For years we have been told again and again by the media that exposing ourself and especially the younger ones to violence on the media will cause them to behave and act violently. However, There are ways to diffuse the effect as its impossible to cut it off entirely. Unless you are willing to live under a rock.
In 1992, Huston stated that by the time a child turns 18, he or she would have witness on television 200,000 acts of violence including 40,000 murders (Huston, et al, 1992).
Moreover, results from the American Psychological Association has shwon that men who were expose to TV violence when they were young were more likely to pushed, grabbed or shoved their sposuse wherease women are more likely to throw things and respond to anger by shoving, punching or even chocking the person (Partenheimer 2003)
Another worrying fact is that the more children get themself exposed to TV or vidwo games are likely to act more aggressively to their peers adn tend to assume the worst in their interaction with peers (Buchanan, et al, 2002).
These and other reports throughout the years since the emergence of media has been coming up time after time. This only proof that we should be aware of this and try our best to minus of its negative effect.
Games have always been attractive to kids. It being a multimodal media further enhance this point. Moreover, professional advertisers have been creating and marketing this out to all segment of the market.
Games such as Grand theft auto which has been reputated to be violence have been ban for minors. However, with advertisers creating appealing forms with function (QUOTATION) , it even attracts the kids even though it is ban.
However kids being kids, they will find out a way to get a hold of the games, thus it falls upon the responsibility of the parents to monitor their child's gaming content.
Example of a Violent gameMoreover, Games is only one of the many media genres (Creeber 2001) which portrays violence. Movies from television and theaters tends to underrate their movies in order to get more viewers.
In conclusion, it is up to ourself to be aware on what information we consume and be doubly aware on what information the kids consume.
Reference
Bear J.H 2007, ‘Form and Function in Design and Publishing’, www.desktoppub.about.com/od/graphicdesign/a/formfunction.htm, viewed 25 May 2008.
Buchanan, A.M., Gentile, D.A., Nelson, D.A.,Walsh, D.A., Hensel, J. (2002). What goes in must come out: Children's media violene consumption at home and aggressive behaviors at school. www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_vlent.shtml, Viewed 15th June 2008.
Huston, A.C. et al (1992). Big world, small screen: The role of television in American society. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Neale, S & Turner, G 2001, 'Introduction: what is genre'. In G. Creeber, G, Miller, T & Tulloch, J (eds.), Television genre book (pp. 1-7, chapter 1)
Partenheimer D 2003, 'Childhood exposure to media violence predicts young adult aggressive behavior according to a 15 year study, www.apa.org/releases/media_violence.html, viewed 10th June 2008
