Bad Influence on Society
It is true that our behavior is affected by what we see around us. During childhood, we learn different things from family, friends and other people close to us that build our attitude, beliefs and even our fear as we age. In the current modern setting where technology is a part of our lives, the media particularity through television plays an important part in influencing our society. Children and adults learn from what they see.
Television programs that are shown everyday in homes contributes much in every people’s behavior that constitutes our society today. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), “Children are influenced by media–they learn by observing, imitating, and making behaviors their own” (2001, p. 1224). The impact of television programs on people has increased the attention among educators and other professionals making it a topic in most researches and debates regarding its influence on our society and the future.
Now that many different shows are being showed worldwide with different topics about education, news and public affairs, entertainment and politics and others, people’s standards about television programming are beginning to widen making more producers and directors create programs with deeper approach. Murder, sex, money, greed and revenge are just some materials that comprise an irresistible television program.
As adults enjoy these programs with such contents, kids might have the possibility to enjoy it as well resulting them to be exposed to matured genres that will affect their views in life thus affecting our society’s performance as a whole. This paper aims to study the bad influence and the effects of media in the society and the review of one television program to verify it. INTRODUCTION Prison Break is an American serial drama television series created by Paul Scheuring, which premiered on the Fox Broadcasting Company on August 29, 2005.
The series revolves around two brothers; one who has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, and the other, a genius, who devises an elaborate plan to help him escape prison. (Wikipedia. 2009) For four seasons, Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows have entertained the world through their adventures by helping one another in their escape from prison to their last task of stealing a very important gadget from the Governor of America called “Scylla”. For seventy-five episodes and counting, Season Break has been the talk of most couch potatoes around the world.
All episodes are breathtaking and transparent that makes the watching experience almost real to the viewers. To achieve higher ratings, Prison Break has never failed to create realistic approach to their scenes even to the delicate ones. The torture scenes seem to be very painful, the killings are executed flawlessly by actors and every script are worth memorizing. However, while watching, it is unavoidable that people would get some wrong ideas while they are watching. They would get the idea that going to prison is okay, killing is natural, saying ill words are fine, politicians are unreliable and more.
These ideas create a serious impact on the society specially the children. As we go on, we shall discuss the different quotes from Prison Break that if taken seriously by watchers would create a serious influence to them that will affect their society. PRISON BREAK QUOTES Violence has been one of the issues of Prison Break since the first episode. Michael Scofield is against all odds only to prove that his brother is innocent and help him escape from prison before he is sentenced to death. In the first quote, Bellick gave Scofield a warning that the Fox Prison is not a place for the merciful.
Captain Bellick: Name and back number. Micheal: Scofield, Micheal. 94941. Captain Bellick: You a religious man Scofield? Michael: Never really thought about it. Captain Bellick: Good, because the Ten Commandments don’t mean a box of piss in here. We got two commandments and two only. The first commandment is you’ve got nothing coming. Michael: What’s the second commandment? Captain Bellick: See commandment number one. (Season 1 episode 1) Instead of making prisons a place of change for the inmates, Fox River Prison created an environment of violence, blood and torture for the people who reside there.
Viewers might learn the feeling of being territorial and the urge to be violent through watching this program. Scofield’s stay in Fox River Prison is painful and traumatic. His first days are never good and inmates started to question his identity and his skills. Torture has been a routine for Michael but the torture scene from Season 1, episode 2 really made me feel pain while and after watching it. Bellick: Got up on the right side of the bed this morning I guess. (He pulls Michael’s arm, stopping him. ) Hold up. Now don’t you move fishie. (He goes away. Meanwhile burly men come for Michael. ) Man: Come with us fish.
(They take him to the gardening shed where Abruzzi is waiting, humming to himself. Bellick sees this and walks away, laughing. ) Abruzzi: This little polka that you and I have been for a while as of this moment (Pats the surface beside him) it’s over. (The men deposit Michael in that spot. ) Fibonacci. I wanna know how you got to him and where he is right now. Michael: (Stares at him) Not gonna happen John. (Abruzzi nods, we’ll see. Then he nods to his boys. They grab Michael and hold him down. He struggles but they manage to get his left shoe and sock off. They put gardening shears to his smallest toe. )
Abruzzi: I’m going to count to three. One. Michael: (Breathing heavily) I give you that information I’m a dead man. You know it and I know it. Abruzzi: Two. Michael: I’ll tell you the moment we’re outside those walls. Not a second before. Abruzzi: Tell me now. Michael: (Whispering) Not gonna happen John. Abruzzi: Hey. I’ll give you one last chance. (Michael remains silent and Abruzzi can’t believe it. Abruzzi nods to the man holding the shears. ) Three. (The shears close and Michael’s face distorts in pain. ) (Season 1 episode 2) Torturing and interrogation like these are scenes that we do not want our children to see.
