Media Impact Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Media Impact - Essay Example The sophisticated video games of present day require players to pay constant attention to the game and actively live the characters/roles they are playing in the game, rather than passively watching a movie. This whole experience has both positive and negative repercussions on the players. Several studies have been conducted to evaluate the impact of these media on children. Since children are directly exposed to video games right from the age of childhood to adolescence and then teenage and in some cases even when they are old enough; video games nowadays are one of the strongest factors that impact on social behavior of the youth of tomorrow. Television has been a ground breaking invention for broadcast pictorial display of programmes and entertainment for the whole mankind. However, over the decades of development and progression, T.V. has been transforming into a guiding hand for the society; one that sets the trends and tells the latest fashion, that tells you how to behave with elders, peers, young ones and fellows, which dictate your overall behaviour (Slater). Examples of Negative Impact: â€Å"CSI† a famous TV serial has a huge viewership since it began airing and has been actually guiding juries in actual life to not to make decisions without inappropriate evidence (Tyler). However, a great disadvantage is also significantly impacting many parties to different cases. In article published by Arizona State University, Jeffery Heinrick states that jurors nowadays have, at an increasing rate, started demanding unnecessary forensic tests and reports which are in most cases useless and a waste of precious money that could have been utilized productively otherwise. This has led commercialization of this profession. In 1999 University of West Virginia had 9 graduate of forensic science, in year 2004, 400 graduated with a forensic degree. Richard Gallagher, who is director at the NYU Child Study Center's Parenting Institute, has stated that players who become occupied in first-person shooting video games, for example, many a times become aggressive and usually conside r their society with a hostile view. Research & Statistical Evidence In an article from Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, â€Å"The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence†, the authors state that (Anderson): â€Å"Research shows that violent video game exposure increases aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal, aggressive behaviors, and decreases helpful behaviors.† The researchers conducted an experiment and concluded that those violent game players were less stimulated physiologically by real life violence as compared to their non-violent counterparts. This led them to conclude that individuals who play violent video games accustom to all the violence and ultimately become physiologically insensitive to it. Conclusion Thus, after reviewing so many research papers and articles, it can be said that the modern entertainment media landscape should be no doubt used to illustrate as an effective and systematic violence desensitization tool. Works Cited 1. Anderson, Craig A. "An update