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Communication, Media and Society

000 244
Dr. Tony See

The Media and violence in

our society

Venerable Heng Le (2016029)

12-12-2018
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Violence always plays a major role in the media. It is not restricted to one country or region, but

can be found everywhere and anywhere around the world. The negative effects of Media

violence can cause mental aggression and then it will lead to physical aggression to society,

especially the youth. Media violence can be defined as the portrayal of physical action that hurts

or kills. Violent entertainment is not only gained through television shows, but also in music

lyrics and videos, commercials, video games, and movies. With the rapid development of the

modern technology, media also plays a big role in Sri Lankan society and also there are

significant effects on young adults and I will focus more on them. Nobody can ignore media,

(somehow we are attracted); especially youths are more interested in using media. This essay

will prove that media contribute to violence in our society by examining in music lyrics and

videos, television dramas (shows), and video games.

Firstly, one form of media which influences aggressive behaviour in our society is music and

music lyrics. Rap music is the most popular one among young adults in Sri Lanka. Socially, rap

music has been linked to more negative symbolism than positive, especially sexual, violent, and

prosaically text embedded in rap lyrics and videos. Americanization brought the rap music into

Sri Lanka and the first rap song was released in 1995 and since then many young adults have

been attracted, even small children also try to follow and act as a rapper. As a free medium,

Youtube can be described as a great platform and a stage for the rap music and videos. A Sinhala

rap music video, which gained a notorious attention, released few months ago. The video for the

song ‘Malli’ by the rapper Fill-T generated a great deal of controversy.

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Basically, sex and violent acts in the video generated heated online debate about music, women,

rap, youth violence, culture and sexuality.

(Malli – Fill-T productions)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8ncb6VZaCw

An another video which was produced by the same person is “Shanthi”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRHLVxdcCWA

This video can be placed within the growing line of similarly erotic rap music videos that are

being produced and distributed on YouTube by rappers such as Fill-T, Iraj and KaizerKaiz. Like

“Malli,” these videos are replete with semi-nude women, guns, gangs with references to sex, and

violence. Within three weeks, this video had been watched by more than three million people,

and also it was the main topic of the youths at that time. The lyrics of these two videos trigger

people, especially youths to be aggressive and develop curiosity for sexuality. For instance,

second video talks about use his wife as a prostitute and finally kill her. So, I will not take any

attempt to translate the lyrics into English because it is too bad to translate. So, we can say that

young adults in Sri Lanka have been badly influenced by rap music.

Secondly, another form of media which contribute for aggressive behaviour of the youths is

television shows. Television can be a very powerful teacher as well as an enemy to youths.

According to a report by Nation masters of Sri Lanka,; 92% Sri Lankans own at least one

television in their household. This shows just how accessible TV is and how common it is for

youths to watch. Unfortunately, nobody has carried an experiment or done a research to show

link between television and violence in Sri Lanka. However, Kaya Björkqvist, one Professor of

Developmental Psychology from Åbo Akademi Universityin Finland randomly assigned one
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group of five- to six-year-old children to watch violent movies, another to watch nonviolent

ones. Raters who did not know which type of movie the children had seen then observed them

playing together in a room. Children who had just watched the violent movie were rated much

higher on physical assault and other types of aggression. For instance, two weeks ago in Matara

district in Sri Lanka, a boy (19 years old) gathered by two friends killed another boy with a knife

in public because the dead boy had a relationship with murderer’s girlfriend. Later, it was found

that he planned the murder according to a television drama which is called in Sri Lanka “Deweni

inima”. After this incident was reported by television channels as news, one kindergarten

student’s painting went viral on media. He had watched that news and next day in the school he

draw a picture what he saw on television.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg3KJhucTRU ( English)

Through this example, we can prove that exposure to violent television shows can increase

aggressive thinking, aggressive emotions, and all known risk factors for later aggressive and

violent behavior.
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Not all violence on television occurs in fictional formats, however. The news is often filled with

descriptions of violence. Many news reporting channels are competing with each other to gain

ratings, in this case it is common in Sri Lanka, and they broadcast even sensitive graphic videos

fully open without any necessary editing. Therefore, we should not forget that the children being

so young and curious, they had no clue how great of an impact the violent TV shows had on their

actions and aggression.

Thirdly, another form of media which influences aggressive behaviour in our society is video

games. Almost all children who have accessed to internet in Sri Lanka play video games. The

main trend of many video games is for players to be the bad guys, acting out criminal fantasies

and earning points for attacking and killing people. Even though these games are rated as

parental guide (PG), they are popular among young adults. For instance, players have to be a

criminal in Grand Theft Auto gaming series, which were the best-selling game for PlayStation

and earn points by carjacking, stealing drugs from street people and pushers and also by beating

up prostitutes with baseball bats after having sex with them. These types of video games do not

set good examples for children and youths. These young minds may think that they are allowed

to verbally insult women and that doing crimes are alright.

There is another game called PUBG (Players unknown Battleground) in Apple and Play stores.

Players can play as solo or as a team, and they have to kill all other players and survive until the

last player. Similarly, mass shootings in USA are very common now, especially young adults

have easy access to guns and they try to experience what they did in the video games. As an

example, 1st of October in 2015 at Umpqua Community College located in Oregon, there was a

mass shooting killing nine and wounding many others. The shooter’s name is Christopher

Mercer, shortly he was killed in gunfire with responding officers. After the shooting, the police
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investigated Mercer’s background and found that he was addicted to violent games and focused

on this more than spending time with his family. He was isolated majority of the time and only

took interest in conversations when discussing video games and guns. While investigating, the

police even found a secret chat room online which him and anonymous others were planning out

exactly what he would do. Before he had committed this tragic crime, he said “I’ve been waiting

to do this for years”. Recently, researchers at Ohio State University conducted a study and

concluded that, "People who have a steady diet of playing these violent video games may come

to see the world as a hostile and violent place”.

Finally, according to The Lord Buddha’s analysis, naturally an infant has a pure and undiluted

mind. However when this infant grows older he has to interact with others, connect with media.

So, what he gain and learn from outer world will decide who he is. Buddhism does not say we

must avoid from media. Nobody can find religious rules or commands in Buddhism. Simply, we

can use but with awareness, with mindfully, especially when we use media it is always necessary

for us to be mindful. We should not absorb everything what is going on the screen or as a sound,

we have that potential to think, analyse and understand what is right and what is wrong,

especially when we watch violent scenes. In secular world, man is usually urged or stimulated to

commit sins or breed cruelty or act aggressive behaviours. Then these people do not hesitate to

commit brutal and cruel killings or theft or sexual assaults or misdeeds in real world.

In conclusion, violence in the media has a great negative impact on the people, especially the

youths in the society. A large number of researches have been done by scholars to prove this.

Even though many evidence can be found to prove this statement from worldwide, I focused

much on Sri Lanka in this essay by examining in music lyrics and music videos, television
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dramas (shows), and video games. Last but not least, we should be more mindful and be aware

when we deal with media!

References

Fletcher, Lyndee. "14 Mass Murders Linked to Violent Video Games." Charisma News. 15 Oct.
2015. Web. 21 Mar. 2016

Rap lyrics, music videos, and themes of sex, violence, and prosocial behaviour

Green, Terrell Lamar. University of Arkansas at Little Rock, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,
2015. 10013316

https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/profiles/Sri-Lanka/Media

(Malli – Fill-T productions)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8ncb6VZaCw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRHLVxdcCWA

Lecturer’s Note

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