Violence in the media

The amount of violence shown in the media has posed a lot of controversy. Many video games, television programs, adverts, films and music lyrics depict different forms of violence. Some people feel that there is too much violence exposed in the media. Many studies have made the claim that the media is responsible for much of the violence seen in the world we live in. However, people have choices and responsibilities we cannot allow ourselves to blame it on other things such as the media. The violence seen in our media has an impact on both adults and children. Since children are also exposed to various forms of media, there has been additional concern for how they process and think about the violence they see, read or hear. Excessive exposure to media violence can also affect people in many ways as they can become disturbed and develop serious fears of being victimized in real life. Nevertheless, the entertainment industry and those in favour of the media argue that censoring these images or music will not solve the problems of a society, which is already violent.

Many areas of the media contain violence in different forms. There are four different types of violence shown throughout media-actuality, realistic fictional, choreographed and comic. Actuality shows the public images that have not been enhanced, altered or composed. These are mainly shown in TV news and newspapers and have stirred various opinions of its necessity to be shown. People feel that it is unacceptable to show these kinds of images, as some scenes can be of those in agony therefore pointing a camera on them is disrespectful. However some actuality images are less harmful as it may not be an extreme act such as tackles in football matches. Realistic fictional is when violence is acted out which can potentially happen in real life. This may be unacceptable to people as it can be influential and seem as exciting therefore there are temptations to copy it.

Choreographed violence in the media are images that have been rehearsed and planned out, these are often found in films and cause a bit of debate. It may be seen as acceptable for it is just a film and shown for entertainment purposes but many may feel that it can be very influential as images like men holding a gun can seem pleasurable. However, these images can be acceptable up to a point and may become intolerable for younger audiences. Comics are images that are normally found in newspapers and magazines. These don’t have great influences on readers and is not a type of violence, which cause a lot of debate. It is mostly seen as entertainment and is accepted as enjoyable sketches for there is not much temptation to copy it because it is clearly shown as unrealistic.

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         Media do try to have some control over what people can see. The BBFC is an organisation that regulates and classifies the content of the film, which are shown in cinemas and released in videos. It puts a certain age limit for the film and may ask for the film’s distributor to make changes in the form of cuts. This may be material considered to extreme for a certain age group such as sex, violence, drugs and swearing. The British Broadcasting of Film Classification was set up in 1912 and there were two rules for classifying films: no representations of ...

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