Villain Or Scapegoat

In the end, media violence, like all important things in life, has a middle ground. Neither side is completely right, nor is either side completely wrong. It is all a matter of proper usage and  proper exposure to children. Now I won't tell parents how to do their job. It isn't my business to tell them how to raise their child. But I will say that it is important to note that every child is different. One may be mature enough to understand that the actions in a certain movie or game are not good life choices in real life, and others may be be extremely immature and unable to understand how to act in the real world. But, again there is a middle ground. Do you see where I am going? This isn't a matter of,  “it is bad.” or, “it is good.” but a matter of “how do we use this properly?” It is a lot like cars in that sense. We all know cars are good, but does the number of car crashes that happen daily make it bad? No, of course not! It is all about adapting how we use cars to prevent crashes. Tying media to shootings and abuse is also absurd. Since many sane people intake tons of media daily. And most all of those people aren't murderers. Probably a ratio of about 1000 murderers, to 7 billion okay-ish people. Bottom line, media violence and real world violence are to separate things. Should we let kids watch certain things? Probably not. But that is up to the parent, not the government to make laws against it. Media violence almost always comes down to the parents. Maybe perhaps

Columbine High School massacre. Virginia Tech shootings. Sandy Hook Elementary School slaughter. Umpqua Community College rampage. When someone hears any of these phrases, violent images come to mind. Since the first of these incidents, some questions have been, “Why did this happen? What caused these ‘kids’ to become violent?” One predominant thought has been that violence in media experienced as children, such as video games, could be the reason. Violence in media is common and accepted today. Escalation of violence has increased significantly in movies, video games, and even music videos for years now. This violent trend in media is becoming more and more popular with children, youth, and adults. For instance, the only violence articulated

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.

Many parents go through the same cycle in regards to dealing with their children. Kids come home from a long day of school and want a distraction from all the knowledge they consumed that day. However, a parent does not always have the time or even the ability to entertain their kids, so while they remain in the kitchen finishing preparing dinner, their children sit on the couch and engage in video games. Obviously, each parent wants what is best for their child and worries about the effect of all these violent video games corrupt with shooting, punching, blood, gore, and of course, death. Which is exactly what leads them to this question. Researchers at Ohio State University asked parents, media researchers, pediatricians, and psychologists of their opinion on this matter and here is what they observed: 66

Violent TV Media may indeed be to blame for short blasts of aggression, but is there a correlation between media and violence? In the wake of the Newtown shooting, where 20 children and 6 school employees were tragically gunned down by Adam Lanza (after killing his own mother), speculation was justified when researchers found out that Lanza had a fascination with Call of Duty, a violent war game in which he had “notched up 83,000 online kills including 22,000 head shots.” However, determining whether Call of Duty can be directly blamed for the slaughter is a more complex argument. Most agree that extremely violent crimes such as mass shootings take several triggers and are not instigated by one aspect of life, even if that aspect is an imaginary place where the gamer kills thousands of people. (Bushman, B. J., Gollwitzer, M., & Cruz, C., 2015) The fact is, the vast majority people who play these video games are not planning on hurting

In the modern world which we live in it is easy for the human psyche to place blame on media for the violence which it portrays. The constant onslaught of information being forced down our throats leaves us shaken and weary. Society has been lead to believe that life as we know it is teetering on the edge of chaos and destruction on a daily basis. Although fundamentally this is true in the grand scheme of the cosmos. Our lives will meander on, even if they may not be as action packed or intertwined in the depths of passion as we so wish for.

         My research led me to form some new hypotheses on the correlation of violence in the media, namely television, movies, and video games, to the rise in violent behavior in adolescents. For this essay, I will focus on male adolescents. I will use multiple lenses for my research to (1) establish the increase in violent acts by adolescents in the past two decades; (2) use proven research to show the impact of media violence on the individual; and (3) to illustrate my "recipe for disaster," four correlations that contribute to the effects of media violence on male adolescents.

