Impact of Abusive Language in Hollywood Movies on Youth

Research Question:

Q. Does the abusive language in Hollywood movies change the speech/language behavior in the youth of Lahore?

Rationale:

The aim of this research is to examine the impact of abusive language used in Hollywood movies on youth of Lahore. This research is new to us because the trend of watching English movies among the youngsters has increased. And due to this they are effecting with the offensive language that is used in Hollywood movies.

I selected the Hollywood movies because the issue pointed in this which seems to be quite little but leaving a very bad impact on our society specially the youth. Abusive language was never acceptable in any society but offensive language which was otherwise considered broadly acceptable was considered unacceptable by some when used too frequently.

Dockterman (2014) notes that, “It’s not surprising that“the wolf of wall street” set a new recordsince the movie is all about excess: excessive hookers, excessive drug use and, of course, excessive swearing.”

Whether children were likely to be watching or listening and, if so, what impact the language might have on them was is a key consideration. It is very interesting topic as it is attention seeking for the people. This research intends to find out that how much people are adopting such prohibited words and languages. I took this topic because I want to bring it to the frontline. I personally feel this topic interesting because I found lots of examples related to this in Pakistani society. People are considering it a part of high class and our youth is using such language to throw such impact that they belongs to high class society. And it becomes a part of being stylish and swag. Mail online (2014) notes that, “Television viewers are being deluged with foul language as swearwords and blasphemy become commonplace in Hollywood films. Media monitors counted the f-word 1,429 times in 60 movies shown on terrestrial TV in the first six months of this year. There were 827 uses of s*** as well as 221 exclamations of Jesus or Christ, which also offend many.”

Hypothesis:

H₁: Abusive language in Hollywood movies changes the speech behavior in the youth of Lahore.

H_o.: Abusive language in Hollywood movies does not change the speech behavior in the youth of Lahore.

Literature Review:

My research area includes the level of abusive behavior among the youth of Lahore. I picked some articles and existing work done on this topic which will help me to land at considered decisions about my research and to examine that what I have to find out of these existing literatures. First literature includes the notions of gendered language in action films which indicates that whether men use more swear words or women. Second literature includes that how Hollywood films promote the American culture among the audience. Third literature notes that the Hollywood movies are responsible for the behavioral changes that occur in the other cultures. Forth literature investigated that the offensive language on prime-time show and cable programs found that 9 out of 10 projects contained no less than one episode of profanity. These literatures are described in detail below.

Marcus Midefelt (2013) notes that, “A few specialists said media depicts the truth and different says it reshapes the view of reality. This study examines this relationship by measuring the recurrence of three folk linguistic thoughts of gendered language in action movies. They chose ideas are ‘Ladies talk more than men’, ‘Men swear more than ladies’ and ‘Ladies utilize more label and pitch questions than men’. The study demonstrates that male heroes produce the most astounding number of every examined variables. Then again, considering that the study additionally shows that male heroes talk more than their female partners; the higher creation of every examined variable may be a consequence of this. The technique used to accomplish this point is the quantitative system Content Analysis. The most unmistakable after effect of this study is that men create the most astounding number of each variable contemplated. In any case, the generation of contemplated variables in the middle of male and female heroes contrasts by generally the same rate for each variable. The generation of any mulled over variable by male heroes fluctuates between 62-66% of the aggregate events of the variable, including the quantity of lines articulated. This implies that the high number of studied variables expressed by male heroes is prone to be an aftereffect of male heroes articulating a greater number of lines than female heroes.” (p.2)

Wanwarang Maisuwong (2012) notes that, “The American’s movies are seen in the America, as well as they are seen by the huge gathering of people the world over. Moreover, the American film firms overwhelm the majority of market share on the planet film industry. It appears that utilizing movies is the best mean for the America to pick up acknowledgment and kinship. Movies depict a smooth narrating and draw in the individuals to continue viewing from the earliest starting point until the end. In this paper, Researcher has chosen 30 Hollywood films from year 2001-2010, each of them won universal recompenses. He investigated the films on what are discriminating social qualities and political messages in every chose film that America tries to impart towards the world group of onlookers. He mostly centered around seven alternate points of view of society which appeared to be the most clear culture showed up in Hollywood motion pictures. In this study specialist has investigated the Hollywood film, Pearl Habor is a true to life talk motion picture where it contains both war and sentiment stories. Two young men grew up together, turned out to be great companions, and later experienced passionate feelings for the same lady. The film communicates the difficult of adoration for three individuals and the endure of American individuals amid the atrocity. He examined the accompanying focuses quickly Freedom of Expression, Nationalism, sexuality, Language, way of life and worth. At last he reasoned that Expected Cultural Effects of Hollywood Movies to the Audience is Language Effect, subsequent to presenting to the motion pictures, the individuals may swing to speak American intonation, they might likewise receive those American slangs and languages to their day by day life.” (P.2-4)

Birkel, J., Lee, S. &Oirya, J. (n.d) explains in his study, “That study was built on the theory of Americanization that postulates that American movies have a profound impact on certain aspects other cultures. It focused on examining the international opinions of people who watch Hollywood movies, as well as the extent to which and ways in which they felt these movies affected their culture and them as individuals. It relied on convenience sampling from international college students, studying in the United States. The main implications of this study, as it are explained in the results that Hollywood movies are responsible for the behavioral changes that occur in the other cultures. Hollywood’s ability to Influence sexual behavior creates an issue that affects the world by influencing the rise and fall of sexual behaviors. Along with sexual and violent media, some groups and individuals within the United States are concerned with the frequency in which profanity is used in Hollywood movies. This issue can be examined from a broader point of view as well, assuming that if a culture’s language is affected by Americanization, then trends in America’s use of profanity will naturally be part of that. So the people in other cultures may be correct in assuming that America’s influence results in the decline of their culture.” (p2-4)

