A Social Research Project- By Myself !

[Greg_Wild]

Hey Guys,

For a social analysis project, I have chosen to analyse peoples reactions to a topic and each other specifically within forum communities. The posts choose to analyse will be completely annoymous, and no names will be recorded. However, for the purpose of the investigation I must have you age, gender and occupation recorded.

 

The topic of discussion is:

 

Is the influence of the media creating a more violent society?

 

 

So you should set your post out in this format.

 

Age:

Gender:

Occupation:

 

[your post]

[Sextus Roscius]

Age:13

Male

Student(if that really counts)

 

well greg, that really depends, what aspects of the media are we considering. I think that when it comes to actually reporting the news, the T.V. stations are realitively non-biased and give a pretty good out look from their point of view. Different networks (fox, msnbc, etc) all have certain alignments. Fox, for example, is very conservative in its out look. While other networks are more liberal. I think over all that its how one interprets what the news gives them, and what parts of it they react to. Some higly patriotic people might see old glory being burnt on the news and go off and do something insane without learning the reason for that. Like wise, some one who is very scared of people dieing might see the troop causualty count a freak out while a more educated person would consider the numbers and etc.

 

So I think its how people react to the news, not the news itself, that creates violence.

[sullafelix]

Age 35

 

Gender F

 

Occupation; part time lecturer and school teacher

 

Yup I think it is there is no way you can prove a link but I the wya I see it firstly it helps with the ghastly me first culture that we have developing ans secondly it desensitises the viewer

[docoflove1974]

Age: 31

Sex: F

Occupation: Professor of Spanish; Doctoral Candidate

 

I don't know if the media has led to an increase of violence in society. Humans are violent by nature; we're emotional, protective and territorial, as well as selfish...this is done so that we ensure the propogation of the species in general and our personal genes specifically. It seems there's something innate about us, that pushed to whatever limit we react viciously. In every society there are groups of people who seem to have a 'shorter fuse' than others, and it is those who society deems 'violent' in their behavior.

 

I don't think the reporting of such deeds leads to more violence in society, nor causes people to become more violent. If anything, it shows people what is wrong about their community--be it local or global--and makes them think about their lives and how to change things for the better. It forces parents to talk to kids about the things going on in the world, perhaps getting them to avoid such behavior.

 

However, there are plenty of parents who would rather be friends with their kids than be parents, and allow them to watch whatever they feel like, play whatever video game they choose, and listen to whatever music they happen to come across. There must be restrictions placed on kids, so that they do not become exposed to situations that they can't emotionally or mentally comprehend.

[Ursus]

Is the influence of the media creating a more violent society?

Well, I wanted to throw sharp objects at Dan Rather, so I suppose it does.

 

Age: Old enough to know better and too young to care

Gender: Hey, don't oppress me with your gender politics

Occupation: I occupy space in a three dimensional universe

[polecat]

Age: 39

Gender: Male

Occupation: Court Administrator/Magistrate

 

Is the influence of the media creating a more violent society? To an extent, yes.

 

Here's my example. My two kids used to play a nintendo game that simulates hand to hand combat. For the two weeks that they played, they hit and pushed each other when they were angry alot more frequently than before. Within a week after the game was taken away, their level of aggression dropped back down to normal. I played these kind of games CONSTANTLY when I was younger and didn't grow up to be Charles Manson. So, what's the difference? My guess is the reality of the situations in the games is such that many kids can't handle them yet. There's a difference between piloting a space ship and blowing up green monsters and being a gangsta and beating up cops and prostitutes.

 

Is the news media creating more violent society? Domestically, no. I think that we are merely being saturated by news that has always been there. Go to your local courthouse on a typical motion day. You'll be shocked at what is happening in your community that you haven't heard about yet. I know I was when I started working in the criminal justice system.

 

Internationally, I won't claim a direct connection between violence and media reporting,but I will claim an indirect connection. Specific examples: The cartoon riots...You can thank the european and arabic media for blowing that out of proportion. The riots in Afghanistan a few years ago when some news magazine falsely reported that a koran had been desecrated at Gitmo. Maybe I'm bordering on censorship, but the international media should exercise some restraint at times. Just because something is inflammatory does not make it newsworthy.

[Spurius]

Age:43

Gender:Male

Occupation:Analyst in treasurer office

 

Creating a more violent society? Most definitely. The extent to which it is, however, is open to question. A Chicken/Egg paradox.

