Violence in movies and tele-shows: Moderation of mental health by media

Abstract

Sir, Violence:violence:violence:Lawtriestoavoidit:but,Movieslikeviolenceandpubliccannotavoid. Violence can be defined as ”Anyact(e.g.,hitting,kicking,shoving,slapping,shooting,andstabbing)causingintentionalharm,injury,ordeath,includingwarscenes,torture,rape,strangulation,orassault.”[1] Violence is defined by the World Health Organization in the WorldReportonViolenceandHealthas”theintentionaluseofphysicalforceorpower,threatened,oractual,againstoneself,anotherperson,oragainstagrouporcommunity,thateitherresultinorhasahighlikelihoodofresultingininjury,death,psychologicalharm,maldevelopment,ordeprivation.”[2] This is an era of social media. Media has a significant impact on human attitudes, behavior, and overall personality. People will be monitoring numerous social media trends. Because this is a popular trend, millions of individuals will use social media and be impacted by it. Although there is no hard evidence on how much it will impact people's personalities, there may be some transitory changes in the person's attitude or behavior. In such a case, the crime rate may rise, or people may engage in illicit behavior. Since the early 1960s, research has accumulated that demonstrates that exposure to violence on “television,movies,videogames,cellphones,andtheInternet” increases the viewer's risk of violent conduct, just as growing up in a violent environment increases the likelihood of them behaving violently.[134] Moreover, small-to-moderate correlational links have been established between movie violence and homicide rates in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, while there was a sharp decrease in the trend with fewer movies related to homicide and violence in the later twentieth century.[5] Evidence suggests that there is increase in suicide rate and online search trends of suicide following release of movies and web series that portray suicide as a solution to deal with issues in life.[6] The extensive depiction of violence in television and movies has come under fire in recent years, with mounting evidence that such depictions may encourage similar behavior in viewers.[15789] Furthermore, it has been widely established that exposure to video violence may increase the chance of young children exhibiting violent behaviors toward both inanimate and living victims. Filmed aggression may affect viewers in other undesirable ways.[810] However, contradicting evidence also exists, which suggests that there is no association between viewing violent content in movies and increase in criminal behavior.[1112] Studies also suggest no association of media violence with societal aggression or crime. As a result, a particular form of media can have a wide range of effects, depending on what individual consumers want to achieve rather than on the material itself.[1314] There exists ambiguity in the association between criminal behavior and exposure to violent content in media.[12] The current Indian cinema postpandemic era scenario is changing gradually, although there is a significant increase in the industry's income. However, if one looks at the core content of the movies, the genre is action or “violence,” and people are in the trend of following the same. Therefore, this article emphasizes the impact of aggressive behavior among the masses. There is some evidence to suggest that children's conceptions of reality may be influenced by media dramatizations. For example, children's attitudes about the natural world may be affected by fictional presentations and further, some authors have suggested that repeated observation of violence can result in emotional habituation. Most importantly, both short- and long-term exposure to media violence enhances aggression.[58] According to widely accepted social cognitive models, a person's social behavior is controlled to a great extent by the interplay of the current situation with the person's emotional state, their schemas about the world, their normative beliefs about what is appropriate, and the scripts for social behavior that they have learned.[515] During early, middle, and late childhood, children encode in-memory social scripts to guide behavior by observing family, peers, community, and mass media. Consequently, observed behaviors are imitated long after they are observed. In addition, short-term exposure increases the tendency to act more aggressively.[5] People are more eager to inflict severe electric shocks to others after seeing violent media content, for example, and children are more likely to attack others after watching violent media content. Long-term exposure can alter belief systems, influencing behavior. Children, who are still establishing their worldviews, are particularly sensitive to changing their attitudes and behaviors as a result of constant media exposure. Children who are exposed to a lot of violence in the media, for example, may believe that it is socially acceptable to be violent. Later, in life, this concept may motivate people to be more violent. Huesmann, for example, observed that males who saw violence in the media as babies were more likely to mistreat their spouses and be jailed for crime 15 years later.[5] Some have claimed that seeing violence disguised as entertainment may enhance one's tolerance for aggressiveness in the real world, making one less ready to intervene when he/she observes similar behavior in his/her own life. It is still debatable the influence of media-related violence in real life. Given the number of studies demonstrating violence, there should be clear regulation of information that may provoke such behavior. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.