What the Debate Hides A an assessment of the media violence debate and the issues neglected due to its prominence by Paige Howarth and Libby Hall Click speakers for narration!!!!
1. What the Debate Hides
A an assessment of the media violence debate and the issues
neglected due to its prominence
by Paige Howarth and Libby Hall
Click speakers for narration!!!!
2. Objectives:
Define and explain the media violence debate
Explain the argument that says that exposure to violence in the
media causes later aggression.
Expose the weaknesses supporting the main arguments of the violence
debate
Prove that the debate is actually just hiding social issues such as
politics, elitism, and class differences
3. The violence-media debate:
Does prolonged exposure to violence in the media cause increased
aggression and violence in young people?
The media violence debate surrounds the question whether childrens
exposure to violent television and other media leads to future
aggressive behavior.
One sides states that children's viewing of violent TV shows, their
identification with aggressive same-sex TV characters, and their
perceptions that TV violence is realistic are all linked to later
aggression as young adults, for both males and females. That is the
conclusion of a 15-year longitudinal study of 329 youth published
in the March issue of Developmental Psychology, a journal of the
American Psychological Association (APA).and: Among the tenets that
most psychologists embrace as self-evident, the negative effects of
media violence on children holds a special place. Virtually every
major professional organization concerned with the development of
children has issued an unequivocal policy statement about the
harmful effects of violent media,vs. The other side to this debate
can be described by the view of Jonathan Freedman of the University
of Toronto, who maintains "the scientific evidence simply does not
show that watching violence either produces violence in people, or
desensitizes them to it."
4. The Two Sides of the Debate
Exposure to Media Violence Causes increased Aggression in
Children
Vs
There is no relation to media violence and aggression in
children.
The media violence debate surrounds the question whether childrens
exposure to violent televsion and other media leads to future
aggressive behavior.
One sides states that children's viewing of violent TV shows, their
identification with aggressive same-sex TV characters, and their
perceptions that TV violence is realistic are all linked to later
aggression as young adults, for both males and females. That is the
conclusion of a 15-year longitudinal study of 329 youth published
in the March issue of Developmental Psychology, a journal of the
American Psychological Association (APA).Among the tenets that most
psychologists embrace as self-evident, the negative effects of
media violence on children holds a special place. Virtually every
major professional organization concerned with the development of
children has issued an unequivocal policy statement about the
harmful effects of violent media,The other side to this debate can
be described by the view of Jonathan Freedman of the University of
Toronto, who maintains "the scientific evidence simply does not
show that watching violence either produces violence in people, or
desensitizes them to it."
5. Weak Evidence for Most Popular Side
Media Violence causes aggression,side of debate most popular among
society
The support for this argument is weak:
Range of other factors
6. Misguided Conversation
Exposure causes aggression
Other ignored factors cause aggression
Class Differences
Elitism
Politics
7. Class Differences/Elitism and Their Effect on Children and
Later Aggression
Class differences in television viewing usage
Race Elitism
The other
There are differences in the way the public applies the media to
daily life. The lower class primarily use media for entertainment
and escape while the middle class focuses on hard information a
prime example of socially stratified behavior. Theoretical
attention should be paid to the proposition that an individual's
range of spoken behaviors fits with the range of media behaviors,
together forming a communication repertoire that correlates with
social stratification.Previous research has indicated that a number
of demographicfactors, particularly ethnicity and socioeconomic
status, aresignificantly related to children's use of television.
Yet thesefactors are often not integrated into research relating
television-viewingbehavior to psychological and social variables of
interest.In the present study of three samples of upper elementary
schoolstudents, ethnicity was found to be a strong determinant
ofthe amount of television viewed. Black children viewed
nearlytwice as much television as White children, independent of
parents'level of education, which itself was inversely related to
viewingfrequency. No clear relationship was found between viewing
frequencyand sex, birth order, or number of siblings, according to
studies done by SeamoreFeshbach of Bryn Mawr College.Jib Fowles
claims that an argument missing from the television violence debate
is about the Other. In European society, the Other is of Oriental
descent while in the United States, this figure is the Dark Other
of African American or Hispanic American descent. He hypothesizes
that in both television and in reality, the Dark Others culture,
viewing habits, and behaviors are disparaged. The elitists of the
society fear the Dark Other because of what they have come to stand
for in society as a whole which include our fear of difference, of
being prayed upon, of having our culture overturned and of
invalidating our cultural identity. In the end, Fowles found that
while we push away this Dark Other from our lives and television
viewing, the elitists always end up beckoning the Dark Other back.
Whites are fascinated by not only their dress and music but also
their athletic prowess and behaviors. Whites call upon the Dark
Other entertainers to portray the violent roles in
television.
8. Politics and its Effect on the Livelihoods of Children
Welfare Laws
Education Funding cuts
Afterschool programs
Scholarship opportunities
9. Conclusion
Media Violence Debate hides the effects of class differences,
elitism, and the neglectful politics
