Television Movie Video Game Violence Essay Research

Television, Movie, Video Game Violence Essay, Research Paper VIOLENCE IN TELEVISION, MOVIES, AND VIDEO GAMES: The wrong explanation Television, movies, and video games have a great influence on the minds of today?s youth. But, what exactly are the effects of such an influence? Certain people have exaggerated the effects that these media have on today?s youth. Many people, including government officials, have singled out these three media sources as the cause of some types of violence simply because it is an easy target for laying the blame. The truth is that television, movies, and video games are no where near the actual causes for acts of violence and other crimes. Studies on the issue are, at best, inconclusive on the issue. Many people believe that television, movies, and

video games are the cause of crime because they don?t know the facts on the issue. They single out those three because they have violence images and suggestive themes and therefore believe that these will create violence in real life. This happens when people are misinformed on the issue. This essay will explore the causes for these assumptions about violence in television, movies, and video games. As well, it will properly inform people on the facts about violent crimes that are supposedly related to television, movies, and video games. When a violent crime is committed by a youth, the crime is often blamed on the television that the youth watched or the movies the youth saw or the video game the youth just played. Many people will start thinking that this is true, based on that

it seems like a plausible explanation. People will start trying to censor violent images and possibly even ban them. But, by censoring the images it will just make people want to see them more. Humans are inherently attracted to violence and if they can?t see it on television or in movies, they will go elsewhere to get it. Violent television, movies and especially video games offer a way to relieve stress without actually committing any crimes or hurting anyone. Before humans could see or engage in virtual violence, we watched or committed real violent acts. Take, for example, the Romans. They would watch gladiators fight each other to the death in a ring before they could find their violent entertainment in television. Although people may not want to admit it, we all enjoy

violence and television, movies, and video games offer a way to see the violence without actually hurting anyone. If we censor or ban it, we will be forced to find our violence elsewhere. Ever since the introduction of motion pictures about 100 years ago, people have been arguing over the content of what we see. With the mass introduction of television in the ?50s, this issue was being raised again and again. And when video games invaded the entertainment market, the issue of what society?s youth are subjected to was raised once again. These three entertainment industries have become huge over the last fifty odd years. The 1994 U.S. box office receipts totaled 5.4 billion dollars and the U.S. video game revenues totaled 10 billion dollars. Many children are spending one-third of

their waking hours in front of a television screen and it is estimated that by seventh grade, the average child has seen seven thousand murders and 1 million acts of violence on television. Those numbers are staggering to think about, but what does seeing these images actually do to a child. More than 3 thousand reports on the issue have been made and most of the results of these studies have been inconclusive. Many studies simply conclude that seeing these images will make the child more aggressive for the time being. But, does that mean that as a result the child will go out and murder someone? Some people think so because they believe that aggression will make a child hurt someone else. Often when a seemingly senseless violent crime is committed by a youth, the blame gets laid