Violence in pop culture can change the news

The desensitizing of American news viewers begins at an early age. The Television Violence Monitoring Project conducted by UCLA researchers was a study that recorded the amount of television violence for three consecutive years. This project found that 61 percent of television programs contain violence. These statistics are courtesy of www.safeyouth.org and you can simply follow the link to find out more about their research on television violence.

American media is very unique because it not only is disseminated all around the world as the most popular media force but it also contains the most graphic images. U.S. popular culture, including TV, movies, and video games, has become so violent that the media consumers have, as a result, become very desensitized.

The more violence we are exposed to in pop culture, the less and less we will react to or even notice real violence and tragedy in the news. With desensitization, only the truly horrific events in the news will have impact on U.S. pop culture consumers. Therefore, in order for news media to gain attention from a disaster or crisis, the news must be sensationalized to affect the audience. But many don't trust the validity of sensationalized news. Therefore, it becomes difficult for news organizations to both be fair, accurate, and not sensationalized while trying to actually attract a very desensitized audience.