Arguments Against Theories of Media Violence Influence

Created by A. Moon

As I have struggled to find good sources that properly define arguments against the idea that media violence, I have compiled them all for one post. My searches of the internet suggest that this is the minority view, at least in regards to opinions easily available on the internet. Most sources I find advocate the idea that media violence can be influential in acts of aggression on a broad scale, as well as influential in acts of actual violence committed by a very small demographic.  Few sources clearly outline arguments against this, but I have managed to find a few that give some good examples of some reasons against these theories, or even in favor of media violence.

In an article I found on the website media-awareness.ca, they list several interesting points briefly summarized here. Reading the full article will offer a better understanding of each point.

·        Media violence is an artistic expression and a form of free speech that is being unfairly threatened with censorship, and that censoring will do nothing cure society’s ills.

·        People can benefit from relieving their darker urges through entertainment violence.

·        Scary things can be used to teach children life lessons, and violence can even have a good moral impact.

·        Media violence is a distraction that keeps the real causes of society’s problems from being properly addressed (Media Violence Debates).

An academic paper published by Psychiatryonline.org offers a more research-based view against theories of media violence influence.  Written by Cheryl K. Olson, one of the first points made is that common factors between school shooters is usually “Along with a male gender…a history of suicide attempts or suicidal thoughts, often with a documented history of extreme depressed feelings” (Olson).

Also, the author points out that violence in schools has not actually increased, but rather our awareness of the violence through national media has increased (Olson).

One of the most direct quotes made regarding this topic, however, gives details of a Secret Service review. “…one in eight perpetrators showed some interest in violent video games, one-forth in violent movies, and one-fourth in violent books, but there was no obvious pattern…thirty-seven percent expressed violent thought and imagery through poems, essays, and journal entries” (Olson).

Olson ended by suggesting that proving strong links to murder and violent media would be too difficult as one is common while the other is uncommon and rare (Olson).

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The point made by Olson is one of the most compelling…nothing can really be proven. I can give people examples of one vicious act of murder after another, but in the end they are only a handful of the people who actually watch violent movies and play violent video games. This makes it hard to prove a connection with absolute certainty.

The day will probably never come when either side can turn their opinions into absolute fact. In light of this, anyone choosing to form an opinion in either direction must choose to do so based on what information is available to them, and what the potential impact of their choice may be. If you are a parent, would you rather err on the side of caution, or allow your children the ability to make choices for themselves?

Of course, every choice you make whether or not you have children can also have an effect. If you choose to pay to see a slasher film, that increases the chance that more and more violent films will be made in the future. What lives will those movies affect? You may never know, but by considering  these things, you will become a much more responsible consumer of media.

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I am ending with this video, a production by some students at the University of Illinois. They surveyed other students on video game violence and their effects with differing results covering both sides of the debate. Enjoy!

Posted on YouTube by Sashtonwam

"Murder Simulator Game"

Apparently there is an infamous violent video game out there I have not heard of to date. I personally enjoy video games enough that I have a general idea of what is out there, even if I don’t play the variety of graphically violent video games that seem to be popular these days amongst teenage boys.

Information obtained from Amazon.com:

The name of the game: Manhunt

Release date: April 20, 2004

Average customer review ratings on Amazon.com: 4.4 out of 5 stars

The cover of the game, despite being blurred out slightly, is rather graphic and disturbing. The image appears to be eyes staring through a hockey mask and covered in blood. According to Amazon statistics, this title is sometimes purchased in combination with a title called “The Suffering.” I don’t know about anyone else, but it gives me a rather sick feeling to know there are people out there that enjoy mindless, graphic violence so much that they would purchase either one of these titles, much less both! And the fact that is has such good ratings from 42 people is troubling as well.

Picture by Ricce
From Wikimedia Commons

Picture by The Anome
From Wikimedia Commons

According to a CNN.com article, “Manhunt…is described by its promoters as a ‘sado-masochistic’ game in which players gain extra points depending on the viciousness of their killings.” This same article goes on to talk about the case of Warren LeBlanc, a British boy who was accused of sneaking up behind a younger friend, Stephan Pakeerah, and using a claw hammer and knife to beat and stab the boy to death.

