The Media’s Influence on Behavior and Villence : |s Society the Victim of the Media?

chapter 4

The Media’s Influence

on Behavior and Violence

Is Society the Victim of the Media?

Judith M. Sgarzi

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Introduction

No one can deny the influence that television and the electronic media have had on children in contemporary American society. Many researchers argue that in fact television no longer reflects culture, but rather is the central cultural arm of American society. It is an agency that enculturates the viewer to its point of view

(Heath and Gilbert, 1996, p. 378).

Newspapers and the print media are no less important in their impact and are also part of the electronic media’s web. “In spite of the differences, newspapers show many of the same patterns as television programming. Sex and violence are staples in the newspapers as well” (Heath and Gilbert, 1996, p. 380).

Headlines and news media coverage are presenting stories of more and more violent behaviors, often committed by children of younger and younger ages. Most recently, two boys, ages 7 and 8, were charged with murdering an 11-

year-old girl in Chicago. The offenders were reported to be the youngest on record for this type of crime. We were told that the boys killed the young girl so they could have her new bicycle. The crime was similar to one committed by two British youngsters who kidnapped a two-year-old from a shopping mall and stoned him to death with rocks.

Also, a series of recent school killings has left parents and children questioning the safety of the schools, once considered a safe haven for children. Just before the sentencing of two recent child killers, from Jonesboro, Arkansas, one

Victimology: A Study of Crime Victims and Their Roles, by Judith M. Sgarzi and Jack McDevitt. Copyright © 2003 by Pearson Education, Inc. Published by Prentice Hall, Inc.