Media violence is an ongoing debate in today's society. Some believe that people watch violent television and then, develop aggressive behaviors as a result. The occurrences of school shootings has helped to fuel the debate. The opponents do not believe that the root of the problem lies with watching violent tv. They believe that a persons real life experiences have more influence on behavior. In the article "Media Violence Debates" by Media Awareness Network, they have provided a good argument for not censoring media violence.
P Watching murder scenes and other violent acts on television does not cause people to become violent.
P Social scientists have not been able to prove that media violence is the cause of real life violence.
P Social scientists have said that the relationship between media violence and real life violence is weak.
P Researchers R. Hodge and D. Tripp believe that media violence is not the same as real life violence.
P People consciously decide what to do with the messages from television.
P Our life experiences, upbringing and level of education influence how we respond to media violence.
C Media images do not cause people to be violent.
Media Awareness Network also provides the opinions of a few that believe media violence is problematic. The people that share this view feel that media violence should be censored. They do not want to wait for scientific proof before addressing it as a public health issue. There are psychologists, journalists, social scientists and media critics on both sides of the argument. Media Awareness Network seems to be in support of media violence. But the battle against media violence threatens to censor artistic expression. Ultimately, it is up to the individual or parents to decide what to watch.
In the article "Media Violence Debates", it is clear that Media Awareness Network has committed an appeal to unqualified authority fallacy. They provide commentary from a comic book creator, Gerard Jones, that supports the idea that media violence does not cause real life violence. He says that "violent video games, movies, music and comic books enable people to pull themselves out of emotional traps, intergrating the scariest, most fervently denied fragments of their psyches into fuller sense of selfhood through fantasies of superhuman combat and destruction." The article doesn't indicate that Mr. Jones has any scientific or social science expertise. The article also provides the opinion of a pullitzer-prize winning author, Mr. Richard Rhodes. He says "video game violence enables young people to safely challenge their feelings of powerlessness." As with Mr. Jones, there is no indication that Mr. Rhodes has any level of expertise on the subject.
No comments:
Post a Comment