Media Violence By Maggie Cutler Analysis

Like many other people, I can remember watching violent movies and television shows at a very early age. I watched everything from wrestling and the classics like “Scarface” and old episodes of “Gunsmoke” and “Bonanza” with my grandfather to the cut them up, bullets, blood and gore movies like “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Friday the 13th” with my cousins. I’ve been a big fan of them ever since. No one ever said anything about the violence we were exposed to mainly because at a very young age we were taught that there are consequences for the actions we take and just because we saw something on television didn’t make it okay to try it ourselves. I wasn’t a violent child nor were any of my relatives who watched the same shows. As a matter …show more content…
She claims that “researchers "fudge" their results so that media is unfairly implicated as the place to lay the blame. Cutler also brings up the fact that violent boys are more likely to watch violent television and enjoy it more than less violently tempered counterparts and that researchers admit that they do not know why. She also addresses the parental factor- if parents let their children watch a lot of violent television, are they more likely to be encouraging violence in other ways, like abuse? She cites a study by the American Psychology Association (APA) that identified factors that cause youth violence and media violence is just one of many, the others including more serious things like early child abuse or neglect, poverty, cognitive impairment and lack of role models are also key to the child 's likelihood to become a violent criminal. Cutler also addresses a study that helped shed light on why media violence might affect children the way that it does. Children who saw people screaming at each other on television responded with distress if they had seen or heard their parents do the same, but seeing outright violent things did not have as much of an effect on them because they lacked a frame of reference. She concludes her …show more content…
It is easier said than done that the government should be responsible for setting regulations on the violence portrayed through the media, video gaming and entertainment businesses. The most important way to keep children from watching, playing, and listening to violence is to stop it where it usually starts: in the home. Parents need to step in and turn off the source. Television and technology has become a cheap substitute for parental guidance, and when it fails, the entertainment business is blamed. “If parents look at themselves and their home environment for the problems children are facing and monitor what their children are playing, listening to and viewing, the problem will be alleviated.” (Bogart. 1995) By limiting the amount of time the child spends in front of the television, on the computer, or playing video games and listening to music, parents will force their children to do something more productive like reading a book, playing outside or playing in sports. Along with limiting the time for these activities, parents also need to monitor what programs their children are playing, watching and hearing and restrict the viewing of these so called morally wrong violent programs and entertainment. If they insist on allowing the exposure they should teach them what is right and wrong in these forms of