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8/3/2019 Com242 Effects of Media Violence
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Effects of Media ViolenceWong Renhao
Graham Choo
Heng Hailee
Kenny YeoRoshni Rawla
Hans Yamin
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It seems to be an inevitable human reaction to search for a
cause for everything, to find something responsible (be it to
be blamed on or to be used as an excuse) for any
happenings.
Throughout the entire history of humanity, for as long as
humans have roamed this earth, violence has been a part of
our daily activities. It has been prevalent since the days media
had not even existed, and yet today the mass media is being
blamed for promoting violence.
As we walk into an era where humans have become (and are
still becoming) more and more dependent on the mass media,
it seems to have become a consensus among people that the
mass media indeed carries an inalienable impact on violencein our society today.
In this paper, we would uncover more about the relationship
between media and violence, and discover the real truth
behind it.
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The Copycat Phenomenon
Imitation of exact behaviors depicted in the
media
The Doomsday Flight (1966) Altitude bomb (5000 feet above sea level)
The Burning Bed (1984)
An estranged housewife murdering her husband
while he slept
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The Copycat Phenomenon
MTVs Jackass
The fire stunt
The World Wrestling Federation Children have died, imitating wrestling moves
on each other
As many as 1/3 of convicted male felonies
admit to copycatting crimes (Centerwall,
1992)
Lionel Tate
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The Copycat Phenomenon
Are the murder and mayhem on televisionreally to blame for the increased violence
in society?
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Statistics
The presence of violent content ontelevision
in ownership of television sets from 1/10homes having 1 (1950) to 1/10 homes NOThaving 1 (1960)
The average child spends >3 hrs each day infront of the tube (Minow, 1996)
According to the APA, the typical child willview >8,000 murders and over 100,000 actsof TV violence in the course of a lifetime
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Statistics
BUT these studies have nothing to say
about how the violence may be affecting
people Content effect
Humans react differently to media
messages
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Research Studies
The causal link between viewing violenceand behaving aggressively
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Research Studies
Albert Banduras social learning theory Emphasized the importance of rewards and
punishments 2 groups of children watched 2 different videos
Video 1: The leading characters acted aggressively andreceived rewards for his actions
Video 2: The leading characters acted aggressively andreceived punishment for his actions
The children played in the room and their actions weremonitored
2 findings: Children who saw aggressive behavior rewarded were more
likely to imitate the aggression
The effects emerged most strongly for boys (predisposition tobehave more aggressively)
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Research Studies
BUTnot every child who saw theaggression being rewarded behaved
aggressively after the video
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Research Studies
Leonard Eron and Rowell Huesmanns
long term studies
S
tudied over 800 children under the age of10, during the 1960s
Tendency for children who watched higher levels
of TV violence to have higher scores on the ratings
of aggressive behavior
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Research Studies
BUT there is no way to tell which camefirst the TVviewing or the aggressive
behavior?
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Research Studies
Leonard Eron and Rowell Huesmanns
long term studies
Longitudinal investigation (2003) that followedchildren into adulthood
Boys and girls in the upper 20% on TV viewing
were significantly higher on the measures of adult
aggression
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Research Studies
BUTnot every child who watched large
amounts ofTVviolence ended up getting
involved in crimes
Was childhood viewing a causal factor in
the later commission of crimes?
Research potentially links media violence
with real-life violence
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Research Studies
Brandon Centerwalls research
in U.S. crime statistics from 3 homicides
per 100,000 people (1945 Just before TVemerged) to 6 (1974)
Claimed that TV was the major culprit in the
rise of homicides
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Research Studies
Brandon Centerwalls research
But the homicide rate in South Africa dropped
by 7% from 1945 1974
As a result of a ban on TV
When the ban was lifted in 1974, the murder rate i
by 56% by 1983
If we adopt a conservative estimate, thenumbers still have to be taken seriously
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Research Studies
Seymour Feshbachs Catharsis
Hypothesis
Viewing TV violence could be therapeutic fora person filled with anger
Catharsis To cleanse or purge; to get rid of
Media violence was actually a +ve thing
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Research Studies
Seymour Feshbachs Catharsis Hypothesis
The detention facility for boys experiment
Nonviolent TV diet vs. violent TV diet for several weeks
The boys who had watched TV violence behaved lessaggressively
BUTwe should be slow to arrive at definitive conclusions
from any single study
Only demonstrated that people will act more violently if they
cant watch their favorite TV programs than if they can watchthem
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Research Studies
Leonard Berkowitz and associatespriming analysis
Angry people and media violence make for
volatile mix Offered the explanation of the facilitating /
priming effect of media violence Understood in terms of association
Process whereby one thing you think aboutreminds you of other thins in your mind that youassociate with the first thing
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Research Studies
Leonard Berkowitz and associates priming
analysis
3 findings:
1. Violence can prime thoughts that are related to hostility2. Media violence might prime thoughts that lead one to
believe that aggressive behavior might be warranted in
certain situations and might bring about certain benefits
3. Media violence might prime action tendencies that cause
people to be more inclined to act violently
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Desensitization
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Desensitization
making us numb to violence in real life so
that we dont react to it as we should if we
had never seen it on the screen
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Evidence
Anecdotal
Research
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Anecdotal Evidence
sequels have more violence than previous
movie
Increased violence to give viewers whohave seen the previous movie heightened
emotional charge
There is no easy way to go backwards
Ever-increasing level of violence
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Evidence from Research
Ronald Drabman and Margaret Thomas
Children watch violent/non-violent film
Asked children to watch TV monitor to observe childreninteracting in another room while researcher went toadjacent room, to report if there was any trouble
Monitor was actually playing video of children fighting
Children who watched violent video were far less likelythan other children to actually make an attempt to notify
the experimenter about the fight that they observed onthe monitor
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Funny Violence
From the concept of desensitization
Viewers experience desensitization
particularly when the violence is in acomical context
Effects of funny violence > Effects of
regular violence?
