Regulating Violence Portrayed in the Media

Two themes stir emerged as sovereign in recent media broadcasts sex and abandon. These two themes confuse proven to garner mellowed ratings from spectator pumps and they further ensure the success of idiot box course of instructions and cinema movies. viewing listening themselves rank programs which feature either or both of these themes as favorites. Of greater impact it seems is the evolution of military group as visualised in the media.With the serve up of modern technology, e superfluously as employed in animation and special issuings, the depiction of delirium has been further facilitated and enhanced. Furthermore, the proliferation of hazardous programs provides easy access to the alike by dishs of all backgrounds, young and old as headspring as impressionable and guarded alike.This reflects that regulative boards and associations be no long-dated able to keep up with the numerous programs deployed containing ruddy content. On the opposite hand, the eas e with which violent content may be accessed might be attributed to a s pretermitening in standards. This is reflected in the programs which depict violent and unskillful images aired for children. Sometimes, as is the case with a lot of Japanese animation, the wildness portrayed for the youth surpasses hence far that depicted for mature viewing.Scope and Nature of the ResearchThis interrogation intends to culture the role of military group as portrayed on the permeate on aggressive doings of viewers. It is the goal of this paper to assess whether or not there is a need to regulate the extent of depicted force on shield. Should it be shown that such(prenominal) a need exists, thus(prenominal) the reasonableness of the commandment to be do volition be broached.No annotation will be made between programs aired on tv set and those shown in movie theaters. Neither will distinction be made between programs with purely violent content and programs which only dedicate a p ortion of the airtime to fury. Included in the programs and movies to be analyzed will be intelligence service programs, fictional stories, and even animation. It will be borne in musical theme that what is of importance in this study is not so much the carriage in which the military group is depicted but more on the essenceuate that portrayals of military force has on the viewing public.What will be taken into fib will be the order that violence has on the individual sort as well as on the society at striking bearing witness to it. Given the response of persons, whether implicit or explicit, to portrayals of violence, a close look will be taken as to the effect of regulating the violent content of movies and programs in the cinema and on television.A sketch analysis will be made regarding the effect such a statute might have on viewer ratings and on the cover of regulation itself. It is only as regards this aspect of regulation that an analysis of unimpeachable leve ls of violence will be made. Therefore, it is only in outlining a discerning process of regulation wherein the manner of depicting violence will be assessed. These are the research goals and de point of accumulations within which this paper will be made.Research IssuesSuch goals have been borne out of an observation that the increase in violent programs shown on screen have dissolvented in a related increase in hatred and violence in the community. Several empirical research data have been obtained which support this observation. Although there has been contradictory evidence obtained which also tend to contradict supporting evidence, the fact remains that in some worlds and studies, a compulsory correlation has been drawn between television violence and violence in the individual and in the community.Furthermore, demonstrable cases have been observed wherein felonies have been pull mimicking sort aired on television or shown in a movie. This reflects the danger of giving f ree license to creativity in violent films. This is particularly so in programs wherein the characters are permitted to accomplish their criminal objectives without resulting in action by legal or police authorities.Not only as regards criminal bearing, but even in programs reflecting suicide behavior, there has been shown a duplication effect in the acts of viewers. Thus it is shown that concepts shown by the media give ideas to the audience regarding behavior that they themselves might engage in. Taking into consideration the extent of violent acts that can possibly be depicted in films today and the smorgasbord of programs accessible to different viewers, we are faced with the problem of having to control for an myriad number of different atrocities in any given community.Given these facts, the emerging bailiwick is undeniably whether or not regulation may effect a means of control for aggressive and violent behavior in societies expose to violence in films. Given that viole nt programs have already been introduced into the symmetrical broadcast of media, would its belated regulation result in a discernable change? Furthermore, up to what extent should regulation be made in order that an observable decline is found in violent behavior of the public?Theoretical Frame spirtThe focus and issues of this paper is based on several(prenominal) theoretical foundations. These theories serve to ground the quick of scentizations and argumentations made regarding the relationship of media portrayed violence and real violent behavior. An understanding of the theoretical framework of such a relationship will support the importance of regulation and provide a background for determining the level of regulation required.The first underlying speculation bases the relationship on cognitive priming. Cognitive priming focuses on the powerfulness of a stimulus to activate similar stimuli causing a kitchen range of reactions as a result of the initial stimulus presente d. This type of evidence from one stimulus to another is largely dependent on organic associations established in the memory pathways of the individual.Applying this approach to violence, it is theorized that the violence in films stimulates antecedently held aggressive thoughts or tendencies in an individual. In fact, the individual need not necessarily have entertained such aggressiveness nor is there a need that the individual be attracted to violence. The only aspect required on the part of the individual when considering the cognitive priming