In Favor of Regulating Media Violence Essay -- Media Censorship

Media Controversy With the nation's violence rate increasing over the past few years, one must ask, "why?" Harold Lasswell formulated the core of questions of content analysis: "Who says what, to whom, why, and to what extent and with what effect?" The issue of media content has become an increasingly popular, as well as controversial, topic. There have been many concerns from parents regarding exposure of their children to inappropriate themes in the media. An overall increase of violence and crime in America suggests that the children are being exposed to violence too early, allowing them to become comfortable in seeing and ultimately portraying violence. Prolonged exposure to such media portrayals results in increased acceptance of violence as an appropriate means of solving problems and achieving one's goals. Since children younger than eight years cannot discriminate between fantasy and reality, they are uniquely vulnerable to learning and adopting as reality the circumstances, attitudes, and beh aviors portrayed by entertainment media. Therefore, media content should be regulated, especially for younger children, as well as increasing the difficulty of access to such content. This topic of violence in the media is hardly new. It has come to attention several times in the past decades and it seems like the only solution has been the ratings system. The rating system essentially rates the level of maturity of certain movies and games and puts a grade on them. These ratings range from ?E? for everyone to ?M? for mature on games and ?G? for general audience and ?NC-17? for not appropriate for those under 17 years of age on movies. In addition to these ratings, certain boxes contain warnings that caution... ...he majority of these incidents. The minors could not have received any professional training in the use of a firearm, and yet they were able to use one efficiently. Investigators said that the primary source of knowledge in the use of these weapons most likely came from the first-person-shooter games that were found in most of the gunners? possession. Clearly, certain measures must be taken to contain this problem. Violence in the general media is a very serious and real problem in our society today. The harshness of reality and popularity by demand ensures that the eradication of all violence from the media will never happen. But, one thing is certain: the growing culture of violence must be stopped as soon as possible. The human toll is too great to look the other way. As Victor Cline, the author of a book on media violence says: ?Where do you draw the line?? In Favor of Regulating Media Violence Essay -- Media Censorship Media Controversy With the nation's violence rate increasing over the past few years, one must ask, "why?" Harold Lasswell formulated the core of questions of content analysis: "Who says what, to whom, why, and to what extent and with what effect?" The issue of media content has become an increasingly popular, as well as controversial, topic. There have been many concerns from parents regarding exposure of their children to inappropriate themes in the media. An overall increase of violence and crime in America suggests that the children are being exposed to violence too early, allowing them to become comfortable in seeing and ultimately portraying violence. Prolonged exposure to such media portrayals results in increased acceptance of violence as an appropriate means of solving problems and achieving one's goals. Since children younger than eight years cannot discriminate between fantasy and reality, they are uniquely vulnerable to learning and adopting as reality the circumstances, attitudes, and beh aviors portrayed by entertainment media. Therefore, media content should be regulated, especially for younger children, as well as increasing the difficulty of access to such content. This topic of violence in the media is hardly new. It has come to attention several times in the past decades and it seems like the only solution has been the ratings system. The rating system essentially rates the level of maturity of certain movies and games and puts a grade on them. These ratings range from ?E? for everyone to ?M? for mature on games and ?G? for general audience and ?NC-17? for not appropriate for those under 17 years of age on movies. In addition to these ratings, certain boxes contain warnings that caution... ...he majority of these incidents. The minors could not have received any professional training in the use of a firearm, and yet they were able to use one efficiently. Investigators said that the primary source of knowledge in the use of these weapons most likely came from the first-person-shooter games that were found in most of the gunners? possession. Clearly, certain measures must be taken to contain this problem. Violence in the general media is a very serious and real problem in our society today. The harshness of reality and popularity by demand ensures that the eradication of all violence from the media will never happen. But, one thing is certain: the growing culture of violence must be stopped as soon as possible. The human toll is too great to look the other way. As Victor Cline, the author of a book on media violence says: ?Where do you draw the line??