The document discusses media's influence on aggression in youth and children. It summarizes research showing that exposure to violent media increases aggressive behavior. Television, films, video games and the internet can all influence aggression, as experiments have shown short term increases in aggression after viewing violent content. However, the effects of media violence depend on social and environmental factors. Parents and policies can help reduce media's influence on aggression by monitoring children's media intake and restricting access to violent content.

1. MEDIA’S INFLUENCE ON AGGRESSION 1
MEDIA’S INFLUENCE ON AGGRESSION 6
Media’s influence on aggression
Research Methods | PSY302 A01
Dr. Yvonne Bustamante
Argosy University
Tony Williams
9 May 2015
Media’s influence on aggression
Aggressiveness can be caused by media. Anderson et al (2003:
p4), explain that the effects of violent media have much been
consecutively demonstrated. On the other hand, other scholars
(Freedman, 2002; Olson, 2004: p28) explain that media violence
research field has been mismanaged, and that they show weak
and inconsistent results. Besides, they exhibit poor measures of
aggression. H1: The media influences the violence or aggression
of adolescents and young adults due to ignorance of the
measures that should be taken to avoid the same. Research
shows that fictional television and film violence contribute to
increase in aggression and violence in young viewers.
Aggressiveness may be measured as short term or long term.an
example of a short term behavior is mimicry. On the other hand,
a person that does behavior out of their conscious awareness
experiences a long term effect of aggressiveness since the long
term one is linked to the brain.

2. In this essay, I shall look at how media influences aggression of
the youth and children. Some notable changes in the recent are
the advent and saturation of mass media. In this century media
like radio, television, and internet and others like movies,
videos, video games, and computer networks have assumed
central roles in our daily lives. Exposure to violence on media
increases the risk of violent behavior on the viewer’s part. The
highest percent of youths who are aggressive and exhibit
antisocial behavior do not grow up to become violent. Still,
research has shown that aggressive children may grow up to be
aggressive adults and aggressive adults were as aggressive
while young.
First, television and films is the threshold of aggressiveness and
violence in youths and children. Violent content is more
prominent to these prominent media in our modern life.George
and Helm (1991) came up to a conclusion after research that
children in the United States spend an average of between three
and four hours per day viewing television. This is a high
percentage compared to the time they would use in other useful
activities. Josephson assigned 396 kids to watch either a violent
or a nonviolent film before they played a game of floor hockey
in school to create an example of violent behavior in young
children. The outcome was that they were aggressive while
playing hockey (Josephson, 1987: p53). This example shows
that exposing violent material to young people increases their
chances of behaving violently afterwards.
Similar effects of aggressiveness are observed among older
adolescents and young adults. Violent clips make them more
aggressive compared to the nonviolent clips (Jones, 1995: p69).
An experiment testing the aggressiveness of younger adults
where each participant was allowed to blast their opponent with
noise recorded the same results, that the violent ones selected a
greater volume and duration than the nonviolent (Jones, 1995).
Television news could also cause violence. Berkowitz &
Macaulay (1971) showed a jump in the number of violent
crimes, after several murder cases. Suicides commonly

3. mentioned in the media have a greater probability of being
followed by other suicides. Here, media is what has induced the
killings.
Another impact of media is aggressiveness due to video games.
Video games are commonly played by children and are now
found in most of the homes. Most children now play these
games, of which contain violence. Research in 2004 showed that
children spent 49 minutes a day playing video games, and more
than half of the children’s population played the games
(Dickson, 2005) whereas most of them are violent. The violent
video games put a much aggressive behavior in the children
than the less violent.
Internet media should also be among the causers of
aggressiveness but to date, there are no published studies that s
how exposure to violent Web-based media affects aggressive
behavior (Potter, 1995). However, since we also interact with
these violent materials in the internet, the effects might be
similar to the ones caused by television, radio and video games.
Some video games, film clips, and music videos are what can be
termed to be violent. The materials are actually delivered in the
same method as the rest. Hence Web-based media is not
considered as much.
Some media violent effects can be seen in immediate settings
(Zillmann, 1999; Bushman, 1990), whereas others accumulate
time. The social environment influences the effects of media
violence. Cultural, Environmental, and situational variables
moderate the impact of media violence (Malamuth, 1983). The
influence of the neighborhood, culture and parents can reduce
the aggressiveness caused by media. Due to these effects, some
actions should be taken.
Parental monitoring is required in order to get rid of
aggressiveness due to media, but due to increasing access to
portable media devices; it has become a hard task for them to
monitor their children. Nathason (2003) said that parents can go
a long way toward monitoring their children’s access to violent
media, which may in turn reduce the impact of violence

4. However, the parents are responsible to know what material
their children are using. Schools can also parents in a way,
where they introduce children to consuming a little of the media
such that if it becomes violent, they may not be much affected.
Policies made to the public may restrict the children to violent
media. Though this does not happen in every country, it should
be put into consideration. Ratings of some violent media are
high. A system could be formed where children do not get
access to the violent media. This is because the high ratings
make them anxious to know more about that material.
In conclusion, not every person is affected by violent media, but
every one of them is affected in a way. Evidence cannot show
any link between media violence and acts of aggression or
crime. Focusing on the debate on media may make one lose
attention to causes of crime like social inequality and family
violence. Media violence may affect public health besides
leading to an increase in violence and aggression hence should
be as much avoided as possible. Parents and policy makers
should be concerned with the welfare of the children to avoid
aggressiveness caused by media.
Bibliography.
Anderson, C., Berkowitz, L., Donnerstein, E.,Heusmann, L. R.,
Johnson, J., Linz, D., et al.(2003). The influence of media
violence on youth.Psychological Science in the PublicInterest.
Freedman, J. (2002).Media violence and its effect on
aggression: Assessing the scientific evidence. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press.
Olson, C. (2004). Media violence research and youth violence
data: Why do they conflict?Academic Psychiatry.
Comstock G, Paik H. (1991). Television and the American
Child. San Diego, CA: Academic
Josephson WL. (1987). Television violence and children’s
aggression: testing the priming, social script, and disinhibition
predictions. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.
Bushman BJ. (1995). Moderating role of trait aggressiveness in

5. the effects of violent media on aggression.J. Pers. Soc.Psychol.
Berkowitz L, Macaulay J. (1971). The contagion of criminal
violence.
Roberts DF, Foehr UG, RideouVJ. (2005). Generation M: Media
in the Lives of 8–18 Year-Olds. Menlo Park, CA: Henry J.
Kaiser Family Found.
Potter, W.J., Vaughan, M.W., Warren, R., Howley, K., Land,
A., &Hagemeyer, J.C. (1995).How real is the portrayal of
aggression in television entertainment programming?Journal of
Broadcasting & Electronic Media.
Zillmann, D., & Weaver, J.B. (1999).Effects of prolonged
exposure to gratuitous media violence on provoked and
unprovoked hostile behavior: Journalof Applied Social
Psychology.
Bushman, B.J., &Geen, R.G. (1990).Role of cognitive-
emotional mediators and individual differences in the effects of
media violence on aggression.Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology.
Malamuth, N.M., & Check, J.V.P. (1983).Sexual arousal to rape
depictions: Individual differences: Journal of Abnormal
Psychology.
Nathanson, A.I. (2003). The effects of mediation content and
form on children’s responses to violent television: Human
communication research.
Hi
I enjoyed reading your post. With your research paper, what
will be your hypothesis, I see you are using Convenience
sampling,
Matilda