Human beings are completely desensitized to violence due to the excessive amount of violence portrayed in the media. It is common to see murders, suicides and satanic rituals especially in today’s horror films. I’m guilty of finding most of these movies entertaining and I am not desensitized to any amount of violence I view. The media does not accurately portray images of the reality of crime-and-justice through the different forms of media and this is labeled as ‘’backwards law’’ of media, crime, and justice. (Surette, 2015.) The media also decides what factors in someone’s life they can enhance, and which they can downplay. For example, in the news, while talking about underage criminals, they will focus on the violence that they have participated,

Violence in the media tends to be compelling to people across America. The average American has seen 200,000 acts of violence, including 40,000 murders, on television by age eighteen. Often, the media plays a pivotal role in the way violence is portrayed to citizens. The media can decide which pieces of information to include or expunge from a broadcast. People soak up the incidents that are happening in other neighborhoods across the United States because it does not affect them personally. Violence shown on television can often be manipulated to fit one side of the story, and is tolerated by the public because emotional detachment is simpler when the violence occurs halfway across America from one’s home.

Many will make the counter argument that it is the rise of media that has inevitably led to this increase in violent behavior throughout society. Such an argument completely ignores the fact that there has been violence in the media from its inception. After all this time it stands to reason that there would be a much larger amount of violent and aggressive individuals in the world than currently exist. This is most likely explained by the fact that studies have show that over the long term

Everyone sat, with eyes wide open, staring at the tv, wondering what 's going on. Everyone calling everyone asking if they are ok and what 's going on. No one knew but tv broadcasts said that a deadly virus has broke out in Washington. The broadcast explains that the virus is turning people to zombies and then the zombies have been infecting people by eating them. Suddenly a fence is ripped apart by zombies behind the broadcast, the zombies start heading towards the broadcast people. The women speaking says, “may God be with us all” and then the broadcast abruptly cancels. We all know what has happened and that we need to prepare ourselves.

Everyone sat, with eyes wide open, staring at the tv, wondering what 's going on. Everyone calling everyone asking if they are ok and what 's going on. No one knew, but tv broadcasts said that a deadly virus has broken out in Washington. The broadcast explains that the virus is turning people into zombies and then the zombies have been infecting people by eating them. Suddenly a fence is ripped apart by zombies behind the broadcast, the zombies start heading towards the broadcast people. The women speaking says, “may God be with us all” and then the broadcast abruptly cancels. We all know what has happened and that we need to prepare ourselves.

In our modern society, with technology around every corner, it is hard for the public not to have concerns about what is being broadcast to the world. Not only do people fear their children, or family viewing something that is inappropriate, there is a fear that this widely available content may fall into the wrong hands and be used in a completely different way from which it was intended. With so many media outlets present in everyday life, it is not hard to imagine there being many concerns regarding violence in the media.

Media violence exposure has been investigated as a risk factor for aggression behavior for years. The impact of exposure to violence in the media the long term development and short term development of aggressive behavior has been documented. Aggression is caused by several factors, of which media violence is one. Research investigating the effects of media violence in conjunction with other predictors of aggression such as; environmental factors and dysfunction within the family household, is needed in order to better understand its contribution to aggressive behavior. Furthermore, the debate of whether or not how media violence leads to aggression has received renewed attention following tragic events; Sandy Hook, Umpqua Community College in Kosenburg, Oregon, 2012 Aurora shooting, traumatic news coverage, a 8 year old boy intentionally shot and killed elderly caregiver and countless other events; all of these casualties were caused by media violence.

In the book Critique of Violence ,author Walter describes Violence as "The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, male development, or deprivation .The violence that is portrayed in the media has been debated for decades ,and it has rose a question about how does it influence the youth?. From movies to video games society has been accustom to seeing violence in their everyday entertainment. Since children are easy to be influence by their environment, it is safe to say that violence in the media can and will contribute to violent behavior.