Violence and Pornography in Meida
Violence and sex has been apart of our society since the earliest recorded history. Chapter 10 in Controversies in Media Ethics deals with subjects such as these and how the media world should deal with them. Kittross asserts that sex and violence are reflections of the society that we live in. Attempts to control media content would be worse than the content itself. Of course on the other end of the table is Gordan stating that today’s violence and pornography is far too potent and is harmful for the public and should be controled and mediated. When I look at the subject, I tend to agree with Kittross’ view.
When the issue of violence’s influence on children is brought up, the argument is that violence can warp the mind of young impressionable children. I think that this argument is flawed. A game isn’t likely to likely to alter the mind of a young impressionable child. The video game Grand Theft Auto is a perfect example of this. I know many kids who played this game when they were growing up, me included, and to my knowledge none of them have become stolen cars or committed majors crimes. I believe that this is because there is plenty of counter offensive material to provide a guide for their minds. If the parents have done proper parenting and provided a proper rule for the child to follow, video games like Grand Theft Auto won’t really have that much effect.
On the subject of pornography and other obscene material, I see that it is incredibly hard to have a definite definition for these subjects. With Democracy comes many people and many views. Having laws that control the content of the media might be just to some but to others in might be infringement on their rights. I think that the real content controllers should be the parents and the controllers of the household.