approach is that there is a natural link made between the violent scene or act viewed with other violent behaviors both those personally experienced and those entirely associated on basis of logic.Emotional arousal is different from cognitive priming in this sense because in emotional arousal, the natural tendency is key in bringing forth aggressive behavior as a result of witnessing a violent program. It should be noted that arousal m erely energizes dominant behavior in a particular situation. Therefore, arousal produced by watch violent programs merely facilitates or intensifies a predisposition for violence. However, if there is no prior propensity for aggression, so there is no object to be energized by the arousal resulting from violent films.Another reason why individuals are promote to act on their aggression after viewing violent behavior is a probable sponsor effect which operates on the mind of the viewer. This effect results from a perspective regarding the person of the sponsor endorsing the violent program.This effect is state to have relevance when certain socialization norms dominate the understanding of the viewer causing him or her to gain respect for certain authority figures such as the ones who have permitted the airing of the violent program. Given that the acts in the program were encouraged and not prohibited, then certainly the imitation of the same in actual life should warrant the sam e encouragement or at least a degree of tolerance.It can thus be seen from the supra theories that repeated exposure to violence on films causes an increase in permissiveness for deviant behavior. Furthermore, the lack of portrayal of punishment of violence causes viewers to dress that they themselves are capable of escaping reprimand should they perform the same acts.As regards sensationalized victims of violence, individuals may even bring home the message that should they themselves come up the violence witnessed, they too should receive attention and momentary fame. All these signals represent misinformed ideologies about the role and effect of violence in society thus resulting in socially maladaptive and harmful behavior.The Research ProcessConsidering the nature of the study to be made, several choices should be tapped in order to gain a holistic view as to the present standing of matters. Adequate research would also reflect the rational future steps to be made in terms o f regulation. First, relevant material pertaining to present regulatory guidelines pertaining to violence should be obtained. Given, the guidelines, an assessment should be made whether or not the same are applied.Next, an actual study should be made gathering data from a chosen population regarding the effect on aggression in viewers of the permitted level of violence in films. Should it be found that there is a significant relationship, then research must be made as to what level of viewed violence would not result in such violent viewer behavior.The results should then display the effect such a regulation would have on viewer behavior by reviewing the data collected from the population organized. Furthermore, television viewer ratings of violent programs should be noted in order that a determination may be made as to the effect regulation will have on the ratings of networks and movie houses. From the above it can thus be seen that legislative acts, experimental data, and media n etwork data sheets will be utilized in order to solidify a firm resource base for the results of the study.In obtaining such resources, several research methods will need to be used, first of such will be the interview method. Members of movie regulatory bodies will have to be interviewed regarding the process of review and the standard of violence permitted in movies. Also, officers of media networks or their representatives should be interviewed in order to gain an blameless estimation of the quantifiable effect of violence in shows on viewer ratings.Apart from interviews however, a field study should be conducted regarding the effect of particular levels of violence on viewers. In order to facilitate data collection, certain levels of violence will already be categorized and the viewers of such kinds of violence disseminated among the groups. Data will then be collected through a series of questionnaires and self-report tests.It is hypothesized that the study will reveal that th ere is a lack if media regulation of violence on television programs and movie shows resulting in heightened levels of violence in the community. Increased regulation of media portrayals of violence will however serve to dampen the awareness of the public regarding the variety of violent acts. Regulation will also serve to maintain the authority of legal and police figures in controlling violent behavior. Thus, there should be an increase in regulation of violence in the media.Works CitedFelson, Richard. Mass Media Effects on Violent Behavior. annual Review of Sociology 22 (1996) 103-128.The author effectively synthesizes the large body of work related to the effects of mass media on resulting aggressive behavior in the viewer. The paper is objective and presents data supporting and defeating the relationship of depictions of violence with actual violent behaviors. The presentation sticks to the relevant data in the mass of anterior studies conducted regarding the topic. Yet the d etail embedded in the paper serves to enhance the referees knowledge of past studies. The paper is holistic as it takes into story concepts and theories as well as empirical data gathered.Pirkis, Jane, Burgess, Philip, Blood, R. Warwick, and Francis, Catherine. The Newsworthiness of suicide. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 37(3) (2007) 278-283.The authors herein take on a in truth limited perspective on the role of media on suicidal behavior. The surmise implemented herein is that of modeling and emulation only. A further limitation of the paper is that it only considers those suicide attempts which were real and covered by news programs.The authors focus on the danger that viewers may imitate the behavior of sensationalized and detailed suicidal acts. Several examples are given as to actual cases wherein media-covered suicides were copied by viewers of the news program. The authors themselves also suggest stricter regulation of suicides which are to be deemed as newsworth y and as to what aspects regarding the suicide should be revealed to the public.