Stefan’s father is quoted in the article making the comparison between the game and the murder, saying the game’s theme was killing people with hammers and knives. Whether or not you believe media can influence violence, the similarities between the murder committed by this teenager and the game he was reportedly obsessed with is enough to make you uneasy. After all, games just as violent as Manhunt are overwhelmingly popular among teenage males. It may not cause most to act out this violently, but all it takes is for that one wrong person to play a game like this for a life to be lost. And even the ones who do not go out and murder have often been proven to be more aggressive after exposure.

Here is an additional resource for anyone interested. A very informative report by Joseph Strayhorn, M.D. on media violence I found very easy and enjoyable to read. It breaks down results of studies into effects violent video games are likely to have on children and teenagers. It touches on things such as rewarded and heroic violence, and what this can teach. I highly recommend!

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Next post I will devote entirely to the other side of the argument. Is media violence a form of artistic expression?

The Murder Matrix: Influences of Movie Violence on Teens and the Mentally Ill

While researching stories of violence with some connection to movies, I came upon an article on ABCnews.go.com by Eric Choy and Susie L. Morris about some male youths who were plotting an extreme act of violence, but were caught before they could act on their plans. According to the article, the plan was to “kill three of their peers, then embark on a random shooting spree…when the teens were apprehended…they were in possession of guns, swords, and 2,000 rounds of ammunition, police said” (Choy, Morris). As they never had a chance to act out their plans, people may question if they were serious. Personally, teenagers in possession of guns and 2,000 rounds of ammo sounds deadly serious and I am very thankful they were caught.



Author Greg O'Bierne
Photo from Wikimedia Commons



I found this article interesting because it mentions the movie “The Matrix” as an obsession of one of the boys and a possible factor in their violent plans. In other articles, such as this one on Trutv.com by Katherine Ramsland, and this Boston.com article by Mark Schone, the Matrix is said to be one of the most often cited movies in defenses by people who commit violent crimes. The list of “Matrix” defendants includes:

• Josh Cooke, a 19-year-old who murder his adoptive parents.

• D.C. Sniper Lee Boyd Malvo.

• Tonda Lynn Ansley, a 36-year-old bartender who shot her landlady three times.

• Vadim Mieseges, a 27-year-old who killed and dismembered his landlady.

The common thread of these crimes is that they all declared a sense of ‘unreality’ such as in the Matrix where the world was just an evil illusion created by a computer. Combine this suggestion that the world is nothing but a dream with pre-existing mental illness, and you have a deadly cocktail where people are evil illusions in which there is no harm, or perhaps even justice served, in killing them. Had the movie not had the chance to make such a suggestion to already fragile minds, would they have murdered? We will probably never know the answer to this, but again as in past post, it is a possibly worth serious consideration.

The article by Choy and Morris also makes another interesting point: mental illness does not necessarily have to play a factor, especially with teenagers. In the case of the boys who were caught before they could commit any deadly crimes -  

“Dr. Thomas Van Hoose, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas' Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas [states] exposure to violence in the media often desensitizes viewers to the effects of real violence. ‘Couple [it] with the immaturity of teenagers, their self-centeredness, and their often unrealistic views of death and you can get a deadly combination of motives and actions that can lead to tragedy’” (Choy, Morris).

I really liked that quote because as soon as I saw it, as I felt it was a very accurate portrayal of why teenagers are particularly susceptible to suggestions of violence. It was a list of weaknesses of the teenage condition.

I hope you will take the time to read each of the articles cited in this post, especially if you have young children and teenagers. They combine to create a sobering picture of factors that can work in conjunction with media violence for bad outcomes.

Can playing violent video games increase the chances that someone will commit violence?

While there is no concrete evidence to support this theory, there is certainly enough circumstantial evidence to make it a hard theory to write off. Take the example of Daniel Petric, for instance. Petric spent as much as 18 hours playing the Halo videogame series, according to an article on cleancutmedia.com as well as articles from several other news websites. When his parents protested the amount of time he was dedicating to the violent video game and took his newly purchased Halo 3 game away, the teenager responded by shooting both parents a few weeks later, killing his mother and seriously wounding his father.

So how much effect could playing violent video games have had on Petric's actions?

