THE EFFECTS OF MEDIA VIOLENCE ON THE YOUTH

This development, although, brought lots of advantages to the human in a manifold of aspects, forced people facing with the increase of violence due to constant exposure to aggressive an

HANOI UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES DEPARTMENT

THE EFFECTS OF MEDIA VIOLENCE ON THE YOUTH

Student: Bui Khac Tuan - Pham Thi Hang

Lecturer: Nguyen Thi Minh Hang Class: 2M19

Course: Research Writing Date: April 10th, 2020

The impact of media violence on young people has been a painful issue in most countries around the world in recent decades This paper, based on secondary research, highlights some effects of media violence on the youth.

In particular, two aspects are mentioned, including the negative effects and some solutions to deal with this problem The finding of the research indicate that children and adolescents are more negatively influenced by violent thinking and behavior by age Finally, based on findings, the paper concludes parents, the education system and producers need to be serious and drastically protect children from media violence.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i TABLE OF CONTENTS ii

1 Introduction

1

2 Discussion

1

2.1 Impact on children under 13

1

2.2 Impact on teenagers

2

4 Recommendation 3

3 Conclusion 4

REFERENCES 5

1 Introduction

Over the last few decades, many forms of media had been released, included video games and Internet-television This development, although, brought lots of advantages to the human in a manifold of aspects, forced people facing with the increase of violence due to constant exposure to aggressive and violent behavior in mass media From 2001 to 2015, some survey shows that people prefer watching a movie which has guns, fight, and bloody actions National Television Violence Survey from 1997 to 1998 examined the amount of violent content on US television for three consecutive years The findings showed that around 61% of TV shows depicted violent activities, whereas only 4% of programs promoted as “anti-violence” In around 43% of violent scenes, humor was involved and three-quarters of violent activities were not punished Looking at the top 100 games of all time on Steam – the biggest game flatform, a significant 95% games in the list contain violent content A study of the New York Government in 1960 focus on the youth concluded young people who were exposed to media violence showed a more aggressive behavior 10 years later However, the result was only true with the gender of males and not in the case of another (Paik and Comstock, 1994) It is alarming to note the fact that the youth are spending

an inordinate amount of time using violent media Thus, this paper, with the aim of raising the awareness

of community, discusses the negative effects of media violence on the youth around the world

2 Discussion

2.1 Impact on children under 13

Averagely, children under the age of 13 spend about 6 hours and 32 minutes each day using media, including television, self-recorded video, movies, video games, print, radio, recorded music, and the Internet (J Kaiser, 1999) When simultaneous use of multiple media is accounted for, that exposure increases to 8 hours a day (F Roberts, 2000) This is more time than they spend on any other activity, with the exception of sleeping and a large proportion of this media exposure includes acts of violence Of course, parents play an important role that censoring what their children watched and player, but a study

by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania shown that parents who watched

a lot of movies were more likely allow their kids to watch movies that had R-rated violence and sexual content Children’s fledgling mind cannot discriminate between fantasy and reality, they are vulnerable to learning and adopting as reality the circumstances, attitudes, and behaviors portrayed by the media And as

a result, children are affected by the media - they learn by observing, imitating, and making behaviors their own Aggressive attitudes and behaviors are learned by imitating observed models (A Bandura, D Ross

& S.A Ross, 1961) such as Hulk in series Incredible Hulk or Ashrah and Baraka in video-game Mortal Kombat To examine whether

exposure to violent behavior on the media tends to increase aggressive behavior in the short term,

a significant number of laboratory and field experiments over the past half-century had been performed The consistent finding from random experiments is that youths who watch violent scenes or play bloody videogame subsequently display more aggressive behavior, thoughts, or emotions than those who do not The most typical experiment is Bjorkqvist's experiment in 1985

in Finland He exposed 5-to-6-year-old Finnish children to whatch either violent or nonviolent films and let 2 assessors, who did not know which type of film they had seen, observed the children playing together in a particular room Results from assessors shown that he children who had watched the violent films were rated much higher on physical assault (hitting other children, wrestling, etc.), as well as other types of aggression than the other.