Violence promotes pain and suffering to people and if applied to society, people will learn how to be selfish and learn to get what they want in a fierce manner. T-Bag: I wanna (He wiggles his fingers) do it slow. Inflict a maximum amount of pain so a guy wishes he’d just die. You know, get it over with, but just can’t quite get there. Friend: Oh. I got that. I got that. Look at this right here boss. (He takes out a knife that has five razor sharp edges jutting out from one side. ) I call it the gutter. Jam it up there in the stomach. These bits right here hook onto the intestines and pull back, poor suckers.
Guts are hanging right out of his stomach. And he’ll get a good look at them, because the wounds not fatal, at least not until the infection sets in. (Season 1, episode 3) Pope: I know you know something, Katie. And anything you know you have got to tell me. If you don’t, you are gonna lose a lot more than your job. Withholding information makes you an accessory, and I will press that button if you don’t start talking! Interrogation (Season 1 episode 22) T-Bag: Oh, and, boy. If you call the cops, I will put this thing right here, [he brandishes the screwdriver again] in your eye. [He grabs the camper’s hat.
] Thank you. [T-Bag grabs the ice chest and runs off, knocking over camping equipment as he goes. ] (Season 2 episode 1) Brutality has no excuse for age, gender and status. Innocent or not, it doesn’t matter who the victims will be as long as it pleases them. Instead of avoiding it, some people might see that being in control of other people’s lives is “cool”. Imagine a society influenced by this kind of attitude. What good future will come in their land? Imagine a child who grew up in a society like this, will they be able to respect the rights of others? Inmate: You best speak with respect fish.
Man kidnapped half a dozen boys and girls down in ‘bama, raped and killed ‘em! (Season 1 episode 2) Mahone: Is this the man? (With his hand, a picture of an African-American male) Sarah: Yes, who is it? Mahone: That’s the man who killed my son. (Season 4 episode 5) Fox River Prison is a place where everyone is a victim. Power is everything and inequality is everywhere. The authoritative police and inmates are the ones who control the prison cells and the powerless are the ones who suffer the most. In Prison Break, the lives of the inmates are decided by the unfair politics that existed there.
They choose whom to listen to and who to take care of to. Pope: Hmm. Unfortunately, unless there’s evidence of violence or sexual predation between cellmates those kind of requests fall on deaf ears around here. Prison systems a little too crowded to for there to be requests based on personality. It’s not exactly sandals out there. (Season 1 episode 4) T-bag: Oh yea. You got yourself the ‘untouchable’ status. I could get myself killed just talking to your mangy ass. Underling. (Season 3 episode 2) Leticia (V. O): You know. Like they own the place, like they’re untouchable. Like they’re government. (Season 1 episode 3)
If people would take the episodes seriously, they would think that police officers cannot be trusted, friends can be possible enemies and inequality is okay since that it happens everywhere. A society with this thinking is not healthy since that it needs cooperation and trust among its people. In Prison Break, Politics is never excused in the eyes of Violence. In some episodes, authorities and government officials are also in charged of doing awful things using their power and money to accomplish their personal political agendas. Veronica (V. O): So the government paid Lincoln’s debt? (Season 1 episode 3) Brinker: No.
Absolutely not. Becoming President is the most important thing to her. If we take that away, she has absolutely nothing to lose. And I guarantee you, she will do everything she can to take everyone she can down with her. (Season 1 episode 21) Paul Kellerman, a secret agent of the government is one of the victims of bad politics in Prison Break as he was appointed by the Vice President to make sure that the execution of Mr. Burrows is done smoothly. Even though Kellerman knows the innocence of Mr. Burrows, he was bound to do it because he thought that he was serving and protecting his country as a soldier.
Man: They’re ready for you, Madam Vice President. Caroline (to Kellerman): You’re doing it for your country. (Season 1 episode 8) These episodes create the idea that the people in the government only wants power from their position and do not really have the intension to serve their country. With all the other issues that the government is currently facing like corruption, scandals, terrorism and more, people watching Prison Break will not find a hard time to believe that politicians like the Vice President is real and soldiers are just mere puppets of the government.
CONCLUSION and RECOMMENDATIONS It is no debate that Prison Break is a good and a controversial television program and people are hooked by its beautiful story. However, it also has hard contents that is very influential to people and if they are not guided well, it will influence them to do bad things and our society is affected by it. Unfortunately, it is not the only television program that has violence in their episodes but we can still avoid the possibility of doing the wrong deeds by being responsible in what we see on television.
Influence is always there regardless of what television program we watch. It is only our decision as a person whether we will take and apply it in our lives or not. By being educated and by being careful, we could be responsible in our judgment. Parents should guide their children in watching televisions and it would be much better if they will explain things further to them to understand what they are seeing. BIBLIOGRAPHY Gladwell, M. (2000). The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, first published by Little Brown.
ISBN 0-316-31696-2 AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS. 2001. “Media Violence. ” Pediatrics 108:1222–1226. Influence on Children Media – History of Media for Children, General Considerations, Studies of Media Influence, Domains of Influence, Recommendations. 2009 . Accessed on April 10, 2009. http://education. stateuniversity. com/pages/2212/Media-Influence-on-Children. html Prison Break. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. (2009) Accessed on April 10, 2009. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Prison_Break
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