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Colby Barker Professor Brittany Stephenson English 1010 May 7 2013

Media and Its Link to Violence

In todays world, especially in America violent events keep increasing at a steady pace without a sign of slowing down. The citizens and the U.S. Government like to blame mass media for these violent situations that keep occurring. The current media that are being blamed for these events are video games and its industry, before that it was television, rock music, movies, and novels. Why are video games the current issue to blame? Its a phenomenon known as cultural lag, and its what causes us to be hesitant in adopting new technologies, trying new fads, and changing our social mores. Each time a new gadget or toy comes out and it is able to show or emulate some sort of violence it is instantly blamed for the violent events that occur in America. Such as the new Call of Duty that comes out every year that allows the player to be in the eyes of a military soldier that is allowed to shoot anything in his path. Do video games really cause a person to become unnaturally violent once they play video games? In Stop Blaming Video Games for Americas Gun Violence the author Kerstin Bezio delves into the subject of video games and its linking to violent behavior. In her research she stated that a child playing a violent video game does not necessarily increase the likelihood that he or she will engage in real violence. Millions of Teens and Children play violent video games, but you do not see them running into the street everyday up in arms ready to slaughter

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innocents because they have been hyped up on video violence like it is some sort of illegal drug that they bought for thousands of dollars, its pure entertainment for you own amusement. The video game industry has a rating system just like motion pictures do. Most violent video game have the M rating standing for mature audiences only, which is for ages seventeen and older. If Americans are so worried about kids playing violent video games so much, parents of the children need to educate themselves about the rating system that the video game industry has put out. If parents dont want their kids shooting pixilated human beings, parents should find a game that is rated for their age group.

Video Game Rating System

Does media cause a copycat mechanism in todays teenagers/young children? An article called Surrounded by Sound and Fury the author Karen Thomas found several viewpoints from people that do believe that mass media violence, does increase violence in young people back in the year 1999. After the events of the Columbine Shooting, a Littleton

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witness told a national TV audience that the killers looked like Keanu Reeves' character in THE MATRIX. Researchers claim that movies like The Matrix and The Basketball Diaries which depicts characters in trench coats wielding weapons that shot and killed other human beings are how Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (the shooters of the Columbine Shootings) got their idea to cause a massacre in their school before claiming their own lives. One researcher, De Luca states that pinning blame on the media for real-life teen violence skirts the issue and the real problems: bad home life, bad parenting, having guns in the home, parents fighting and drinking. When these violent events happen people blame what the suspect hobbies were at the current time of when the event happened. No one cares to look at their previous years if they had problems during earlier years of their lives. During the year 1999 the internet was recently a brand new thing in human activity. It was the Wild West, where the rules dont matter. Technology commentator David Schenk says the Internet doesn't encourage sick pranks, but it does act as a powerful microphone. The internet allows people to have a second identity that no one else knows about, where one can enter a chat room about a topic that you would never discuss with someone face to face in a public area. In the music industry Rocker Ted Nugent says My kids and my kids' friends know Marilyn Manson is out there saying stupid things. They know there are devil worshipers. They know people kill and rape and murder and get off with a slap on the hand. But they're not shooting anybody or sacrificing goats. At a certain age in a childs life they are able to distinguish from what is right from wrong. Young adults may only mimic violent events because their brain could have had trauma that doesnt allow them to distinguish right from wrong when they see violence on the screen they are watching. Can violence in films affect people based on their own life experiences?

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Writer Rebecca Keegan in her article For Some Viewers, What's Happening On-Screen Is Too Close for Comfort discusses violence in films and how it affects people based on their own life experiences. The author has gotten multiple emails from people where they have been sexually violated or been in a car accident and dont want to see a movie with those certain scenes in it. Most people cant tolerate with watching torture scenes when most people havent ever experienced that before. A San Francisco psychologist Elaine Aron estimates that 15% to 20% of people are "highly sensitive," Sensitive people have more active mirror neurons," Aron said, describing a type of nerve cell that neuroscientists have only recently begun to research. "These are the parts of the brain where if you see somebody kick a ball, you feel as though you're kicking the ball yourself. Then there are other parts of the brain that tell you, 'No, it's not you.' But the experience of empathy still happens, and for some people, it's very intense. When people watch a violent film, some people cant take as much violence as another person could. What happens to the person who was really affected by seeing violent scenes in a movie? Studies show that 86% of people who are affected by a certain scene in a film had fright symptoms when they were under the age of 13, but this can also occur at older ages also. These symptoms caused people unable to sleep for days, or have discomfort around normal, nonthreatening objects or beings, such as clowns or animals. Hollywood Studios knows that people are affected by violence in the films they produce and release to a public audience. They make these films because it makes them tons of money. The studios would put out a four-hour documentary about how to garden tulips if they thought they'd have a $100-mil opening weekend. In all reality its in human nature to being able to like or dislike watching violent scenes and there is nothing wrong with being scared, but if one is so traumatized from watching they should really stay away and find something else that allows them to enjoy.

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Why does the media continue to be filled with escalating amounts of violent imagery? In Media Violence: What if we Changed the Question? by Elizabeth Thoman looks at the views on how violence affects the views on behavior and how human beings see how the media interprets violence. For 40 years, American society has been engaged in a "circle of blame." Which someone else has created a problem, therefore someone else should fix that problem. Over years of watching violence, it can affect a person to where they are desensitized to violent imagery, that doesnt necessary cause the person to become a murder or thug that doesnt care about others well being. It just causes them to be unaffected by emotions and imagery when one gets hurt, which might allow some people to do crime and violence and feel no remorse in doing so because they have been so desensitized over the years. In the 21st century does all this media we are feeding into our minds really cause violence? Or is it human nature for us to eventually destroy each other from when we were first born on this planet? I have played plenty of violent video games watched tons of movies that cause bloodshed, and I have never though once to myself that I would like to go out today and kill someone because I saw it on a screen that emulated for me to do that. I really think that why most people do awful things is because they had a really bad childhood where they were abused, and couldnt determine what was right from wrong at the time, plus they probably like street smarts and proper education. All and all answers seem to still be unknown and not have enough research or still not knowing enough on human emotions. It is clear though that into todays media they cant stop blaming each one another for violent events instead of maybe all agreeing that they all could of played or not played some rolls for these violent outbreaks.

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Works Cited

Bezio, Kristin M.S. "Stop Blaming Video Games for America's Gun Violence." Christian Science Monitor. 12 Feb 2013: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Apr 2013 Thomas, Karen. "Surrounded by Sound and Fury." USA TODAY. 22 Apr 1999: 1D-2D. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 08 Apr 2013. Keegan, Rebecca. "For Some Viewers, What's Happening On-Screen Is Too Close for Comfort." Los Angeles Times. 17 Feb 2013: D.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Apr 2013. Thoman, Elizabeth. "Media Violence: What If We Changed the Question?" Center for Media Literacy. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.