Media In Media

“There is increasing evidence that early exposure to media violence is a contributing factor to the development of aggression” (Huesmann, Moise-Titus, Podolski, & Eron, 2003). Huesmann and Kirwil (2007, p. 545), argue that an individual’s aggression and violent behaviour are not only caused by emotional, mental and physical circumstances but also the environment plays an equally vital role. They further on state that hastening violent behaviour in the short-term sense is due to disclosure to violence, which can be either through media, computer games and violence that they observe at home, school and their social environment. This paper intends to comprehend media violence and its effects on humanity by understanding the issues that

The main argument of this article is that video games have a direct link to short term and long term aggression. The author presents this argument by providing studies from peer reviewed articles that all conclude that video games do cause an increase of aggression. The main point of this article is to answer the question, “Do violent video games lead to aggression.” The article is about the effects of violent video games leading to aggression. The author uses recent examples, like the Sandy Hook and Washington Navy Yard shooting. In both of these examples, the author cites that both shooters had a history with playing violent video games. The author uses a study which selected individuals to play violent video games for a certain period of time. The study would then compare the results to a group who played non-violent video games. The study concluded that violent video games cause a direct link in aggression due to humans reenacting the actions the characters within the video games perform.

“Approximately 90 percent of kids in the U.S. play video games, and more than 90 percent of those games involve mature content that includes violence.”-(Time Health). The link between violent media and aggression in video games has also created a spawn of research studies that has gone back and forth on the issue of whether

The concept that the media and violent video games have an effect on aggression and violent behaviour in youth is one that I have heard speculations about in other classes and ultimately agree with. In the article by David Grossman, titled Trained To Kill, he presents the idea that while it is against human nature to kill one’s own kind violence in the media has led to an increase in criminal acts committed by youths (Grossman, 2000). Overall, I agree with his argument because the common theme of violence in media leads to desensitization, and creates a conditioned response to violent situations. However, since the 1980’s we have seen a decrease in homicides in Canada, which contradicts Grossman’s theory.

In Brad Bushman’s and Rowell Huesmann’s Article Short-term and Long-term Effects of Violent Media on Aggression in Children and Adults from the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine journal, they believe the violent media in video games, tv shows, music, and movies, are affecting behavior in children and adults. Bushman and Huesmann believe that all the violence that has made a more popular appearance in today’s culture is causing for adults and children to be more prone to aggression. They hypothesized that the long-term effects would be greater in children and the short-term effects would be greater in adults, and discovered their hypotheses to be correct. Other articles, such as Beth Stein’s If Violent Video Games are Harmless Fun,

Arguments concerning social media’s affect on children often being with television. Experts on the other side of the argument claim that television leaves a negative effect on children that leads to obesity and violent behaviors. Manfred Spitzer writes “After 6 months, children in the intervention school had a lower BMI and behaved less violently during break times…” (pg. 1388). Not only are the effects written by Spitzer possible but experts also argue that children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others. Children may be more fearful of the world around them and they may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways towards others. The violence exposed to children through media doesn’t cease to exist with only television. Video games are often blamed for violence crimes in children and youth as well. Craig A. Anderson, a psychologist along with others concluded in a 2010 review of video game violence showed that “evidence strongly suggest that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect and for decreased empathy and prosocial behavior.”

In their research of violent videogames and the effect on children, they have found that “the simplistic belief that exposure to media violence will lead directly to individual violence is clearly wrong.” (Kutner, Olsen, 2008) I am going to ask you to look deeper than this. I assert that although violent video games are thought to encourage real world violence, they actually help to prevent it.

