Stop the Violence.

The media has the potential to greatly affect our lives. In class last week, we watched a video on whether violent video games have the potential to turn its players into violent people. While some of the class said it was the parent’s job to make sure kids know violence is wrong, others felt that these games had a major impact on its players. I feel as though the media has the ability to change the way we act, but only if we let it. By conducting this exercise, I have learned that the people who fall into the seven set point factors and six factors special to a type of effect have the ability to resist being changed by the media for the most part.

The first violent form of the media that I was exposed to was a movie called Saw. It is a series of four movies that exposes murdering, blood, gore, death, etc. Even though this is one of the more violent movies I have ever seen, it did not have the ability to change the way I conduct myself. Just because I saw numerous people getting murdered does not mean that I am going to follow their actions. I know this is wrong, I was taught this is wrong, and I would never do anything like this.

The second form of media that I exposed myself to was the radio. There are many Hip Hop, R and B, and Rap songs which are violent. The one that sticks out in my mind is called, “X Is Coming for You” by DMX. In this rap song, DMX talks about shooting his enemy in front of his family after raping his victim’s daughter. I know it’s a bit much, but this just goes to show just how violent rap songs can be. People know that murder and rape is wrong, and a song is not going to influence them into taking these actions.

If people did take action just because of a movie, song, video game, etc, then there must be something else influencing them to act this way. I mean, think about it – would you go out and murder or rape someone just because you saw it in a movie or heard it in a song? I didn’t think so.

When researching this topic, I came across an article which supports my position on this topic. In the article, media violence researcher Rowell Huesmann said, "Serious aggressive behavior only occurs when there is a convergence of multiple predisposing and precipitating factors" Like I said before, the media does have the ability to change our ways, but only if we let it.

In the future, I think movie producers, song writers, video game makers, etc, should tone down the violence for the sheer fact that it is unnecessary. We do not need to be exposed to any more violence than we already are on the news and in news articles. Enough is enough.