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Funny Violence
Family Guy:A Case Study
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Family Guy
9 clips from Best of compilation videos,
1 standalone clip
Played in ascending order of level of(funny) violence
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Trend ofIncreasing Violence
Best of Stewie
4 violent clips
Average Level of Violence: 3
Best of Stewie #2
8 violent clips
Average Level of Violence: 3
Best of Stewie #3
9 violent clips
Average Level of Violence: 3.78
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Games Violent Games
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Living with violent games
y Plenty of violent games in the market
y Guns, machine guns, bombs and all sorts
of weaponsy Realistic
y Technology improves, game graphics
improves as welly Close to life-like.
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Violence
Grand Theft Auto
Counter-Strike
Evil Dead
*all are rated Mature(M) blood and gore
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Banned
Because they are too violent
In 2000, Singapore banned a PC game,
Half-Life
Parents supported the act because they
see these sort of game as a bad influence.
(Marcus Yam, 2000)
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Columbine Massacre
Littleton, Colorado, 1999
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
Fans of Doom Playing violent games
= Aggressive behavior?
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Professional Opinions
Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, 2000s
Author of a book about killing
The urge to kill is unnatural Convinced that violent gaming is the
cause
AVIDS(acquired violence immune deficiencysyndrome)
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Coincidently
50 years ago, Dr. Frederic Wertham, a
psychiatrist wrote a book on harmful
effects of comics
Very much like Grossman
Perhaps in the 1950s, comics were the
most popular entertainment
Thus the only bad influence.
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Researchers: Nicola Schutte and
colleagues (1988)
Targets: Children 5-7 years old
Karateka (violent) vs. Jungle Hunt (non-violent)
Result: Kids who played Karatekashowed aggressive behavior towardsother kids. Jungle Hunt kids were moregentle at play.
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Researchers: Craig Anderson and
Catherine Ford Targets: College students
Zaxxon (high-aggression) vs. Centipede (mild-
aggression).
Result: Students were asked to check off words
that describe their feelings. Zaxxon players felthostile, Centipede players were less hostile.
Control group least hostile.
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Researchers: Karen Dill and Craig
Anderson Targets: College students
1st study Students habits of playing video games vs. aggressivedelinquent. Measurement of trait of aggression.
2nd study Wolfenstein 3D (violent game) vs. Myst (non-violentgame) Both games generate the same amount of physiologicalarousal. After that, all students play a reaction game which they didnot know it is part of the study. Winners get to blast the losers.
Result:
1st study Violent games players have been involved in more
aggressive delinquents and those who played are more aggressiveaccording to the trait of aggressive.
2nd study Students who played the Wolf 3D tend to blast theiropponents louder and louder.
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Researcher: Ron Tamborini
Some guys played violent games, observers
were placed beside them.
Result: Players were more hostile after the
game, compared to the observers.
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Researcher: John Sherry
Meta-analysis
Result: Significant effect of video game play onaggression, however, the effect found was smaller thanviolent TV on aggression.
Meta-analysis is the combination of the results of severalstudies that address a set of related research
hypotheses.In short, meta-analysis is the studies withsmall sample sizes; analyzing the results from a group of
studies can allow more accurate data analysis.
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IRL (In Real Life)
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2005s Top 10 Most Violent Games
Resident Evil 4
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
God of War
NARC
Killer 7
The Warriors
50 Cent: Bulletproof
Crime Life: Gang Wars
Condemned: Criminal Origins
True Crime: New York City
(Family Media Guide, 2005)
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Grand Theft Auto
Game-play revolves around gang warfare
Heavily influenced by gangster films
(S
carface, Miami Vice, Boyz N the Hood) Free-form sandbox play
Steal
Rob
Kill
Mass destruction
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Case 1
Shylo Kujawski caught stealing a car
History of convictions
Hardcore GTA fan (tattoo on the back)
Is he really influenced by
the game?
