Violence in the Media - Research Paper Example

? Violence in the Media William Monk North Central Violence in the Media Today, movie violence is becoming inescapable in the film production sector (Prince, 2003). As a social psychologist, Prince depicts that the type of programs people watch and their impact in their everyday life especially the young children remain a major concern. Although the media is beneficial to the society, several programs portrayed from the media tend to pose negative impact to the society. In essence, violent programs have been used extensively in televisions. Some of these programs containing violent scenes range from cartoons, wrestling, and action movies. Inmost cases, children find themselves addicted to the programs. As a result, media violence has become an interesting subject to social psychologists. Researchers have conducted research to examine the inter-relationship between media violence and consequent violent and aggressive behavior. Psychologists have come up with a conclusion that those children who tend to watch violent programs, in one way or the other, also display aggressive behavior when they grow older enough. According to Kassin, Fein, and Markus (2010), media violence has bee linked to real-world violence. The violence can be presented in programs like cartoons, movies, dramas, and plays. This paper analyzes in length various scenes in ‘Colombiana’ an aggressive movie, which when watched pessimistically affects the viewers either psychologically or emotionally. The movie begins by portraying high-level incidences of media violence when Cataleya, a young girl witnesses the death of her parents at a tender age (10 years). Arguably, the media portrays a link with violence since, from the movie, the viewers are able to see how the mobsters kill and torture Cataleya’s parents in her presence. How they murder Cataleya’s parents becomes a scene of violence to the viewers. Due to this incidence of violence, as a victim of violence, the movie presents how Cataleya later grows up to become an assassin. She practices hard and becomes a professional killer with the help of her uncle. She maintains her goal dream of getting revenge on the hoodlums who killed her parents. Fifteen years later after her parents’ death, she works for her uncle Emilio as a hit woman. She commits 24 murders and the only trace she only leaves is the flower she was named for. Her expert skills enable her escape any sight of danger. Moreover, from the movie, she is able to handle and use any kind of weapon. Although she is an aggressive woman, she falls in love with a man known as Danny who never comes to learn anything about her even her true name (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1657507/). In the movie, her first killing scene is portrayed when she pretends to be drunk and hits a police car.She is taken to the police station and locked up for the night. It is at this moment when she kills Genarro and leaves a drawing of the flower on his naked stomach. As depicted from the movie, Genarro is presented as one among the most wanted criminals involved in the brutal killing of Cataleya’s parents. The movie shows clearly how Cataleya mercilessly kills Genarro in the cell. She shows contentment in her action since killing this man is a gate pass in achieving her mission. The drawing she makes aim at attracting the killers who murdered her parents and she hopes that from the flower, they will be able to reveal themselves and she will have an opportunity to carry out her revenge. Her attempts do not stop for she still carries out her mission to seek revenge. After further assassinations, the FBI releases the information about Cataleya’s calling to the public. It is through the revelation that the gangsters who killed Cataleya’s parents aim at tracking her down. Unfortunately, they are unable to find or kill her and hence end up killing her only remaining family consisting of his uncle and grandmother. The acting of killing shows how media portrays scenes of violence to the society. Cataleya becomes grieved and opts to face the FBI leader, tell him of her situation, and inquire of the locality of her parent’s murderers. She goes ahead and threatens to kill him and his family if he does not comply with her instructions. She is able to receive information about the location of her father’s killers through the CIA agent. She heads to the location fully armed in accompaniment with her two dogs (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1657507/). She starts a gunfight and ends up killing almost everybody. She goes ahead and confronts Macro in the bathroom where they engage in a hand-hand combat. Cataleya becomes violent and when Macro notices that he is about to loose the battle, he picks up his pistol which Cataleya uses to stab and kill him. Though in most cases violence is not associated with beautiful women, Cataleya manages to beat Macro successfully due to her professional skill in assassination. In order to locate her last target, she picks up Macro’s cell phone and calls Don Luis. After Don Luis realizing that it is Cataleya, he threatens her and promises to ever find her and carry out revenge. He later realizes that Cataleya’s dogs are in the vehicle. They maul him to death. The movie ends when Danny receives a call from Cataleya while undergoing questioning and after the goodbye part, Cataleya gets a bus and leaves. In conclusion, this movie has several scenes of violence that can trigger aggressiveness. As depicted from the movie, Cataleya becomes aggressive in order to carry out revenge. In the society, after watching such a movie, a child may become aggressive with aim of carrying out revenge. These movies pose a negative impact to the child and some people who watch them. It can therefore be depicted that media and violence are inter-linked and to some extend bring out negative outcomes in the society. Assertively also, media violence has caused real aggression (Kassin, Fein,and Markus,2010). It is therefore necessary to ensure that violent movies are abolished in the media since they tend to affect the future generation. Just as Prince (2003) argues, there is need to regulate the industry to limit screening of violent movies, which could impact the society negatively. Description of scene Age, gender, ethnicity, and other demographic variables of the participants Outcome for aggressor and victim Was there any humor in the portrayal of violence Killing of Cataleya’s Parents Cataleya is 10 years old girl; the parents are below 35 years at the time of their death. They live in Bogota. Cataleya’s parents are killed and she escapes to Colombia to stay with her uncle and grandmother No humor Cataleya faces Genarro in the police station and shoots him resulting to his death. He then draws a flower on his naked stomach. Cataleya is 25 years old, while Genarro is a man approximately 35 years old. Cataleya succeeds in killing Genarro and escapes back to her cell unnoticed. No humor portrayed. Mobsters are sent by Don Luis to kill Cataleya and her family. The mobsters range between 20-30 years. Cataleya’s grandmother around 60 years, while her uncle is about 35 years. From the aggression, Cataleya’s uncle and grandmother are killed. No humor portrayed. Cataleya faces the gansters who killed her parents. She is armed with gunfires for her vengeance. The hooligans are men who range between 20-30 years and. Cataleya on the other hand is 25 years old. Cataleya manages to shoot them all and kills them. No humor portrayed. Cataleya confronts Macro and engages in a fight with him Cataleya is 25 years old while Macro is a man about 30 years. From the aggression, Cataleya stabs Macro with a piece of his gun and kills him. No humor portrayed. Don Luis tries to escape as he threatens Cataleya through phone of his revenge. Dogs attack him. Don Luis is a man about 35 years old. From the attack, Don Luis is mauled to death by the dogs. No humor portrayed. References Colombiana (2011). Accessed from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1657507/ Kassin, S., Fein, S. and Markus, R. H. (2010). Social Psychology. New York: Cengage Learning. Prince, S. (2003). Classical film violence: designing and regulating brutality in Hollywood cinema, 1930-1968. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. Read More