Our opinions on the world around us and situations we see can be impacted by many factors. The media is an important part of people lives. Unfortunately, viewing the media does not always have a positive effect on people’s lives. Violence in the media not only can be followed, it can also have an effect on how people view the world around them.
People around the world are able to view television. Television is a common source of education about the world and different cultures (Schneider, 2012). This learning and understanding can be seen as the cultivation theory. While viewing television, people become aware of the world and the violence that may be happening.
With the understanding of the violence, fear begins to strike. When viewing media violence, the cultivation theory says that people may then become fearful that the world is dangerous (Schneider, 2012). If the violence is viewed more than once, then the fear will be worse.
As I think about violence in the media, I think about what fear I have due to this. Recently, I have been watching the news about a man that is on the run after killing a state police officer. Due to the fact that he has not been caught, I am fearful that he will be in a different location and close to where I live. With this fear, I have begun to think of the world and some people living in it as mean and dangerous. If people are able to kill our police, then I fear that we are not safe as well.
While media violence can be imitated, it is also a way to learn about the world and what goes on in it. When violence is viewed on the television, people are becoming aware of how dangerous situations can be. If media violence is continued to be viewed, people will be more likely the fear the world they live in.
References
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
I have often been totally frustrated and annoyed with all the fear based junk that is fed to us through the media. I see a few different aspects to this whole thing…and tell me what you think. I think a lot of the time the media uses fear for shock value and as a part of sensationalism to get attention. I also think a bit deeper, it’s used to trigger and or appear to certian emotions inside of us in order to lead us to buy stuff we don’t need and or support or denounce things or people. What is even more twisted is that fact that all this negative, fear inducing junk on tv is considered entertainment and even the news doesn’t report all the wonderful things that happen every day….so what does that say about us as consumers of the media? We need more positivity!