Media Violence

            Since the 1990s, there has been a drastic increase in video games containing graphic violence. Game animators have successfully created realistic pictures of bloodshed and destructiveness. Dr. Stockdale’s research specifically draws attention to children’s exposure to television violence and its devastating effects. Social media undermines the severity of prolonged viewing of brutality and therefore parents are unaware of the consequences. Levels of concern are relatively low for a topic which is relevant in order to maintain a population with exemplary mental health.  Various studies have proven that media violence contributes to aggression. Unfortunately, the article from the University of Missouri suggests that our society expresses itself through violent television, movies, video games, and music. Our culture is attracted to content that may lead to our downfall in the hands of aggression. Quite recently, there has been an outbreak of crime consisting of school shootings, gang affiliations, assaults, robberies, etc. Roughly, 60% of television programs incorporate violence. This clearly shows what our society accepts and supports. Parents should limit their children’s exposure to television because it has proven to reduce aggression in children. Dr. Stockdale did a study where she exposed one group of individuals to a non-violent/non-aggressive clip and the other group to an aggressive/violent clip from Mean Girls. She found that after the Mean Girl’s clip when ask to describe the assistant, individuals were more negative compared to the non-violent/non-aggressive group.

            Also worth mentioning, Pozios’ article suggests that when viewing violent material we should incorporate this information as non-existent or impossible, such as Harry Potter and his wizardry.  Television producers and screen writers can’t imagine such acts of violence being brought to life. This article claims that acts of violence may be a risk factor of violent media such as smoking cigarettes may cause lung cancer. The problem is that acts of violence from media do not have strong enough evidence to prove causation, but research from Dr. Stockdale has shown that aggression and media violence have a strong causational aspect. However, Pozios’ article makes a valid point, in order to prevent various diseases such as AIDs, heart disease, etc. one has to avoid factors correlated with negative outcomes and therefore the same should go for violence in regard to significant expose to media violence.

With prolonged exposure to violence, an individual desensitizes to the vivid violence on the game/television and therefore to real life events as well. Some may argue that there are other factors that may have led to aggressive outcomes as well, such as social upbringing, mental health problems, poor parenting, parental education, etc. These factors have been accounted for and therefore researchers controlled the qualities that relate to aggression in order to avoid alternative possibilities/explanations. Society should support a caring community in which a helping hand is always offered and should frown upon acts of aggression/violence. 

Sources

Hurst, Nathan. "Criticism of Violent Video Games Has Decreased as Technology Has Improved, Gamers Age." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 2 Apr. 2014. Web. 25 Apr. 2014.

Pozios, Vasilis K., Praveen R. Kambam, and H. Eric Bender. "Does Media Violence Lead to the Real Thing?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 24 Aug. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.