 

Violent media, by all clinical accounts I've read, adds to the agressive tendency in all subjects to a greater or lesser amount. But, this media did not rise in a vaccum. Society had to have wanted it, else there would have been no reason (read money) for so many media representations.

 

Did media create this need, much like like advertisement agencies creat need for luxury cars and vacations? By that I mean creating a want/need for something which the lack of has no negative effect on life. To a certain extent (like games), they do...but I think it is a gross overstatement of media power and influence calling it a primary cause. It greases the treads and makes it more likely, but daily home life, work environment, personal contacts, brain chemistry, childhood trauma, lonliness, guilt and many other things have more effect on wither a person is violent or not.

[M. Porcius Cato]

Is the influence of the media creating a more violent society?

Absolutely not. Media portrayals of violence are more ubiquitous now than in the 60s and more gristly now than in the 60s, yet the incidence of violent crime has been steadily falling for several decades.

 

It is true that if you show children videos of aggressive behavior (e.g., PowerRangers), they go ape-sht for a little while. However, the effect is only temporary--PowerRangers doesn't turn kids into psychopaths. It is also true that little psychopaths love violent media--but though they love the virtual gore, but it's not the virtual gore that made them psychopaths.

 

In my opinion, the whole hype about media violence is stupid, and it reflects the most naive version of the Standard Social Science Model that you'll ever encounter. According to this model, people do and think what they see others do and think. The problem with this simple-minded theory is that it simultaneously explains everything and nothing at all. For example, media images of beautiful, self-confident women are thought to lower women's self-esteem by reminding them that they're not very beautiful. Yet why should the beauty and not the self-confidence be the behavior that is modelled? The SSSM has no answer.

 

Same problem applies to the 'violence in the media' scare story. Take the famous "Bobo doll" experiment performed by Bandura. In the experiment, kids are randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In the first, they watch an adult beat up a Bobo doll (an inflatable doll, about 4' tall). In the second, they watch an adult do other, non-violent stuff in the presence of a Bobo doll. As the story almost always goes, kids in the modelled condition beat up Bobo, whereas kids in the non-violent condition did not. WRONG!!!!!!! Read the experiment: kids in BOTH conditions beat up the Bobo doll at equal rates and in equal amounts. The only difference between the two conditions was that kids in the modelled violence condition showed more IMAGINATION in their violence (e.g., pretending to shoot Bobo with another toy, play acting dramatic scenes of confrontation, etc.). Further, some models actually LOWERED violence. When female modellers hit Bobo, the rate of violence among boys was REDUCED. For the increased imagination of the experimental group, for the sex differences in aggressive behaviors, and for the interactive effects of child's sex and sex of modeller, the SSSM has no explanation. Thus, even for the best possible case of media influencing violence, there are other factors that are vastly more important and overshadowing.

 

Age: 32

Gender: M

Occupation: Professor

[Kosmo]

30

M

Lawyer

 

I don't care about media. I hardly follow the news because they make me sad. But I don't think that media makes violence. The reality of violence turns people away from it. I think that movies create violence by bluring reality and glorifing antisocial behaviour.

[roman wargamer]

41

married with young children 9, 7 , 1 years old

construction worker and aspiring wargame inventor

 

Is the influence of the media creating a more violent society?

 

yes, it could make a children, make physically hostile reactions to minor argument.

by simply emulating those violent actions.but can be easily corrected if monitored and guided.

 

to adult , not much, except to make hostile psychological reaction in mind or words.

 

by seeing those violent scenes it arose hostile feelings.

 

parental guidance is very much needed to off set those effect.

[Guest Allmighty_phate]

Age: 17

occupation: student and graphics artist for several projects (game mods and websites)

 

my answer in a word: no

 

the majority of media is based on entertainment, and this sometimes it includes violence. but this doesn't make society violent.

 

Films: films are increasingly showing violence and bloodshed, but this acted, and people know this is the case.

videogames: there has been alot of cases of parents and ignorant people who blame violence on violent video games. i believe that videogames in many cases have the oposite effect. agressive people can use videogames as a release for this agression rather than using real life situations. it is true that you get some lunatics that take ideas from these games to real events, but if it wasn't that then they would commit some other violent act. it's not down to media but the individual on wether violence increases. and lets face it videogames would be boring with no violence.

 

also drinking is becoming a large part of modern social society, this makes many people who would not normaly be violent, agressive, this is nothing to do with media.

 

so in conclusion, i apologise for the rambling there, but overall i dont believe media is an influence on any by the already violent, slightly wrong in the head peopl.