In normal, everyday life without modern media, the likelihood of extreme violence being witnessed by any one person is significantly less. Personally, I have never even witnessed one person hitting another with intent to harm in real life, much less any significant violence. All the physical violence I have ever been exposed to has been through some form of media. And for someone such as myself who goes out of her way to avoid most violent media, I certainly feel like I have seen a plethora of violent acts too numerous to count in movies, on television, in video games, and on the internet. So what of the child or adult who goes out of the way to watch violent action films, bloody slasher movies, or like Petric, play violent video games?



Composite picture by SharkD. Original photos by
David Vignoni and Mysid.
Picture from Wikimedia Commons

 In this fascinating article from the Canadian Media Awareness Network website by Jonathan L. Freedman, both long-term and short-term research regarding the effects of media violence from the past several decades are compiled and summarized. While the article is careful to note the arguments against the theories of media effects on violence and known issues and limitations with the studies that were addressed, the overall conclusion of the studies noted seems to be that there is a viable relationship between media violence and aggressive behavior.

In relation to Petric's story of violence, this article indicates that his interactions with the Halo games could have had any of several different effects. For example:

 

• He could have been desensitized by the constant exposure to violence into feeling that violence is 'not real.' 
• Could have caused him to have less sympathy for victims of violence.
• Could have made him believe or feel that violence is a normal, everyday part of life.  
• Could have increased his level of aggression.

While we may never know for sure how significant a role these possibilities played in this act of violence, I believe every parent should regard these connections as serious possibilities and regulate how much violence their children are exposed to.

Video: Judge from Petric trial speaking on the effects of video games on the brain.

Video  posted on Youtube by The Chronicle - Telegram, a newspaper in Elyria, Ohio

Possible Link Between Two Murders and a Popular Television Show



Author Everaldo Coelho
Picture from Wikimedia Commons 



Everyone has heard the accusations time and time again that violent media is suspected of playing a role in recent acts of violence, particularly among teenagers and children. One may wonder how something as seemingly harmless and fun as watching television could possibly be a player in such horrors? According the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, while television violence is not the sole factor affecting violent behavior, they still feel it plays a large role. Please see Children and TV violence for more information.

While the world may never know with any certainly how true these associations are, there are strong indicators to be found in recent murder investigations.

Seventeen-year-old Anthony Conley’s case gives credence to the view that media violence can be a strong, negative influence. In late 2009, Conley turned himself in to police for the murder of his ten-year-old brother Conner. The method of murder was strangulation. An article about the killing on the ABC news website written by Emily Friedman states -

“Negangard said that when Conley was asked to explain his behavior by investigators the teen said he identified with Dexter Morgan, the main character in Showtime's "Dexter," which chronicles the life of an undercover Miami blood spatter expert who doubles as a serial killer.”

The article later goes on to talk about how Conley likened his need to kill to a craving for a hamburger – a very chilling analogy that speaks volumes of the boy’s state of mind.

Also mentioned in the article about Conley is a Canadian man, Mark Twitchell (you can read this story by Josh Gaynor on the ABC news website here), also accused of imitating the show “Dexter” when he murdered John Brian Altinger, a complete stranger he met on an internet dating site while posing as a woman.

These incidents and their connections to a popular television show raise the uneasy question: As violence on television becomes more acceptable and widespread by mass media as well as the general viewing public, are we setting ourselves up for many more incidents such as these in the future? Unfortunately, this is not an easy question to answer, and while many firmly believe that the answer is yes, there are those that firmly deny that violence in media plays any significant role in most, if any, violence. In a blog entry by Rhonda Callow, the theory that children who commit murder or other acts of violence are mentally ill and at worst, violent games and television just triggered what was already there. This point is argued against in an article published on sciencedaily.com, citing research done by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. The study found that factors other than mental illness were often better indicators of future violence.

The theory of media violence and exposure is a convoluted and hard to follow one at best, but I feel strongly that evidence points towards exposure to violence being a key factor in many violent acts. Not to say it plays a role in every single act of violence, of course, as people have been violent throughout history. However, there are so many strong links between certain recent acts of violence and media exposure that one should put some serious thought into whether the incidents in questions would have ever happened if not for the media violence exposure. In future posts, I shall examine several of these incidents as well as general arguments for and against this theory.