The Cause Of Media Violence

Violence in real life usually causes damage and panic, which in turn leads to hysterical, uninformed public blaming things on ridiculous things such as media violence, in turn ignoring other essential contributors such as gun control policies, biological and social factors. Solely blaming things on media violence and taking actions to censor material isn’t a very good way to approach the problem which usually has another root cause. In fact media violence might not even be the cause of the violent behaviour. American Politicians and advocates for censorship rant on about how the violence in various media forms, especially violence on the TV affects

They are strong in their opinions on this matter; however in their speeches and arguments they pretend that other key causes of violence are non-existent. One such very prominent and proven cause of violence includes the lack of gun control policies of the United States government. Byrne (2013) who’s an advocate for gun control elaborates how they are the medium of the violence arguing that “Maybe violent video games are connected in some minor way to mass shootings, but we have such games in Australia--as do the British, New Zealanders, Canadians, and others and we do not have the mass shootings that occur in America” (para. 1). So the media might only influence violence, however, gun control policies would mean deterrence in the violent behaviour. Byrne (2013) further states that “No other nation allows its citizens to carry firearms as liberally as does the United States. And there is a good reason for the more restrictive policies of these governments” (para. 3). We can see that although gun control is a heavily debated issue, if there is anything that makes people think about how freedom is going way overboard in America in comparison to other nations, fingers should be pointed at the issue of the right to own guns

To put things into perspective most news material nowadays features violence: whether it is about the war against terror in the Middle East, or violent protests in the US, or even the attack on a college youth. Violence is everywhere, and placing no restrictions in violent content, wasting no time and money on censoring is the right way to go as it helps us to get used to the violent world around us and prepares us for the worst, perhaps even teaching us how to deal with it. Additionally, censoring restricts freedom. Kaminer proclaims that “Living in a free society entails a commitment not to prohibit speech unless it clearly, directly, and intentionally causes violence. If violent entertainment can be regulated by the federal government because it allegedly causes violence, so can inflammatory political rhetoric, like assertions that abortion providers kill babies” (as cited in Massing, 2001, para. 8). Clearly, censoring of violent entertainment not only means losing freedom of information but also may give politicians a slipway to restrict freedom of choice in a matter such as abortion which is outrageous in a free society. Many can counter argue that some information can cause psychological trauma. However harsh or insensitive a piece of information