" The Columbian High School students who murdered 13 people and wounded 23 in Littleton, before killing themselves, enjoyed playing the bloody video game Doom".

Second of all, another form of violence in our society is found on television. "Violence on television can influence people to commit crimes. Extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness. Sometimes, a single violent program can increase aggressiveness. Children who view shows, in which violence is very realistic, frequently repeated or left unpunished, are more likely to imitate what they see. The impact of T.V violence may be immediately evident in a child's behavior or may surface years later, and young people can even be effected when the family atmosphere shows no tendency toward violence. However, this does not mean that violence on television is the only source for aggressive or violent behavior, but it is a significant contributor "according to Kevin Szaflik. For example, South park and Family Guy are two shows that only come on late at night for adult viewing. We believe that this is an appropriate since the content of these two television comedy shows are inappropriate for children. They both contain sexual and violent behavior. Children are usually asleep when these programs are shown, so they are not likely to be affected by them. Another source of television violence is the local News. There are several different channels such as CBS,