Exposing to media violence brings to children not only aggressive behavior but also early criminal behavior While many studies focused on aggressive behavior by showing a statistical link between watching violent programs and behaving aggressively, there are very few studies on whether exposure to media violence causes criminal behavior One of them is the seminal study of media violence and criminal behavior performed by Leonard Eron, Ph.D and Rowell Huesmann, Ph.D in 1960 Eron began studying aggression and the TV viewing habits of 875 third-graders suburban New York They kept tracking those children until they were 30 years old and concluded that 8-year-old children who watched more violent TV programs were more aggressive than those who did not They also found the children who had higher on aggression when they were 8 were far more likely to be arrested as adults and have moving traffic violations and to abuse their children

2.2 Impact on teenagers

Many parents think their children are old enough to self-control what they watch or play and conscious enough to differentiate between the virtual world and real-life Numbers indicate that 68% of the parents do not use the television rating system at all (Kaiser, 1998) and only 10% check the ratings of computer or video games that their adolescents wish to rent or buy (Walsh, 2000) Furthermore, in a press conference in New York, when Dr Satcher was asked about media violence, he responded that the media

is not a major influence on youth violence, especially teenagers This thinking is totally wrong There are dozens of well-designed studies that show that TV, movies, video-game and other forms of media affect teenager’s awareness and behavior, and many of these studies showed that teenagers who exposed more violent content on media were more likely to perform aggressive behavior at school and even criminal behavior Interpersonal violence at school, as the victim or as the perpetrator, is the problems that have the most repeated number as well as the most prevalent cause of injury (33%) (Nance, Stafford & Schwab,

Battlefield 3, Call of Duty, PlayerUnknown BattleGround (known as PUBG), and Hitman, they are top 4 game sold on Steam (2018) One thing similar in all 4 of these games is that they contain a lot of violent content including bloody fight, gunshot, and murder It is possible to say that those games are partly contributing to the increase in gun use among adolescents The figures in Vietnam have proved this According to Bui and Tran, mentioned in VNU Science Magazine, players of those 4 games are more likely to commit crimes than other game players, especially the crimes related to fighting, causing injuries and gun storage (62,5% compared with 28,8%)

3 Recommendations

Parents have a great responsibility to protect their children from the negative effects of media violence They need to pay more attention to their children right from the most practical small tasks: knowing what they see, hear, and play Parents should share information with their children, watch and discuss all the bad things in the media In the case of younger children, parents need to be more careful about the content, explaining to their children what is not allowed

to do, especially the consequences caused by violent acts in real life far from home Time for children to watch television, play games or go online should be strictly limited (on average, a child of 2 years should only watch less than 1 hour/day), parents need to encourage children to set the time themselves Timetable and persistence voluntarily follow For example, Kansas University Agricultural Cooperative Services has created a pamphlet to guide parents on this topic (Murray & Lonnborg, 1995 cited in Osofsky, 1997).

For the school, this is an important socialization environment, so the school must pay more attention to its role In addition, children spend a lot of time at school so the school also needs a better orientation in the content, curriculum, and teaching methods Interventions such as advocacy to bring communication courses into the school system can be very effective These

"critical viewing" programs help children understand how communication works and the process

of creating effects A typical program that can be used by a school system or community agency

as a general education intervention is called "Beyond Responsibility: Challenging Violence in Communication - Programs" eliminate illiteracy to empower communities " (the Center for Media Literacy, 1995, cited in Osofsky,1997).

In addition, producers need to follow specific regulations in the right direction both ethically and professionally as well as media products They need to make clear rules to target specific groups in society In general, violent media is highly dependent on the needs of individuals and society, so we cannot completely eliminate violent media.

4 Conclusions

From a community physical perspective, there is evidence that media violence combines a short-term effect in stimulating, thinking and feeling, increasing the likelihood of aggressive or criminal behavior However, the impact on young children differs among sex and age A number of excellent quality studies arguing about gender differences show that boys are more likely to show aggression after watching violent media than girls The most exposure to media violence the more risky behaviors and loss

of control However, a light and meaningful connection persists in the study, with aspects of the impact having a major impact on public health Theories also show that the degree of stronger influence of media violence on people who engage in aggressive behavior (e.g., temperament) or situational factors (e.g., growing up in domestic violence) or both Evidence supporting this concept documented in nearly experimental studies In general, in the context of child development, the means of violent media are clearly negative effects

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TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com

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