Violence in media is justified as building national character and morality

Evidence

Other justifications extol the personal and social benefits of modeled violence. A high moral purpose, in the form of a national character-building service, is sometimes assigned to human brutality: “The government wants kids to think that there are values worth fighting for, and that’s basically what the leads on our show are doing.” Violent enforcement allegedly helps to codify societal values: “If people who break the society’s code resist the law, we have to use violence to suppress them. In doing so we are in the mainstream of American morality” (Baldwin & Lewis, 1972). In this form of justification, modeling violent solutions to human discord builds character, establishes the measure of man, and articulates the moral values and aspirations of the society. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 828

Categorization

• DEFINE: Illustrates the ‘moral justification’ mechanism of moral disengagement: harmful violence reframed as character-building service to society.