Kaye, B. K. &Sapolsky, B. S. (2009) notes that, “This examination of offensive language on prime-time show and cable programs found that 9 out of 10 projects contained no less than one episode of profanity, and viewers were presented to 12.58 cuss words every hour in 2005. Viewers of show projects were presented to somewhat under 10 questionable words every hour contrasted with 15 words-every hour on link programs.” (P.1-3)

Offensive language occasionally has been slipped into programs subsequent to the beginning of TV, however beginning in about the late 1980s, coarse language. The primary focus of this research is to extend earlier published work by Kaye and Sapolsky (2001, 2004) by examining whether cable-delivered programs contain more instances of profanity than broadcast shows. Overall, 9 out of 10 programs on both broadcast and cable television contained at least one indecent word or 330 phrase. Risqué language was spoken nearly once every 5 minutes. Just over one- half of objectionable words were of the mild type (i.e., damn, hell). These findings are similar to previous studies that show the proportion of profanity represented by mild-other words has steadily decreased; 80.7% in 1990, 75.0% in 1994, 68.6% in 1997, 60.6% in 2001 (Kaye &Sapolsky, 2004) indicating a gradual coarsening of 335 language spoken in prime-time.

Overall, this study contributes to the issue of verbal indecency on television, especially in its comparison of broadcast to cable programs. While offended viewers and lawmakers are insisting that the FCC more strongly penalize broadcast stations for airing programs that contain verbal indecency, they, along with broadcasters, are 415 also wagging their fingers at cable programs, which they claim are even more vulgar.

My research area would bring a new research in such a way that I mainly focused on language as it is a part of our culture and what is the impact of offensive language on the youth of Lahore. I am going to add to the existing literature in this way that my research is directed towards on a very essential part of our culture which is language and its impact on the youth of Lahore specifically. This research would help you to find out that what are the factors attracting students towards use of abusive language and to understand how viewers and listeners decide what is considered generally acceptable/unacceptable in terms of possibly abusive language.

Research Methodology:

The researcher has laid a research design to study the impact of abusive language on youth of Lahore, to find out the answers to the research questions and to investigate the formulated hypothesis.

Research Design:

Research design refers to the different methods through which the data is collected. For the study at hand the researcher has employed descriptive research that includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries of different sorts. The researcher applied one method to carry out the research. I will conduct surveys in order to find out some results regarding my research.

Tools of Data Collection:

The researcher used one method to collect the information and analyze the Impact of abusive language on youth of Lahore. I will use the method of questionnaires to conduct my research and asks people to fill these questions which include young people.

Survey

In the current study the researcher used the quantitative method i.e. survey for data collection. Questionnaires were used as the tool of survey.

Quantitative method:

I will use quantitative method which includes questionnaires in order to conduct my research. I will use Questionnaire method because it is an easy method to collect data from a large and massive audience. I can easily collect my data by asking young people to fill out the questionnaire paper.

Population

The population of the survey was selected by keeping the target audience in mind. And the target audience was youth in the universities of Lahore. Young people from universities are selected because they watch more Hollywood movies. Movies are more popular among the youth. Educated people especially young educated people are more likely watch Hollywood movies in their leisure time or for entertainment. . The university students are mature and make their own decisions so the effect measured on them will be realistically accurate. So the researcher chooses university students to determine the impact of abusive language used in Hollywood movies.

Sampling

The Purposive sampling is a form of probability sampling which the researcher used to collect the data from different universities.

Variables

Dependent: Lahore Youth’s exposure to Hollywood films.

Independent: Level of abusive language.

Ethics:

My research will also include the ethics that I will ask permission from my population before taking information from them. My questionnaire has a section of ethics that will u allow me to take your few seconds in order to fill this questionnaire. As this research needs some personal information and language is also a part of personal thing that what is there language and what kind of swear words they use. So ethics are an important part of my research because it is matter of people’s personal behavior i.e. speech behavior.

Bibliography:

Birkel, J., Lee, S. &Oirya, J. (n.d.). Hollywood Americanized Sex, Violence, Language and Body Images: A Study of Cultural Perceptions Regarding the Influence of American Movies on International Students. Retrieved on April 12, 2014 from www.lekrib.com/HollywoodHegemony.pdf

Dockterman, E. (2014). The Wolf of Wall Streert Breaks F Bomb. Retrieved on April 6 , 2014, from Time.com: http://entertainment.time.com

Kaye, B. K. & Sapolsky, B. S. (2009). Taboo or Not Taboo? That is the Question: Offensive Language on Prime-Time Broadcast and Cable Programming. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 53(1)P1-3. Retrieved on April 23, 2014 from http://www.cci.utk.edu

Midefelt, M. (2013). Sailors and Tentative Talk-a-lots: A Study of Folk Linguistic Notions of Gendered Language in Action Films. Unpublished P.H.D Thesis, University of Gothenburg. Retrieved on April 8, 2014 from https://gupea.ub.gu.se

Mail Online (2014), Too much bad Language on TV.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-188713/Too-bad-language-TV.html#ixzz37JemGBN0

Maisuwong, W. (2012). The Promotion of American Culture through Hollywood Movies to the World Audience: A Threat to National Identity and Sovereignty. International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology, 1(4)P2-4. Retrieved on April 12, 2014 from www.ijert.org