Assessing media violence
Introduction
This paper will discuss the findings of research conducted on two television shows, Scooby-Doo and Criminal Minds. The goal of the study was to identify the cases of physical and verbal violence as well as threats in the shows. The research will also focus on instances of relational aggression. The shows were chosen because they possess the aspects of violence that were required for the study. The study will also touch on the consequences of these acts of violence.
Scooby-Doo (children show) Versus the Criminal Minds (adult show)
Scooby-Doo is an animated show that has been entertaining children and the youth in general. This show has been found to portray a lot of violent scenes where the characters are seen to engage in acts of violence against each other. The criminal minds are an adult show that also portrays a lot of violence. Scooby-Doo is shown on television at 7 am on weekends while the Criminal minds are shown past 8 pm.A recent study by Kirsh et al. (2006) found out that if children do not get to identify any violence in animated cartoons. Conversely, if this child is shown adult shows like the Criminal Minds, they immediately identify the violence.
Children can identify the violence in adult shows as compared to the animated shows because the animation shows always don’t portray the suffering of the characters. In contrast, adult shows the characters or victims of this violence are seen to suffer. In the Scooby doo movie, the violence is not always shown as compared to the Criminal minds where the violence continues to be portrayed now and then (Sherpherd,2009). The victims in the Adult shows are seen to endure a lot of suffering as some of the rich men are seen being clobbered by crowbars. There are cases of physical violence in the criminal minds and the Scooby-Doo.The three criminals who get involved in vandalism are seen to be verbally abusing their victims. One of the criminals is humiliated in Infront of the woman whose house was being built; this is an example of relational aggression as the criminal feels demeaned. In the Scooby doo movie, there are cases of physical violence, verbal violence, and Relational aggression in most scenes.
The impact of children watching the animated shows is critical, as most children are found to influence children into aggressive behavior (Gunter et al.,2013). Most children may copy the acts of violence witnessed in the movie. The aggressive behavior may make children harm others as they try to depict what they saw in their favorite animated movie. The children may copy this behavior because they are not aware that the videos aren’t real and are just for entertainment.
Children are always interested in watching animated movies as they don’t wish to miss these shows and keep following the shows every weekend. The funny thing is that the children don’t see the animations as having any forms of violence. This view of the movies not having any forms o violence exposes the children to practice what they saw in the shows. Acts of violence may make children hurt their siblings or classmates. A recent study by shepherd (2009) shows that the Children’s shows were possessive of a lot of violence as compared to the shows labeled for general viewing. Children’s exposure to movies like Scooby doo is bound to make the children more aggressive.
The girls may be affected by this violence if they are the victims in the shows (Scooby-doo) where the violence is directed at them. The violence may increase cases of gender-based violence to the children (Kirsh,2006). For the boys who watch animated cartoons, they may end up being aggressive and get involved in acts of violence against the women and other people in society. Cartoon violence and Drama violence impact is different as the dramas show the violence and portray the suffering endured by the victims. In contrast, for the cartoons, the suffering is not portrayed. This makes the children feel like the cartoon characters are just but fantasies (Gunter et al.,2013). The cartons, depicting scenes of violence, should be censored to remove all the scenes of violence and replace them with educational content. Parents should ensure children watch only shows with minimal violence as the children are emulative beings who will copy what they see.
Conclusion
The two movies portray very different types of violence to their audience. The criminal minds show has depicted scenes of violence which show the suffering endure by the victims of the acts of violence. On the other hand, Scooby-Doo has been showing scenes of violence to children, but the violence doesn’t end with the victims’ suffering as it’s not shown to children. The Scooby doo movie, therefore, makes children see that there is no violence and so there isn’t anything wrong with copying what the cartoon characters are doing. The film association should ensure the shows that are made for children should not posses any violent scenes as the children may copy this character and end up being aggressive.
References
Gunter, B., & Harrison, J. (2013). Violence on television: An analysis of amount, nature, location
and origin of violence in British programmes. Routledge.
Kirsh, S. J. (2006). Cartoon violence and aggression in youth. Aggression and violent
behavior, 11(6), 547-557.
Shepherd, L. J. (2009). Morality, legality and gender violence in Angel. Journal of Gender
Studies, 18(3), 245-259.