The American Battle Against The Culture of Media Violence

Conversations today stem around what are our kids exposed to when it comes to violent crimes? When a violent event happens everyone wants to know who, what, when, where and why? Many times we are quick to fix the blame instead of fixing the problem. Media plays a roll into how much violence and what kind of violence is exposed to our children, but the media should not have all the blame on violence shown to children today. Cartoons were far more violent in the 80’s and 90’s then they are today and our society did not experience the amount of mass shootings as we have experienced over the recent years. Where does the accountability fall, with the media or with the family? Over the past years the family structure in our society has broke down to where the meaning of life, family and success is a non-popular idea but to be dependent on others is the more popular route in life these days. This idea shapes our society for our children to grow and understand how to contribute to society weather being expose to violence in the media or violence in video games. The media does own the full blame for the violence in our society; our society drives what the media shows our children.

Even though we as a country have one of the highest juvenile violent crimes rates the important role of a good family base is ever more important. Family is needed to discuss what is wrong and what is right. The high rates of broken homes plays a role into how our younger generations understand the violence they come across in their immediate society. “Parents ultimately bear the responsibility for the environment in which their children are raised. We can pass laws to keep this garbage out of the hands of kids, but parents have to guide their children away from the polluting environment the greedy purveyors of violence are eager to sell” (Rep. Hyde, 1999)

Media Violence; what our kids see from a young age shapes their outlook on the society they live in. Children shown violence through out their life believe their life needs to play out the way it is portrayed on television. This becomes a problem for our society, how do we separate reality from fantasy? “After the tragic shootings at Columbine High School in 1999, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigated whether the motion picture, music, and video-game industries specifically advertised and marketed violent material to children and adolescents.” (Strasburger)

Children learn from what they see in their day-to-day lives. This is where the media plays the roll to show certain shows at times where children will have the least chance to view the violence on their shows. “The media and social violence must both be approached as parts of phenomena that have numerous interconnections and paths of influence between them.”(Surette, 1994) The people who the most influence on the children and violence are the people who are teaching the children right from wrong.

The media shows what will give them ratings and earn them top dollar it is we as a society to show our children to what is right and wrong. We should not shield them from everything because they need to know violence exists in the world. This is where the structured family plays the biggest role on explaining this point to the younger generation.