Is societies violence the media's fault? This is the question that has been asked since before television was in every American's house. Of course there are the different types of media today ranging from newspapers, to on-line reports and stories. There have been arguments upon arguments about this issue, and over 3,000 studies conducted. Unfortunately there isn't one single result, there is only an array of supposed answers to this undying question.

CBS president, Howard Stringer is pointing to a different scapegoat for society's violence. "I come from a country ... that puts a lot of American movies on and has more graphic violence within it's live drama on the BBC than anywhere else, and there is a lot less violence in the United Kingdom than there is here. There are 200 million guns in America, and that has a lot to do with violence." He feels it has to do with gun control, which others have suggested. But there are so many violent acts, that one can't focus on the guns, just like one can't focus on the media. David Phillips, one of the men we discuss later put it perfectly, "It's like watching rain fall on a pond and trying to figure out which drop causes which ripple.

Technology today isn't helping everyone to feel better about this dilemma. It is actually going to get worse before it gets better. There isn't only movies or news reports someone can watch to see violence, but also the new video game craze. Video games have become an enormous industry in the past decade. People from 4 years old to 70 years old own their own Sega Genesis or Nintendo Play Station.

We have covered a huge amount of information about the effect of violence in media on society. Did we answer the question though? I don't think we did, but I do think that the answer is making progress. We are also a lot more informed now of what exactly is in the media right now, and what studies have shown to be happening. There has always been an issue of something effecting society, and there will always be a plentitude of scapegoats. What is the actual answer though? No one seems to have it. There is a lot of gray area, but society seems to be making this more of a black and white issue. Will the government ever really take action? Does action need to be taken? Hopefully after reading this, one is more educated on the difficulty in answering these questions.

The UCLA study focused on all of the television media, and discovered some interesting facts from their study. Prime Time Series raised the least concern. Theatrical films raised more concern and had a lot more violence. The Saturday morning cartoons had mixed reviews. 23% of the cartoons raised concern, but that was only rating the most popular cartoons: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, X-Men, etc. They termed the action in cartoons as "Sinister Combat Violence" which basically means the whole story line leads to violence.

Film director Oliver Stone says, "Films have become more sanitized. We're moving away from reality. We're in the grip of a political correctness that's bothersome." Obviously there will be some who are concerned with the action government is taking, because media should be realistic and educating, even if it is gruesome. Some would disagree with that statement, and those are the ones taking action now. Photojournalist Assistant Professor John Kimmich Javier said, "News isn't always pretty or nice. People must face that reality." People have had to face that reality, and now are taking action to stop that from continuing to be reality. Should it be stopped is the real question.

The "social learning" theory was described by Dr. Bandura. This theory says ways of behaving are learned by observing others, and that this is a major means by which children acquire unfamiliar behavior, although performance of acquired behavior will depend at least in part on factors other than acquisition (Bandura, 1973). A perfect example of this theory was when the murders occurred after the prizefights.

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