Violence Through Media-Silent Killer

Violence Through Media-Silent Killer

            Within our community, waking up to devastating news about gun violence has become a norm. Today, it is nearly impossible to not be exposed to violence shown through media. Media violence is presented in various ways through movies, shows, and even ads on your phone while you are playing another game. Recently, there have been many cases in which police officers have found the one’s causing violence to be interested in violent video games and violent media, therefore correlating violent video games with their actions. While it makes to correlate violent media to the actions of individuals, “the short answer is there is virtually no research on whether or not video games cause violent acts like school shootings” (Ducharme).

In the Time article, “Trump Blames Video Games for School Shooting. Here’s What Science Says”, Jamie Ducharme explains that after the Sandy Hook shooting, President Donald Trump met with members of Congress “to discuss violent video-game exposure and the correlation to aggression and desensitization in children” (Ducharme). Jamie Ducharme mentions individuals would have a sense of relief if they were able to find out the cause of school shootings, but there are many factors such as the environment they were brought up in, their individual beliefs, and what the society has taught them. Within Ducharme’s article, Brad Bushman researched the correlation between screen violence and aggressive behavior. Bushman raises a question in which he asks “if [an] [individual] wanted to fly an airplane [,] what would be the best thing to do: read a book about it, watch a TV program…, or play a flight simulator video game” (Ducharme)? In video games, you are learning how to precisely kill others, but on top of that, majority of the times, players are rewarded “through points, game advancement, or verbal affirmation” (Ducharme).

In the article, "Cool, callous and in control: superior inhibitory control in frequent players of video games with violent content", written by Laura Stockdale and her fellow colleagues, discuss how media violence influenced aggressive behavior and a decrease in empathy in frequent and non-frequent players. University students “were classified as frequent players of games of graphically violent video games if they played 30 or more hours of video games per week” (Stockdale 1872) and they were considered infrequent players “if they played no more than 5 hours per week” (Stockdale 1872). The participants were given a questionnaire measuring their empathy. Through their research, their results showed "frequent players had reduced N200/P300 amplitude during inhibition, indicating less neural resources were recruited to inhibit behavior" (Stockdale 1). Through their results, individuals significantly exposed to violent media are usually less empathetic than those who are not exposed to violent media as much. The evidence displayed through Stockdale's research supports Ducharme's views "that playing violent video games can cause an increase in aggressive thoughts and actions, a decrease in empathy and desensitization to violence" (Ducharme). 

In Dr. Stockdale’s lecture, she mentioned the Bobo Doll experiment. The experiment began with an adult beating an inflatable doll and there was a child watching her. After the child observed the adult, the child was taken to a room with various toys which were taken away. The only toy available was the Bobo doll. Due to the frustration and aggression that was built up, the child began beating the doll, just like the adult he had observed. Whereas in another situation, a child had observed an adult playing with the doll nicely, therefore did not beat the doll when they had a built-up aggression. Similarly, I believe learning can occur through observing and imitating someone else’s behavior. After associating oneself with a large amount of media violence, they will begin to adopt the foul languages, negative attitudes, and physical violence presented in video games, social media, and movies, therefore reducing their empathy towards others.

Citations: 

Ducharme, Jamie. "Donald Trump Blames Video Games for School Shootings." Time, Time, 

12 March 2018. time.com/5191182/trump-video-games-violence/.

Stockdale, Laura, et al. "Cool, Callous and in Control: Superior Inhibitory Control in Frequent
Players of Video Games with Violent Content." Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience,
vol 12, no. 12, April 2017, pp 1869-1880. 

Stockdale, Laura, et al. "Emotionally Anesthetized Media Violence Induces Neural Changes
during Emotional Face Processing." Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, vol 10, no.
10, September 2015, pp 1-10.