Violence

Content Analysis on a half hour of cartoons and a half hour of cage fighting.
The categories should be:  physical violence (hitting, shoving, striking, falling down, having something fall on a character, etc.), verbal violence (shouting, yelling, screaming, profanity, etc.), and intimidation.  Note also whether the violence perpetrators and victims are male, female or neither (may be an animal), and whether the violence is rewarded (do they win or escape) or punished in some way. 

On the half hour of cartoons, I YOUTUBEed an episode of the cartoon Batman. There was constant physical violence and intimidation from the start. Batman is seen as a hero but he becomes that way from physical violence of fighting the "bad guys". Then when Batman and his enemy begin their fight, there is 3-5 minutes of straight physical violence and shouting/yelling at each other. Not to mention, let alone, each figures outfit has mostly black and comes off very intimidating.  Batman has to save the woman who was suppose to help him fight the villain but was captured and he has to save her too, she is shown as helpless and nothing without Batman. So in the end when Batman defeats the villain and saves the girl, he is the hero and is rewarded by the town with praise and gratitude.

On the half hour of cage fighting, I watched one of the fights that was recently on TV. From the start, intimidation is shown. The monologues they have on each fighter and how they are going to defeat their opponent, they do a lot of "smack talking". Then once the bell is rung and the fight begins, it is round after round of pure physical violence. Each round is 8 minutes and for a good 5 minutes of each round is each opponent trying to harm the other. The other 3 minutes is the fighters circling the cage getting ready to make their next move. This type of fighting is very intense. I actually caught myself getting caught in it as well and getting excited when someone would throw a punch. The audience is a big factor in the verbal violence. You hear sayings like, "Knock him out!", "Break his nose.", etc. So when the fighters hear this being yelled they must get even more aroused and the violence level rises. At the end of the fight, the winner is rewarded with a belt and a new "Champion" title. A huge reward for such a violent act.

After watching these acts of violence and going over certain theories in class, like the Modeling Theory, Cultivation Theory, Desensitization Theory. It's no wonder people, especially children and young adults, are influenced by fighting on TV and being rewarded for it. With the Modeling Theory, children see this fighting and the person is rewarded at the end so they go out and do what they see and think their is a reward for them as well. With the Cultivation Theory, the exposure to the physical violence constant, has one to belief this is more common everywhere and makes it seem as though people enjoy this and it is normal. With the Desensitization Theory, the more someone watches violence the less sensitive it is for them to watch it. They are going to want more violence or for the violence to be stronger or harmful than what they previously just watched.

For the most part with physical violence, in cartoons and cage fighting, it would effect males in general and also younger ages. Men like violence and enjoy watching fights. It gets them excited and if not relaxed afterwards, it can lead to them wanting to start fights of their own. And with the younger ages, starting them off so early with cartoons, violence is shown to them early. They see it in cartoons and want to try that in reality with other children and it can get them into trouble.
Violence is something shown all the time and it is seen early in people's lives. It is just how one handles their levels of arousal after watching something violent and if they would act upon their feelings that can be potentially harmful.