When you turn on the television it is hard not to see some form of violence. You turn on the news, there is violence. You turn on sports, there is violence. With violence, we often see the precursor, aggression. Violence has, more or less, become somewhat of a norm in today’s society. Especially in the climate that we live in currently, violence is encouraged when you don’t agree with one another or want to incite some form of “change”.
When you turn on the nightly news, they often begin with a story that has to do with either a bad accident, the upcoming election, or some form of violence that has taken place. Ever wondered why they decide to start their programs like that? The answer is simple, journalism aims to gain the viewer’s attention immediately, and then continues to keep it (Barber, 2016). The media uses these stories to gain viewership to their networks and often it’s not always the truth. Fear is the fuel that media utilizes most, and the text states that 90% of children are frightened by the media at some point in their young lives (Gruman et al., 2017). Let me give you an example that is relatable to our lives today. The presidential election is less than 2 weeks away, and whenever you turn on the television, I am sure you have seen the countless political ads for whatever candidate they’re trying to persuade you to vote for. Some, if not all, of these ads often use portray a scene of violence and then tell you how this person caused it or failed to do something related to it. This is a prime example of fear based or fearmongering, is used as a political tactic to convince you that this is a bad person when that may not always be the truth.
Another great example of fear-based media would be the countless “updates” we receive to the never-ending protests around this country. Does the media show the actual protest happening and how it may have been nonviolent? No, they choose to show you the violence that has ensued or is ensuing to gain attention. Cultivation theory focuses on the effects of heavy exposure to television, and that affects everyone in the United States as the television has become a primary source for entertainment and information (Gruman et al., 2017). My nieces pay attention to what is going on around them, and I encourage them to pay attention to current events because it may eventually affect them, and I want them to be prepared. They have seen the violence some of the protests have created, and to my youngest niece this had scared her to the point where she was afraid to sleep. She wouldn’t want to sleep alone, or she would refuse to sleep in her room as she has windows and she was afraid that someone was going to attack her. Despite explaining to her that the protests were nowhere near her, nor would I ever allow someone to get close enough to attack her, she still had trouble understanding this. This was a prime example of how the media had only portrayed violence as a means to what actually “happened”.
Lastly, it’s hard to truly know what news is true and what news is untrue anymore when you watch the news. Again, you can turn on the television and see the violence, they may direct focus to a group or responsible individual. You can turn on another news broadcast covering the same event and they may state that a completely different group or individual started or caused it. Media also uses priming, which is defined by the text as the effect of a preceding stimulus or event on how we react to a subsequent stimulus (Gruman et al., 2017). This is used by networks or media outlets when they specifically want to target an unfavorable group or person. This distorts reality to the point that we struggle to recognize fact from fiction (Barber, 2016). We fail to realize what the truth is, because the real truth gets lost in the story or the coverage. The current demographic of the media loves to attack the President of the United States, and I am not one to say that I agree or disagree because I don’t know the guy. However, I do see the constant use of priming used to attempt to portray him as a bad person or failing to do something. Same can be said for the President towards anyone that opposes him or he has a disagreement with. So, for one to say the media is unbiased is a flat out lie, because at the end of the day they incite violence and they use fear as fuel for their stories. Personally, I would love to see a news outlet that actually portrays the news for what it is, but I don’t think that will ever happen.
References:
Barber, N., Ph.D. (January 16, 2016). Why the News is Loaded With Violence. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-beast/201601/why-the-news-is-loaded-violence
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W. , &. Coutts, L.M. (Eds.). (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems 3rd edition. SAGE Publications.
I enjoyed reading your post and can relate to your thoughts. When I was in high school (which was about 15 years ago) I took journalism classes. One of the main things that was emphasized in my classes was how important it was to have a neutral tone with no hints of opinion. I was taught that opinions would never be published. Now it seems I can’t find an article without some kind of opinion based tone. Studies have shown that the news has shifted from objective-based news to opinion-based news relying mainly on perspective and not facts (Concha, 2019). What’s ironic is in this article I just quoted from a newspaper in Washington D.C. there is a byline with the author’s name that says “opinion contributor- The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill” (Concha, 2019). Basically, this newspaper is writing an article about how the news is too opinion based while giving a disclaimer that the article itself is opinion based!
When I was doing my own research on the topic of violence in the media I discovered that the creator of cultivation theory, George Gerbner, said violence in the media is the most used tactic because not only is it attention grabbing but it translates easily through cultures (Gerbner, 1999). My son has been afraid of the news like your niece but in terms of the weather. He heard a story about a hurricane on the news and has been horrified any time it rains here no matter how much I reassure him that where we live is not by an ocean and unlikely to get a bad hurricane. The fearmongering in the news is surely intense. It makes me think of this year when Covid-19 started and John Krasinski (an actor from the TV show The Office) created a news story on Youtube called Some Good News that only focused on the uplifting positive stories going on in the world. Clearly he was sending the message that people need to hear the good stuff too!
References
Concha, J. (2019, May 24). Journalism is now opinion-based not news-based. The Hill. https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/445385-journalism-is-now-opinion-based-not-news-based
Gerbner, G. (1999). The Stories We Tell(*). Peace Review, 11(1), 9. https://doi-org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1080/10402659908426225