There are indicators that links playing violent video games to increasing aggression in young people. Teenagers who are expose to violent games are more supposable to increase the likelihood of experiencing aggressive thoughts, in which turns into the likelihood of engaging in physical aggression against another person. Furthermore, violent video games produce an emotional desensitization to aggression and violence to the youth (Anderson). Based on the observation teenagers are exposed to when they are playing violent video games, they will reenact almost immediately in real life if the situational contact is sufficiently similar to the ones in the games. Therefore, consumption of violent video games produces negative behaviors that are controlled by negative

But how do hours of violent television and video gaming result in aggressive and violent behavior? According to the American Psychological Association, children can become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others. The APA states, “Exposure to media can desensitize people to violence in the real world and that, for some people, watching violence in the media becomes enjoyable and does not result in the anxious arousal that would be expected from seeing such imagery.” This is because

Violent behavior is something that is innate to the human brain. It has been an instinct of humans since the beginning of our creation or our evolution from a primal state in order to primarily survive and maintain our supremacy atop the hierarchy of all living organisms. We are naturally violent creatures, and this natural tendency for us to exhibit violent behavior isn’t helped by the extreme lack of shelter from and glorification of violent actions through mainstream or alternative news outlets as well as depictions of such actions through other forms of media such as: movies, entertainment television, cartoons, and video games. According to the professing of multiple studies the violence in today’s massive multimedia culture is to be blamed for much of the violence of which we witness on a daily basis within our country. The professing of these studies is reflective of the drastic increase in societal violence in the United States during 1965. A year that marked the first time a generation raised on television would come of the average age of committing violent crimes. (Bushman, 2001, Media Violence and the American Public, pg. 478) These copious amounts of violence that are depicted in our cultures mass media outlets have negative effects on both adults and children. While we exercise our naturally violent minds through seeing and hearing such acts of violence on a daily basis, not only do we

The researchers found that boys and girls who played a lot of violent video games changed over the school year. Media violence is not likely to convert the children into a violent criminal. But, someday by just smoking a cigarette can increase the likelihood of a lung cancer. Likewise, a violent show can increase the likelihood of behaving in an aggressive way. Psychologists Brad Bushman and L. Rowell Huesmann1(p248)

In present day society, the realm of intense and violent video games along with their media counterparts is ever changing, and this transformation is leading to the most expressive and realistic viciousness a child can be exposed to without actually harming another human being. Furthermore, due to this tremendous level of ‘realisticness,’ the inquiry of whether or not the violence portrayed in these video games and television shows leads to an amplified level of aggression and other types of violent behavior in their participants and viewers has become a forerunner among both psychological and parenting authorities. The purpose of this paper is to give an honest assessment of the various studies performed on this topic, as well as to

The media, especially in today’s modern society surrounds us all the time. It affects our daily lives and has become part of our everyday routines, which is why it has such a huge impact on us, and violent media is everywhere. It is known that by the time we get to our eighteenth birthday, we will have seen and witnessed about 200,000 violent acts and about 16,000 murders (Media Education Foundation, 2005). There have been ongoing controversial debates as to whether violent media exposure contributes to violent and aggressive behaviours and whether one is caused by the other. Violence includes, but is not limited to things such as murder, assault, homicide, shootings, property offence, rape and assault. The mainstream and popular notion has been that violent video games make people more aggressive and desensitized to

Media, a source that we use to obtain our information. Media representation can either be good, bringing movements such as BLM to light, or it can be bad, giving hate groups the attention they want. In the end, all media has the same goal. And that is to distribute information with a bias. This goes for media representation in natural disasters as well. Often times, there are many aspects that are at play during a disaster, that are overlooked. It is up to the consumer to research what causes or consequences the specific source is hiding or highlighting about a topic, especially a disaster. The article “Cleanup From California Fires poses Environmental and Health Risks” by Kirk Johnson does just that. Without

As evidence has shown, children view many violent scenes while watching television, movies, or playing video games, but the question still remains: What psychological effect does violence in the media have on children? Research over the past 10 years has consistently shown that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between media violence and real-life aggression (Strasburger 129). Violence in the media can lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch the various programs. Of course, not all children who watch television, or movies, or play video games develop aggressive behavior. However, there is a strong correlation between media violence and aggressive behavior. A study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, examined how children's television viewing practices are related to aggressive behaviors. The results revealed that children who reported watching greater amounts of television per day had higher levels of violent behavior than children who reported lesser amounts of television viewing (Singer 1041). Witnessing violence is an important determining factor in violent behavior. The media serves as a means for children to witness violence. According to Bandura's Social Learning Theory, children imitate behavior that they see on television, especially if the person performing the behavior is attractive or if the