Violence in the Media

Living in a democracy I believe it is important to let citizens make their own decisions on what they choose to do and in this case to watch. This is a free country and as a result we can express ourselves however we please. This does not mean that children should be subjected to violence on television or in the movies. Television and music ratings are there to regulate that, but that was last week's discussion. I think that violence in the news is very relevant and absolutely should be shown simply because it is reality. Why would we want to live in a world where the media witholds details from the general public. Using the tragedy at Virginia Tech as an example, while the nature of the murderer's acts as well as his video tape were extremely violent it is important for the nation to witness this so they know what exactly went on and are fully aware that this type of anger and violence is still present in our current society. One may argue that repetitive airing of these incidents may encourage "copycats" or may severely damage the public's psyche, the fact is there are many more American citizens who learn from these acts and are overcome with a desire for change or a will to help sick individuals capable of such violence. Any person that is inspired to repeat violent acts they see on tv or in the movies was a threat to society long before they received "inspiration".
Violence in the movies of course is not real, so one may claim that there is no constructive reasoning for such violent movies or scenes. But the fact is, it is entertaining. People love to see violence in the movies. But this is not because they want to repeat what they see, instead it is because it is an imaginitive world for many people because the majority of people are not violent. It sparks curiosity and excitement. Once an individual reaches a certain maturity they know better than to be influenced by violence in the media. If they do not, then as i stated earlier they most likely would have been a threat to society with or without violence in the media.