Violence in Media and Society

The use of violence is media is becoming more and more visible in today’s society. We see in our television programming, the movies we watch, the video games we play, and we even hear it in our music lyrics. Children’s programming isn’t even void of this trend. As the death toll and violent situation count rises, a debate arises. What does this say about our society?

Some people believe that the escalating violence in the media has led to escalating violence in real life. People are taking their cues from what the see and hear. The situations we observe in a fictional reality bring out the worst in us. People try to reenact stupid things they see on TV, or they put the blame on violent song lyrics. If a person goes on a shooting spree in a video game, they will be more apt to try it in real life. It maintains that these media artifacts bring out the worst in our human nature. Basically the media breeds a more violent society. Society perpetuates the violence it sees.

Another theory claims the opposite. It does not put all the blame sole on the media outlets. This theory maintains that media is a reflection of the society that created it. Humans by nature are violent beings and the media shows us that every day. In this theory people are not inherently good. Our strong virtues are not compromised by what we see and hear in our media artifacts. The media perpetuates the violence it sees in society.