Recidivism mental or crime
issue?
(Gamespot, 2006)
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Case 2
William and Joshua Buckner
Shot at cars with .22 caliber rifle
They told the police who arrested them that they were bored,and decided to mimic their favorite videogame, Grand Theft
Auto
Blame Game (Other issues to consider)
Access to firearms
Massive sales around the world
Or perhaps the answer to the perennial problem of delinquentteenagers dropping bricks from motorway and railway bridges isto sue the creators of Tetris.
(The Register, 2003)
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Case 3
Devin Moore, 18
Killed 2 police-men and 1 dispatcher
Sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2005
Life is a videogame. Everybodys got to die sometime.
Again, an isolated case in the US
In the 50s, comic books were blamed for juveniledelinquency (scapegoatism)
Retailers selling games to minors.
David Walsh, child psychologist, believes that teenagebrains are wired differently.
(Fox News, 2005)
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Media Violence- MOVIES
In a crowded marketplace, where everyone is trying to be heard and where there's anamazing number of choices, the loudest, coarsest, most shocking voice does tend to be the
one that at least grabs your attention for a moment.(Seabrook, J.,2001)
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Top 10 Most Violent Movies
1) Taxi Driver
2) Blood Simple
3) Natural Born Killers
4) A Clockwork Orange5) Blood In Blood Out
6) True Romance
7) Fight Club
8) Gang Related
9) The Shield
10) Hannibal
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Did You Know?
When Hollywood Movies Producers
make a sequel to a violent movie, theypack it up with more violence than they
did the original film.
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Interesting Facts
RoboCop featured 32
bodies
RoboCop 2 featured 81!
Similarly,
Die Hard 2= 264 deaths
Rambo 3= 106 deathsTotal Recall= 74 deaths!
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Action Sells
Action Movies;
Dont require complex plots or characters
Rely on fights, killings, special effects andexplosions to hold their audiences
Theyre simple and universally understood
Short-on-dialogue, high-on-testosterone"makes their dubbing or translation relativelyinexpensive
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Desensitization
to Movie Violence
The level of violence in popular media is both hard to miss and easy
to ignore. Studies have shown excessive exposure can result in:
- Violence desensitization and lower levels of empathy toward others
- Increased levels of fear due to perceiving the world as violent
- Acceptance of violence as a way of settling conflict
- Higher tolerance and threshold of violence leading to a desire to
experience more violence in both movies and real life.
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Effects of Violence in Movies
Some violent movies may result in:
- Increased Aggression- Increased Crime
- Influence and Effect
Cognition- Create Hostile Feelings
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Movie Ratings
G- General Audiences
PG- Parental Guidance
R- Restricted
A movie is strongly
violent if it has a rating
of 8 or above (Hannibal),
and mildly violent if it has
a rating of 5 to 7 (Spider-Man).
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WARNINGS
VIOLENT KILLING SCENES IN THIS
MOVIE
MAY DIRECTLY ORINDIRECTLY CONTRIBUTE TOTHE
INSIDENCE OF VIOLENCE.VIEWER DISRETION IS ADVISED.
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VIDEO URL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL0SI
LzGs4g
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Music
Music is another form of media people like topoint finger on, with regard to the effects ofmedia violence
Previously, the accusation mainly points mostly
to underground extreme music, e.g. Hardcore,Punk, Metal
However, researchers and scientists were notable to find any solid evidence on this.(Columbine incident, remember?)
As of recently, we can also see Hip-hop (i.e.Gangsta Rap) becoming the new scapegoat
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Music
It seems that the blame on Music is no longer just on theaudio itself, but rather, music videos
A lot of researchers look into music videos and what kindof impacts it brings about on youths today, e.g. the
relationship between sexually violent rock music videosand males acceptance of violence against women [JSLawrence, DJ Joyner. 1991]
However, instead of proving the effect of music, suchstudies actually adds on to the fact that music itself do
not really carry any harmful effects towards listeners,and that visual-oriented media are the ones reallyaffecting people as far as violent behaviors areconcerned
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Conclusion
We have looked into the possible impacts of violent contents indifferent forms of media on people, be it TV, Music, Movies, Games,etc.
Each affects people differently in different degrees, and differentindividuals react to it differently as well
It seems that it may really affect people in certain ways, but casesdiscussed are still pretty much the minority, or idiosyncratic
Is media really that big an influence where violence is concerned?
people tend to point fingers on media alone when somethinghappens, undermining the impact of long years of education wehave had, as well as natural instinct and instilled integrity/moralitythat people may possess
There has got to be a better way in explaining violent behaviors inpeople, perhaps it is time to look away from the media and re-assess the whole thing with a fresh point of view
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