EFS STAGE 5 Critical Evaluation Essay: Media Violence and Aggression.
Whether or not exposure to media violence causes increased levels of aggression and violence in young people is the perennial question of media effects research. Some experts, like Dora, B. and Martin, N., doctors of Children's Trauma Clinic, Royal Free Hospital, say in British Medical Journal that occasional view violence programs do no harm to most children while an article in the Lancet argues that television violence can lead to harmful aggression behavior. .
According to Dora, b. and Martin, N., although studies have established the connection between TV violence and the level of aggression in some children and young people, the causation has not been proved. They point out that there are four ways television violence may affect children, which are imitating, reduction inhibitions, desensitizing to violence and increasing arousal. Viewing violent program not the only factor that violent behavior, because viewing violence and increased aggression are "interactive affect each other" and be "stimulated by other factors".
They also argue that the change in the level of aggression and violence for people, whatever children or adults, depends on many factors and media influences are not as important as constitutional, parental, educational and other environmental factors. In their opinion, the most important influence on the mental health of children often be ignored because people pay most of their attention to the relation of TV violence and actual violence.
In their article, Dora, B. and Martin, N. also admit that along with the technological advances, such as satellite and cable television, information highway, children have easier and wider access to violent images. They suggest parents should take some media education courses and participate in the decisions about the rating of films, which are suitable for children because "children are most vulnerable to the effects of view violence", they say.
