Violence In The Media :: essays research papers

The Effects of Violence on TV Did you hear about the recent Jonesboro shootings in America where an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old shot down and killed four school mates and a teacher? The outrage has been put down to many things including exposure to violence in the media and computer games. Television authorities will tell you that TV doesn't breed murderers, and to some extent it is true, but the fantasy violence on TV and computer games is enough to tip a blood-drenched fantasy or perhaps a gruesome dream of revenge into an irreversible act of reality. The debate over the effects of violence in the media and computer games has been going on for quite some time, but it was only in 1997 that it reached significant status just after the killing of an 11 year old boy by a 14-year-old in Japan. The 11-year-old was decapitated and his head placed on the school fence. The idea supposedly came from a form of media or computer game. This lead to the investigations of the so-called "Nintendo generation", a generation so focused around computer games and television that reality is no longer easy to distinguish from fantasy and abnormality. Professor Fukaya of the New York Times says "They haven't been growing up with real feelings, living with real friends, or with real nature." Figures show that one in four British children has their own VCR and uses it to record s-rated films late at night. X-rated films are not the problem. The problem is that the films are x-rated for a reason and this reason is that they are not designed for children's ever believing eyes. Figures also show that they are very damaging, not least because of the desensitising more sex and violence has on children's minds. The rampage in 1987 by a sacked mail man put the term 'going postal' into the American vocabulary, meaning: a murderous rage. Since then a computer game has been made, although it is banned in Australia demo's are available on the internet. The game POSTAL, involves a series of massacres, including a school ground shooting. The player has to try and stalk as many school kids as possible and then shoot them. Then they have the chance to either listen to their plees for mercy of ignore them and finish them off for extra points. So the object of the game is to kill as many people as possible.