Niculescu Mirela American Studies Second year

American Culture glorifies violence through media

1. Many people say that American culture glorifies violence and may in fact contribute to the relatively high level of violence in America today.

I think that in the light of statics that American culture sometimes and unconscious glorifies violance.I saw recently the documentary:Bowling the Columbine made by Michal Morre, a documentary that shows why the American people are on the first places in the list linkt by violance.

American culture, television (through violent music and movies), computers games, the advertisements industry and also the historical and violent events promote a violent culture. Listening or watching TV, America seems to be a society where more than 11,000 people die every year from guns, where TV news, movies and entertainment programmers feed with violent images, where banks give away rifles to customers, where the population live in an atmosphere of fear of being robbed and killed, and all of this make to be a promoter of violent culture. What is the country that is the first in violent film maker? And not only in the industry of films but also in advertisements, commercials, violent music, and computers games. During the 20th century, mass entertainment extended the reach of American culture, reversing the direction of influence as Europe and the world became consumers of American popular culture. America became the dominant cultural source for entertainment and popular fashion, from the jeans and T-shirts young people wear to the music groups and rock stars they listen to and the movies they see. People all over the world view American television programs, often years after the programs popularity has declined in the United States. American television has become such an international fixture that American news broadcasts help define what people in other countries know about current events and politics and the majority of them are violent or with a negative connotation upon culture. American entertainment is probably one of the strongest means by which American culture influences the world, although some countries, such as France, resist this influence because they see it as a threat to their unique national culture. The American lifestyle is often associated with clothing, houses, electronic gadgets, and other products, as well as with leisure time. As advertising stimulates the desire for updated or improved products, people increasingly equate their well-being with owning certain things and acquiring the latest model. Television and other mass media broadcast a portrayal of a privileged American lifestyle that many Americans hope to imitate and the heroes that they try to give is one that are enriched in a negative and unscrupulous way. (Encarta Deluxe 2002 Media in USA) Americans often seek self-fulfillment and status through gaining material items. Indeed, products consumed and owned, rather than professional accomplishments or personal ideals, are often the standard of success in American society. The media exemplify this success with the most glamorous models of consumption: Hollywood actors, sports figures, or music celebrities. This dependence on products and on constant consumption defines modern consumer society everywhere. These facts affect their culture and not only promoting a culture of fear and to manage fear is necessarily to have a gun to keep your intimacy and freedom. They have the possibility to keep a gun in their house protecting not only their life but also their material goods and properties.

The media have many audiences from the children to the older people, but what are the differences between their interests? Audiences are active. This means that audiences actively select what they want to read, view or listen. It is still common to hear the mistaken view that the media, especially television, make us passive. Think about with much attention we try to understand and analyze what were said and viewed in news report or newspaper? First it takes a great deal of attention activity to watch and understand and you can notice the increasing participation in certain type of news or program. (N. Stevenson).But thinks about what we listen from news, there are about ordinary people? I think that they dont show us. These will be boring for us. We see and hear about violent people and violent events, AfroAmerican people that are the black sheep of America, about robbery, violent attacks, and destructions and so on, all of them with highly negative connotations. After the attack from on Sept.2001, most Americans are afraid by being attacked by terrorists. This fear feeling is nourished by government through media. The Americans can see on TV a scale of warnings colors at any hour of the day and this all of the time. Does violence on television cause people to be violent? There are many people that say this is true but there are also many people who believe to be false. Does media violence promote violence in young people? Does media violence promote violence in young people? This issue was debated between two parties; L. Rowell Huesmann and Jessica Moise authors of Media Violence: Demonstrated Public Health Threat to Children. The second article debated was Jonathan L. Freedmans, author of Violence in the Mass Media and Violence in Society. Both articles published by Harvard Mental Health Letter, vol.12, no.12 (June 1996). In the Huesmann Moise article basically supports the fact that yes media does in fact produce violent behavior in young children Through what they experience on television, children are forced into adulthood at too young of an age. The innocence of youth is lost when children stare endlessly at a screen displaying the horrors of murder, rape, assault, devastating fire, and other natural disasters. Although these are occurrences in everyday life, things adults have grown accustomed to hearing about, children do not have the maturity level to deal with these tragedies appropriately. Childrens behavior changes because they become desensitized to the violence. There are many preventative techniques that can be applied to ensure that negativity on television will not interfere with a childs development. They say four major effects of seeing violence on television are: - Becoming "immune" to the horror of violence; - Gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems; - Imitate the violence they observe on television; Even though numerous studies show a direct link between television violence and aggressive children, the television industries continue to ignore the facts. In order to solve the television violence epidemic people resort to censorship as one remedy to the problem, although I do not believe censorship is the appropriate solution. Childrens behavior changes because they become desensitized to the violence. There are many preventative techniques that can be applied to ensure that negativity on television will not interfere in special with a childs development.(Chrestney, R) We live in a society where there are many diverse ideas about the social world. People hold very different opinions about the factors influencing the ways we think and behave. Many television programs involve substantial amounts of violence in one form or another that causes people to think that television is the cause of violence. Many question whether television disturbs us is the anbivalence between the truth of fiction and reality. By watching portrayals of violence, we learn to accept that the aggressive behavior is common and these could become desensitized to the effects of violence and imitate it by modeling aggressive behaviors. 2

The media represent our world to us .They try to reconstruct the world and ideas about it in a certain a truly manner because they gain the credibility in the eyes of society. So we can look at how they represent, say, as much as how they represent people or the disabled or unsocial events. The attitudes and values which we just talked about affect our view of everything that we experience. We can say that the media has a positive and negative effect in this respect. The repetition and reinforcement of some messages is what, it is believed, gives the media such a power to affect our attitudes and values. ( Dimblebly and Burton pg 158171) I can not be totally agree with the entirely idea that the American people are violent. I think that through media and their external politics, American people are on the first place in promoting a violent culture because they are on the first place in music, entertainment programs, films industry, internet and the majority of these promote negative connotative behaviors and a violent culture.

Bibliography

1. Chesney, Robert W. Mc :The Article :The new global Media (www) 2.Microsoft Corporation. Article: Media in USA. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2002. 1993-2001 Microsoft Corporation. 3.Dimblebly,Richard and Graeme Burton : More than Words. An introduction to communication. 1998 .Third edition. Routledge London and New York.
4. L. Freedmans,JonathanViolence in the Mass Media and Violence in Society. articles published by Harvard Mental Health Letter, vol.12, no.12 (June 1996).

5. Stevenson, Nick . Understanding Media cultures .Social Theory and Mass Communication. Sage 1997.Publications. London .Thousand Oaks .New Delphi