Is violence in the media influene violence in society?

Question

It seems as violent programming becomes more commonplace, so does fighting, killing, etc. in city areas. Whats your take?

Answer 1

There definitely seems to be some correlation between media portrayals of violence and the kinds of violence that occur. These fall into four groups:

Mode copycats intended to commit a crime anyway. They are usually, in fact, career criminals. The influence media has is to change how they commit their crime. They read a story about how a successful crime was pulled off, so they decide to try the same thing themselves.

Terrorists are generally people who want publicity. Thus it is only reasonable for them to try and get it by duplicating what has already created publicity. They are naturally drawn to repeat the things which draw the most attention from the media therefore.

There are a few people who lack the mental faculties to be able to handle media portrayals of violence. These people would act out in ways similar to what they see, in some cases because they cannot distinguish reality from fantasy, or lack a sense of what is appropriate.

And finally group copycats engage in violence because they belong to a group to which violence is attributed. If the media hammers on the idea that bullied, underperforming, loner teenagers who listen to nihilistic music are prone to go on school shootings, then that can shape the behaviour of people who fall in that group. Sometimes people identify with the villain or antihero more than heroes.

Take, for example, the movie "Natural Born Killers". The message of the movie was very anti-violent, but its portrayal was incredibly violent. It's been linked to many violent incidents. Publicity about school shootings likewise seems to drastically increase the number of such crimes. A 1992 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association found a causitive relationship between the appearance of televisions in the 1950's and the doubling of the homicide rate in America.

Which is not to say that media is the only party involved. The anniversary of Columbine correlates strongly with school shootings too (and I doubt that most of us even know what day that is, even with all the publicity). 48% of high school sophomores reported that they were afraid of violence in their own neighborhoods and 13% had attended a social event where shots were fired. These kind of indicators of violence are FAR more strong than those from the media.

Likewise, we also know that many, many people watch violence incessantly and aren't even vaguely more prone to engage in violence themselves. This seems to suggest, perhaps, that all the tendancies for violent behaviour were already there in these perpetrators, and the media coverage just 'set them off' at best.

That leaves us with a choice: Try to detect eliminate these original causes which make the small minority prone to violence, or try to eliminate every possible trigger from society.

Answer 2

I think that what may influence violence in society as far as the media goes is that it seems like there's not much good being reported. I think that it can make us feel hopeful or hopeless because they are supposed to be reporting facts. If all we see are negative facts, then it can make a person feel pretty hopeless about our world.
I, personally do not watch the news as much these days for these reasons. I don't want to give up hope. I don't depend on the media to report what's best for us. It really would be nice to have a balance of good & bad facts reported to us. Not just the bad all the time. Unfortunately, their reasoning for this is that this is what sells, so I guess I am one of the few that wants to hear good news.

Answer 3

Give me a break! Violence is strictly the cause of the &%$@# that performs it. I grew up on Tom & Jerry, and other cartoons, (I hate to mention the Disney people. I live in Florida.) that had animals, (Yes, Wylie E. was an animal.) getting dropped from great heights, smashed, and blown up, shot with shotguns.(Remember Daffy Duck putting his bill back on after it was blown to the back of his neck?) Well, I own guns, and I saw all those TV shows. (Dragnet, a cop show, too!) I am not a violent person for watching the stuff. It takes a sick mind, not any influence from outside, to do dastardly deeds.

Answer 4

Yes, even as a kid I justified actions through something I saw in a movie, I mean movies are a transformational medium. Don't you feel like Matt Daemon after you leave Bourne Supremecy or in some way feel temporarily changed from a greate movie? Of course. Just think of superbly prortrayed gory violence, it would probably for sure be intimidated. The answer is spiritual. And there are natural and goodly replacements for every animal ("satanic") urge we could have.

Answer 5

If you want to use a similar thesis, you might could change it to violence in the media contributes to violence in society rather than causes it, which certainly can't be proven because it's not factual. Then you could use some of the case studies that show children, when exposed to violence, tend to be slightly more violent when interacting with their peers than children who aren't. You could also find studies and evidence of desensitivity to violence. Also, if you want to explore a particular form of media, you could try searching for death row inmates who have victimized children and women who admit to graduating from soft porn to violent porn and snuff films before eventually turning to sexual molestation, rape and murder to satisfy their addictions. (I've heard a number of their testimonies before, and this link usually comes up).

Answer 6

I'm sure it does.

For example, terrorism works mosly because the fear is spread through the media. Now, I'm not saying it shouldn't be mentioned in the media when the events occur. I'm just sayign that there is such an effect.

Answer 7

yes, while I was a skeptic In my younder Days, damn I hate saying that, But through research that I have seen you would be amazed at what you can convince a person of just by showing them a TV screen, why do you think most people think the government is so dark and evil, remember V for Vendetta?

http://academic.evergreen.edu/h/hiljus01/bobo.htm

research the BOBO doll

Answer 8

i agree, the media plays a huge part in violence, especially to young kids who want to mock what they see on TV