Violent Media Essay Example for Free

Violent Media Essay Violent media is inevitable in our daily lives. In recent years, the popular media seem to have become increasingly violent. Whenever you turn on the TV, read the newspaper or comic books and also when you play video games you can easily find that violence is one of the most popular forms of entertainment. Some people believe that violent media have positive effects on young people and children, however others think that violent stories are harmful to kids and we need to keep them away from them. I think that violent media can affect children in many bad ways. According to Gerard Jones, violent media has positive effects on kids because through this stories, they can meet their emotional and development needs. Also they can help children and young people improve their self-knowledge and sense of potency though heroic, combative storytelling. Jones also believes that violent media is a positive influence on children because some cartoons, bloody videogames, toy guns and other â€Å"creative violence† gives children a tool to master their rage and also says that children need violent entertainment in order to explore the inescapable feelings that they had been taught to deny. Jones makes some good points. He says that violent media makes children more confident and with the idea of superheroes and it makes them feel powerful, when in reality they feel powerless since that comes with being â€Å"young and small. † He used the example of his son. He said that his son was afraid of climbing trees and the writer read him an old Tarzan Comic book and that made him a more confident kid. After that his child climbed the tree. Kids always try to imitate what they see. However others think the opposite, that violent stories are harmful to kids and we need to keep them away from these stories. Cartoon violence makes children more aggressive â€Å"High levels of violence in cartoons such as Scooby-Doo can make children more aggressive, researchers claimed. They found that animated shows aimed at youngsters often have more brutality than programmers broadcast for general audiences. And they said children copied and identified with fantasy characters just as much as they would with screen actors. The study also found that youngsters tended to mimic the negative behavior they saw on TV such as rumor-spreading, gossiping and eye-rolling. The U. S. psychologists quizzed 95 girls aged ten and 11 about their favorite TV shows, rating them for violent content and verbal and indirect aggression. The shows included Lost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, American Idol, Scooby-Doo and Pokemon. The researchers found that output aimed at children as young as seven, which included a number of cartoons, had the highest levels of violence†. In my opinion violent media can affect children in many bad ways. It might make them feel addicted of wanting to see more media images or video games of violence just because they find it cool and also because their friends also like it. Moreover violent media might cause aggressive behavioral problems, they can become less aware to hurt and sorrows of other people and they would be more afraid of their environment, and finally they would be more aggressive and bellicose. Everything that children see or hear in the media early on their lives affect them in some ways. Unfortunately, violence is one of the most popular forms of entertainment.