1

VIOLENT MEDIA

Violent Media: Desensitized Youth Amy L. Walker Southern New Hampshire University

VIOLENT MEDIA Abstract

In recent years more advanced media types have been put on the market and geared towards a young audience by extensive marketing advertisements. These types of media are movies, video games, music, television programming, cell phones, and the internet. Mental health organizations along with the Surgeon General have found that violent media causes desensitization to the suffering and pain of others and causes aggressive behavior in children that use participation media such as video games. These types of media are causing children to imagine that society is very violent and this can cause certain fears and isolation from the outside world, and also can cause aggressive behavior towards society. The only way to combat this type of violent media is to address this issue with parents, heath professionals, and educators through media education. Provide parents with the means to recognize the signs of this aggressive behavior, regulate what their children have access to, and what ratings that their youth should be viewing. Health Providers need to diagnose these violent symptoms in the youth of this nation and treat them with counseling sessions, and on how to prevent becoming violent by finding alternative ways to help with depression and desensitization. Educators can help with teaching intervention classes on bullying and educate the youth about the history of violence in media and what events this has caused. Therefore, our youth can than tell the difference between real life and media fantasy.

VIOLENT MEDIA

Violent Media: Desensitizing Youth

On Tuesday, April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School two students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, committed suicide but not before killing twelve students and one teacher, then injuring twenty-four other students, three while attempting to escape death. Some discussions to this disaster were aimed at the role of violent movies and video games causing aggressive behavior and the desensitizing young people toward violence. These two high school students played the video game Doom an apocalyptic shooter video game with lots of monsters, blood and gore.

Movies, television programming, cell phones, social networking, and video games have become a favorite of our nations youth. Aggressive cognitions, attitudes, and behavior have been linked to violent media by a growing body of research done on school children that have not been monitored by parents while watching and participating in violent media programming. This research was conducted on four different schools in order to test violent medias effect on both eighth and ninth grade students who had no parental interference in the type of media they were viewing and to examine the outcome of youth under the influence of violent video games on their public surroundings. The youth who showed signs of aggression towards school faculty and other students were the study group who played violent video games and other violent media. In recent years, researchers have found that not only do violent media affect a childs behavior, but can also affect school performance. The amount of play can affect the childs

VIOLENT MEDIA performance in school because they are not doing their assigned homework and suffering from lack of sleep. Playing participation media can cause aggressive outcomes towards teachers, other students, and family members. Youth were asked how often their parents put limits on their viewing and whether they checked the ratings on rented or bought movies and video games, the majority answered that parents were never interested in their chosen viewing of this violent media. Parents may have problems with the rating systems for television because there is an alphabetized indicator such as D but no explanation. This rating means that there is sexual dialogue or innuendo which is a long meaning for one letter and viewing that is not agreeable to parents.

Children have minds that are impressionable because they are still learning and long-term exposure to violent media can cause behavior modification. Professor L. Rowell Huesmann states, that exposure to media violence causes children to behave more aggressively and affects them as adults years later." (349) A rating system was implemented by Congress in May 2001 called the 21st Century Media Responsibility Act of 2001 along with other mass media rating systems. These systems were provided for parents and youth to show the content of movies, music, internet, television programming and video games in order to prevent viewing of explicit content in any form of media. Parents need only make use of this tool to prevent the youth today from participating in these forms of media. Children are under the guidance of certain people such as their parents or Guardians and these individuals should be monitoring what their youth are viewing. There should be restrictions in place for children to abide by, parents are childrens teachers and should make viewing of this kind of media prohibited. The following bar chart shows the years 1999 to 2007 and how the higher percentage shows that parents are aware of media ratings the lower percentage depicts parents not using these rating boards.

VIOLENT MEDIA

Parental Awareness and Use of Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) Ratings, 1999-2007

(Apr. 2008)

Source: Entertainment Software Association www.pff.org,

Apr. 2008

Another individual that is close enough to children to determine if they have violent tendencies acquired through media is health care providers. Some pediatricians are with a child or other family members for most of their life and trusted by their patients. A physician can refer a parent to enroll the youth in a community program where there are strong mentors to help resolve the aggressive behavior by either counseling of finding alternative thing to occupy the child other than video games, movies, or television. The doctor could counsel the youth during well child checkup or tell the family members about gun safety. The clinicians could also intervene with interpersonal means such as pamphlets, brochures, magazines, and posters that reflect assistance for aggressive behavior.

Physicians see patients for 5 to 15 minutes in one visit and are very time limited during appointments, they do not have occassion to council a child and parent on violence intervention. At least this is what community leaders and parents suggest. They believe that a physician would be more helpful in just communicating with the patient and parent about alternative ways of

VIOLENT MEDIA finding help with this major problem. Physicians believe their time is limited with a patient but if they became educated on what community resources are available they might help their patients find relief for this serious problem, Although these barriers cannot be overcome easily, physicians can work in tandem with existing resources in the community to maximize their influence. (Barkin, Ryan, Gelberg, 1999, p 57)

A physician could become a very important link in reinforcing the use of community programs by children in need of good peer examples and youth who have overcome these aggressive behaviors caused by violent mass media.

VIOLENT MEDIA

VIOLENT MEDIA

VIOLENT MEDIA

Work Cited

Anderson, C. A., Berkowitz, L., Donnerstein, E., Huesmann, L. R., Johnson, J. D., Linz, D., et al. (2003). The Influence of Media Violence on Youth. Psychological Science in the Publc Interest , 97. Bushman, B. J., & Anderson, C. A. (June/July 2001). Media Violence and the American Public. Sc Cantor, J. (1998).Mommy, Im Scared How TV and Movies Frighten Children and What We Can Do to Protect Them. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Cantor, J. (2004). Teddys TV Troubles. Madison, WI: Goblin Farm Press [Childrens book about fears caused by TV.] Coco, L. (1996). Children First: A Parents Guide to Fighting Corporate Predators. (Corporate Accountability Research Group, PO Box 19312, Washington, DC, 20036). De Gaetano, G. (2004). Parenting Well in the Media Age: Keeping Our Kids Human. Fawnskin, CA: Personhood Press. Ferguson, C. J., & Kilburn, J. (2010). Much Ado About Nothing: The Misestimation and Overinterpretation of Violent Video Game Effects in Eastern and Western Nations: Comment on Anderson et al. . Phsychologial Bulletin , 5. Ferguson, C. J., Miguel, C. S., & Hartley, R. D. (2009). A Multivariate Analysis of Youth Violence and Aggression: The Influence of Family, Peers, Depression, and Media Violence. The Journal of Pediatrics , 8. Garbarino, J. (1995). Raising Children in a Socially Toxic Environment. San Francisco: JosseyBass. Greenman, J. (2001). What Happened to the World? Helping Children Cope in Turbulent Times. Bright Horizons (download copies at: www.brighthorizons.com/talktochildren; order copies from:www.NAEYC.org.

10

VIOLENT MEDIA Grossman, D. & DeGaetano, G. (1999). Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action against TV, Movie &Video Game Violence. New York: Crown. Healy, Jane. (1999). "Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds and What We Should Do About It." New York: Simon & Schuster. Kids First! (2001). A Parents Guide to The Best Childrens Videos, DVDs & CD-ROMs (2nd Ed). Los Angeles: Mars Publishing. Primack, B. A., Swanier, B., Georgiopoulos, A. M., Land, S. R., & Fine, M. J. (February 2009). Association Between Media Use in Adolesence and Depression in Young Adulthood: A Longitudinal Study. Pittsburgh: National Institutes of Health. Thierer, Adam."Essential Facts about the Video Game Industry, www.theesa.com, 2009