Introduction
Youth violence has been a major concern for many decades in America. Majority of the youth form opinions and get influenced by the media. The Media encourages different ways and means to trigger violence among youth.

Analysis
The major factors that cause youth violence are media, drugs, alcohol, unemployment, weapons, poverty, peer pressure, broken homes, and race clashes. The Media can be considered as a major source that inculcates violence among youth. Television programs, movies and internet are some of the major sources that portray violence. This in turn has adverse affect on the youth who is one of the most emotionally fragile segments of the society [Anderson, 2001]

Some of the factors that contribute to violence in the media are examined below.

Unemployment
There is a famous saying: “Idle mind is a devils workshop”. When the youth gets disappointed due to unemployment, they find different ways and means to earn money. They sometimes join gangs and fail to realize that the path chosen by them to make money could be disastrous for them and the society. With the modern liberalized rules that make accessibility of weapons easy, violence among youth has multiplied many times in the past few years. Many weapons are available without license in the U.S.

Poverty
Unemployment leads to poverty. The youth gets involved in violence to fulfill their basic requirements which usually remains unfulfilled due to poverty.

Peer pressure
The majority of the youth want to be accepted by their peers. To attain this emotional security, they find out ways that their peers chose to follow. Sometimes this could be the path of violence.

Broken homes
Dearth of love and the security provided by family ties often misleads the youth.

Race clashes
Lack of understanding between various cultures could also lead to violence. When one race considers them superior to the other it leads to ego clashes, which in turn lead to violence.

It is generally observed that the violence in the media began to be expressed sometime in the 1920’s .Commercial radio was broadcasted in 1920.This was a major source of entertainment in the homes of Americans. During the World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt considered radio as an effective medium to keep the nation informed about economic developments through his “fireside chats” .The Youth of the nation were highly motivated by his speeches [Author not known 1, 2004]

The following statistics reveal the violence in media through television

• “Huston and colleagues have estimated that the average 18-year-old will have viewed 200,000 acts of violence on television “(Huston, A.C., Donnerstein, E., Fairchild, H. et al. Big World, Small Screen: The Role of Television in American Society. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.)
• “41% percent of American households have three or more televisions “(Nielsen Media Research, 2000).
• “56% of children ages 8-16 have a television in their rooms “(Annenberg Public Policy Center, 2000. Media in the Home 2000)
• “Percentage of television-time children ages 2-7 spend watching alone and unsupervised: 81” (Kaiser Family Foundation, 1999. "Kids and Media @ the New Millennium.")
• “Television alone is responsible for 10% of youth violence.” (Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Report, 1999.)
• “Average time per week that the American child ages 2-17 spends watching television: 19 hours, 40 minutes” (Nielsen Media Research, 2000)
• “Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1,023 “(Nielsen Media Research, 2000)

[National Center for Children Exposed to Violence, 2003]

With the advent of internet, the youth started having more exposure to violence. There are several websites that give information on killing and profanity.

Literature has also made a major impact on youth violence .There were many literature, which discusses about Communist movement in America. There were many literatures that mentioned about communist movement in America. There has been a strong bond between African writers and African American writers. Aftermath of the post World War II was discussed in many of these literature .This also aroused violence among the youth. These literatures had written for a call of “equality” and an end to political and cultural apartheid [Fleming, 2003]

Besides literature on the communist movement, there are several books which also mention about various guerilla warfare techniques. Some of these books are published by the U.S Army, Marine and the Navy. Books by Che Gueverra clearly mentions about the techniques of guerilla warfare. Such books propagate different techniques of violence by which the youth gets inspired .Such techniques of warfare are considered to be a part of revolution by the youth.

Several other factors like the Identity crisis and the hippy lifestyle also triggered youth violence. In search of their identity, many youth followed the path of violence. Identity crisis has been a major issue in the U.S. since 1970’s.

“In our society, youth is present only when its presence is a problem, or is regarded as a problem. More precisely, the category "youth" gets mobilized in official documentary discourse, in concerned or outraged editorials and features, or in the supposedly disinterested tracts emanating from the social sciences at those times when young people make their presence felt by going "out of bounds", by resisting through rituals, dressing strangely, striking bizarre attitudes, breaking rules, breaking bottles, windows, heads, issuing rhetorical challenges to the law” [Giroux, 2003]

The hippy lifestyle was in vogue during 1960’s.It was considered as the “age of the youth”. There was revolution in the lifestyle of the youth and no longer were they interested in following the old life styles. Elvis Presley, “the king of rock roll” left the U.S Army and started off with his own music. Among the youth acid rock was in high demand in 1960’s.Young people were impressed by the amplified rock music. Hippies developed their own culture. They challenged various aspects of the society. They did not follow any cultural norms of the society and acted according to their desire. They started using drugs, as a part of the trend started by them. Hippy culture highly influenced the youth and most of them stated aping them [Author not known 3, 2004]

Youth violence has shown a steady increase from many years. It seems to be more popular in major cities. Statistics reveal that violence in the television; video games, internet and music videos have increased violence among youth.
The number of households which had televisions in the United States were only 10 percent in 1950 .By 1960 about 90 percent of the American homes had Television. Today 99 percent of the American homes have television. Children spend 28 hours in a week watching television. They watch about 200,000 scenes of violence before 18 years of age. [Author not known 2, 2004]

The growth of the internet has also been a very big problem that has cause much concern among parents and guardians. The Internet with its unrestricted content can cause young minds to commit violence, which can become a serious problem in the society

Conclusion
The Above facts and figures clearly mention that violence in the media and youth violence are interlinked. The rate at which youth violence is increasing in the United States is alarming. There may be many causes for youth violence .However media is the major source for the increase of violence among youth .Media is an extensive resource through which the youth get information regarding violence. It is the responsibility of the media to keep a check on featuring violent activities so that we have good citizens rather than violent youths in our country.