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How the Media is implicated in the Creation and Perpetuation of Violence in the Society

Various researches have indicated that media plays a pivotal role in increasing the likelihood of violent behaviors in both immediate and aggressive contexts. Television programming, video games, movies, and music lyrics have been termed as the media avenues that contribute to increase in violence through their contents. This paper delineates on the implications that media creates, perpetuating violence in the society.
Violent media is extremely popular, and this contributes to its creation. The media is aimed at providing content that will be destined to the consumers. According to Ashworth, Pancer & Pyle (2011), nearly 70% of the prime time television is made up of violence, and 40% of video games have violent content. In a 2008 research, of the top ten grossing movies, six featured substantial violence (Ashworth, Pancer & Pyle, 2011). This therefore illustrates that violence is endemic in the modern media.
Media perpetuates violence in its quest to inform the public on various happenings across the world. The problem arises when the media overdoes this. For instance, when media covers a story involving violent acts such as mass killing, such information affects the viewers in different ways. Such information may trigger the audience to engage in violence too. When the perpetrators of victims are given more airtime and analysis, it elevates their publicity and this makes other people to be tempted to do the same to get the attention of the public (Ashworth, Pancer & Pyle, 2010). Therefore, it is the way the media airs these stories that contributes to the escalation of violence in the society.
Another reason why media is implicated in the creation and perpetuation of violence is because it is appealing. People watch violent content because they enjoy seeing others suffer, while others seek to experience physiological arousal. Therefore, the use of violence is aimed at satisfying some of the needs of the consumer and not violence per se. Furthermore, media perpetuates this violence through its frequency of airing various violent contents. The number of times an individual is exposed to violent contents may influence the thinking of that individual (Ashworth, Pancer & Pyle, 2011). People with mental challenges are easily lured to behaving like the people they watch in the movies and television. Therefore, broadcasting such contents is like giving the society a perception that it is okay to be violent.
Children’s video games are also marred with various scenes of violence, which is likely to affect the way they behave. These games are programmed in a way that they reward those who kill opponents in terms of points. This makes the children behave like the characters in the games. Therefore, the way the games are programmed also contributes to perpetuating violence in society.
Advertisement is yet another avenue that media uses to perpetuate violence in society. Advertisements are created by various companies with intentions to sale their products and services to accrue income (Anderson et al., 2003). Because most of the media channels are also profit oriented, they fail to filter violent scenes in these ads before transmitting them to the viewers. Some of the scenes in the ads are violent, and impact on the lives of the viewers who want to emulate people in the ads.
In conclusion, I feel that media plays a key role in creating and perpetrating violence in the society. They have the responsibility to be gatekeepers and to filter information before relaying it to the public. It is also appropriate for the consumers to use the information positively. Therefore, it is an obligation for all of us to be responsible in terms of how we view media and its violent content.

Works Cited
Anderson, C. et al. (2003). The influence of media violence on youth, Psychological Science in the Public Interest (Wiley-Blackwell), 4(3): 81-110.
Ashworth, L., Pancer, E., & Pyle, M. (2011). Buying Violence: Understanding the Appeal of Violence in Popular Media, Advances in Consumer Research, . 39: 872-873
Ashworth, L., Pancer, E., & Pyle, M. (2010). The role of dominance in the appeal of violent media depictions, Journal of Advertising. 39 (4): 121-134.