Media Socialization of Death New movies have a lot of violence and bloodshed. “With television, analysis of programming for 20 years (1973-1993) […], the level of violence in prime-time programming remained at about 5 violent acts per hour” (Gerdes 20). The fact is, the media show an immense amount of death and killing and pass it off as if it’s no big deal. The media socialize children with death to the point that parents no longer need to. Kids are exposed to death at a very early age. Children accept truth and facts from the media much faster than from adults. Finally, murders involving children and young adults have reached all time highs in recent years. First, kids are exposed to death at a very early age. During the 18th century, children were looked at very differently than they are now. They were looked at as economic liabilities which live in a sort of vicarious bubble. This means that they can play and help with chores, however they are not developed enough to understand complicated concepts such as death. Children were shielded from death and developed no thoughts or opinions on it until later in life. Children’s understanding of death in the 21st century is completely different. Children as young as three realize that death exists and may or may not be final; children as young as five understand that death is final (Children & Adolescents). The reason children understand death at such young ages is due to the media opening them up to it. This is the information age and children are exposed to hours of television. Children not only learn information from TV sources but also attitudes and opinions on how to feel. This leads to kids thinking about death at a much earlier age than they usually would. The number of homicides committed by people age 14-24 has spiked in recent years. When children see people killed on television every day, they are desensitized into believing death isn’t that big of a deal (Riley 192). Second, children accept truth and facts from the media much faster than from adults. The majority of students and young people in general are described by sociologists as “the bewildered herd”. This means that they accept whatever information they are fed as truth and question nothing. This is, in fact, true for most people who watch the news or television and believe everything they are told without question. “A principal cause of [the rise of juvenile crime] is the violence that permeates the media” (Gerdes 17). Violence problems arise because children do not make all the necessary connections between violence and its consequences in real life. Aggressive behavior is often rewarded in movies and television, and it often has no consequences. Almost two thirds of programming on TV contains violence and the majority does not portray it as horrible and gruesome as it actually is (children & media). ”[…] [Reverse] modeling, in which children influence parental television viewing patterns” (Conway 166). It used to be the other way around. This means that children are controlling how much and what type of media they are exposed to. This allows them to look at the media as their source for guidance and information compared to parents and other adults. The main goal of the media is to entertain and keep people content, which is very bad because children take a lot of this seriously and base real world perceptions from it (Conway 166). Finally, murders involving children and young adults have become much more frequent in recent years. Since the creation of mass media there have been studies showing the effects on violence in children it creates. The media, however, claims that these studies are false and their first amendment rights allow them to show whatever they want. Statistics, however, do not lie, and gun related homicide among fifteen to nineteen year olds has tripled since 1980. Several mass murders at schools including the Columbine shootings and the Virginia Tech shootings have alarmed the public that the change is definitely happening and cannot be ignored. While there are complex studies of what causes theses shootings; two major components are poor parenting and violence in the culture. As the media takes over the role of socializing children about death, both of these will get worse. A major part of the media involves violence and death, which means this is where children are getting their perceptions on these topics (children & media). A large portion of kids in cities become involved in gang related activities. “Youngsters are shooting at people at a far higher rate than any time in the recent history” (Gerdes 18). Television often displays gangs as cool and unified groups where you can receive guidance. In real life this proves to be very dangerous for many who join them. In fact, from 1975 – 2005, almost one quarter of the victims of gang related killings were under the age of 18 (homicide). All of this violence, which is portrayed as acceptable by the media, has a very negative effect on children’s relationships with parents; one could even say that the media is competing with parents for their child’s attention and time. The media has an immense effect on how children think and feel. The media in this way replaces parents as the agent of socialization which teaches about death. This may have a negative effect on children due to the fact that the media portrays death very light heartedly. Children begin to see death as an everyday thing and don’t consider it to be as serious and final as it is.