Media Violence Effects
Overview
Perhaps one of the most controversial media effects topics over the last decade is the exposure to violence in media leading to aggressive behaviors. Researchers believe this topic is so commonly disputed because the outcome most associated with media violence are the traumatic occurrences and can cause deep concern and fear according to Jessica Piotrowski and Karin Fikker’s academic journal on media violence and aggression. The complication with the connection of media violence leading to aggressive behaviors is that it is not as simple as drawing a straight line between the two. The high correlation between the two does not take in to account for other possible preexisting mediated and moderated factors that could have served towards the cause of the observed aggression. The first studies done on observing behaviors and media violence dates all the way back to 1929. The Payne Fund Studies, which lasted from 1929–1932, are to be known as the first introduction to the studies of the possibilities of what exposure to media violence can do to ones behavior. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that this research gained some awareness of the public, which was due to the horrible assassinations of major public figures during the time, which sparked fear throughout the nation. With the conflict in mind, numerous congressional hearings were implemented to better understand the degree of impact that media violence has on individuals behaviors. Thus leading to the formation of several government commissions and scientific review committees dedicated to the research of public policy issues associated with media violence (Murray, 2007). Other theories thought to be connected to media violence and aggression are social learning theory and cultivation theory, basically stating that we as humans learn from experiences and develop new perceptions and may consider replicating the actions we see.
Media Violence and Video Games
In recent years, violent video games have come under attack for forming aggressive behaviors. With today's most popular games being Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty and many other first person shooting games, it can be seen why people think these type of games can have an impact on behavior trends. The most common distress in the public right now between the media effects of violent video games is the fear of people playing these games will become suspects of mass shooting incidents. With the traumatic instances of mass shootings in recent years, people are searching for answers for what causes these deranged individuals to act on on which they did. The most recent instance of what one of the highest powers in the nation, the supreme court, had to say on the topic was in 2011 when California tried to ban the sale of violent video games. The late Justice Antonin Scalia dismissed a link between the games and aggression in the majority opinion. “These studies have been rejected by every court to consider them, and with good reason: They do not prove that violent video games cause minors to act aggressively,” he wrote. Which is the same dilemma of which was noted throughout the brief history of media effects. We know from past studies and experiments that show the exposure of certain medias can cause individuals to imitate acts they see in the media but what there underlining factors we are not seeing that cause these individuals to go out and act on these extreme instances? A couple possibilities that were proposed as underlining factors for the violent behaviors are the environment to which the individual grew up in and prior mental illnesses. Studies show that people that are brought up in abusive house holds are more likely to commit acts of violence, as well as for mental illnesses individuals can be more easily influenced to commit extreme acts. These are just a couple of the plentiful factors that could be brought up to contradict the direct correlation between exposure to violent video games and aggressive behaviors. As much as we would like it to be that plain cut and simple that violent media exposure causes aggressive behavior we must look much deeper into the psyche and background of he individuals that committed these acts of violence and what led up to those events. I feel as though this is the only way we can make any progress in this field and find the other factors that could contribute to the behaviors of those that committed the extreme acts. Then we can connect the dots to see what preconditions and underling factors have the most validity along with what they have in common with each other to help us better understand the complexity that is really in affect here.
References
- Murray JP. Media Violence: The Effects Are Both Real and Strong. American Behavioral Scientist. 2008;51(8):1212–1230. doi:10.1177/0002764207312018
- Piotrowski, Jessica & Fikkers, Karin. (2019). Media Violence and Aggression. 10.4324/9780429491146–14.
- https://missouri.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=6843d6b7-6899-4647-87de-ac4b0152c41a
