Media Violence
Violence in the Media
Television, movies, and video games have contained violence for as long as they have been around, and when looked more deeply into, the effects of this violence are more severe than at first glance. Media violence has been found to cause things such as aggression, antisocial behavior, and distorted views of reality. Many children, who have been frequently exposed to violence at a young age, often show these characteristics.
Violence in television has evolved, and the type of violence sought out by the American people has also changed as generations passed. Throughout the 1950's, the most popular type of violent television show was westerns. In the 1960's, crime dramas became extremely popular. The first popular crime drama was Man Against Crime, which started on CBS in 1949. Other popular crime dramas include Dragnet and M Squad. Police shows emerged in the 1970's. Then, in the 80's and 90's, crime dramas have again become the most popular, along with reality shows.
Movies, much like television, have evolved over time, and the type of movies demanded by the public has changed. In the 1960's, the Motion Picture Association loosened its guidelines, allowing for more violence to be portrayed in film. This lead to the development of "squibs", small plastic pouches containing artificial blood, violent movies flourished. The first of these newly bloody films were A Fistful of Dollars and Bonnie and Clyde. In the 1970's, huge advances were made in the area of special effects, which portrayed more graphic, gory scenes. By the 1990's, violence and gore became a regular occurrence in almost all non-animated movies.
Violent video games, much like movies and television, have evolved over time. The first of violent video games included games would not even be considered violent today. It started with games like Mario, containing violence in which the character jumps on the heads of creatures to...
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