Media- a secret ally of violence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Media- a secret ally of violence - Essay Example during dinner preparation and other activities, while children are most likely to find an enjoyable program somewhere on the dial at any time of the day or night. However, the types of programming selected have often had a negative impact on those who watch it. By glamorizing violence, the media has destructive effect on the youth, adolescence and the society. Because of the powerful way in which the media has focused on violent and antisocial behavior, the media deliberately misinforms, making the viewers fearful, suspicious and cynical. Because of its bias toward bad news, the media feeds a perception that the world is a violent, dangerous place. As a result, the viewers come to overestimate the rate of violence. â€Å"The prevalence of bad news and the power of image encourage children and us to overestimate the chance of accident, risk of disease, the frequency of marital infidelity.† The writer then went on to explain that â€Å"the average policemen, for example, never fires a gun in action and most Americans are monogamous.† (240). With these images flashing in their minds every evening, the viewers become negative, mistrustful of others and withdrawn, and cease to believe in progress. In the age of information, many Americans instead feel utterly alone and depressed. Even worse than creating a world in which so many people feel alone and unable to trust their fellow man, the media causes the viewers to fail to sympathize with the victim. Viewers become accustomed to the violence scene on television with scenes that involve bloodshed, raping and other acts of extreme violence. This creates a situation in which the viewers are emotionally desensitized in real life violence. â€Å"There is near-unanimity by now among investigators that exposure to media violence contributes to lowering barriers to aggression among some viewers.† (234). Demoralized by the violence scenes, the viewer finds it easier to identify with the aggressor and the aggressor’s