Pokemon – In Pokemon the main characters (ash, brock and misty) go on a journey to become pokemon masters. They attempt the catch all kinds of pokemon. They encounter rivals through their journey who try to sabotage them. Team rockets (1 male 1 female) try to intimidate them and attack them. These were my findings in the episode I watched.
Team rocket – intimidate four times
Verbal abuse – 4 times
Physical violence – twice (pokemon fighting)
Gary is Ash's cousin who is considered to be the bully. Every now and then Ash will run into Gary during their journey and he will talk mean to him and then battle pokemon with him. In this episode...
Gary – intimidate once
Physical violence – once
| Team Rocket | Gary | |||
| Intimidation | 4 | 1 | ||
| Verbal abuse | 4 | 1 | ||
| Physical violence | 2 | 1 | ||
Gary beats ash in a pokemon battle and then verbally abuses him.
UFC – The entire show is based around 2 fighters in a ring fighting each other until someone beats the other person up. The whole purpose of this show is to entertain the audience by having 2 people fight each other. The only talking on the show is to give information about the fighters before each battle, and then there is talking during the fight to give a “play by play” of the fight.
Verbal/intimidation – before each match the show goes into cut scenes of the opponents talking about each other. They are verbally abusive in the clips and talk about how they will beat the other.
Physical violence – the entire show is physical violence.
I think researchers would ask is if the violence rewarded. There was a great deal of reward given in response to the violence for UFC. Everything took place in an arena filled with cheering fans. Unlike with the episode of Pokemon, the presence of positive reinforcement was there.
The Modeling Theory - Children and adults see violent behaviors in the media and see the usefulness of these behaviors. They then model them in their own lives. It has already been proven that heavy consumption of violent media directly correlates with aggression. As proven by Albert Bandura and his "BoBo" dolls experiment.
The Desensitization Theory - Over time heavy media use can cause people to become less sensitive to certain topics and issues. This directly relates to media violence and individuals viewing it. I didn't find any of the content in these shows terribly offensive or shocking, but I've also watched a lot of violent media in my life. I would say that I am already desensitized by this type of media, but someone younger might not be.
I also think the cultivation theory works well in this case. The younger the viewer is for cage fighting the more real I think it seems to be. This would cause the child to try and duplicate what they saw during the fight. Whether it would be against someone they didn’t like or if it was on one their friends. The fighters are professionals and with young kids attempting to recreate the moves it could cause to serious injury.
