Com242 Effects of Media Violence

8/3/2019 Com242 Effects of Media Violence

1/61

Effects of Media ViolenceWong Renhao

Graham Choo

Heng Hailee

Kenny YeoRoshni Rawla

Hans Yamin


2/61

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.


3/61

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


4/61


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


5/61


Are the murder and mayhem on televisionreally to blame for the increased violence

in society?


6/61

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


7/61

Statistics

BUT these studies have nothing to say

about how the violence may be affecting

people Content effect

Humans react differently to media

messages


8/61

Research Studies

The causal link between viewing violenceand behaving aggressively


9/61

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)


10/61

Research Studies

BUTnot every child who saw theaggression being rewarded behaved

aggressively after the video


11/61

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


12/61

Research Studies

BUT there is no way to tell which camefirst the TVviewing or the aggressive

behavior?


13/61

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


14/61

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


15/61

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


16/61

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


17/61

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


18/61

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


19/61

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


20/61

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


21/61

Desensitization


22/61

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


23/61

Evidence

Anecdotal

Research


24/61

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


25/61

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


26/61

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?


27/61

Funny Violence

Family Guy:A Case Study


28/61

Family Guy

9 clips from Best of compilation videos,

1 standalone clip

Played in ascending order of level of(funny) violence


29/61

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


30/61

Games Violent Games


31/61

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.


32/61

Violence

Grand Theft Auto

Counter-Strike

Evil Dead

*all are rated Mature(M) blood and gore


33/61

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)


34/61

Columbine Massacre

Littleton, Colorado, 1999

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold

Fans of Doom Playing violent games

= Aggressive behavior?


35/61

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)


36/61

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.


37/61

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.


38/61

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.


39/61

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.


40/61

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.


41/61

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.


42/61


43/61

IRL (In Real Life)


44/61

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)


45/61

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


46/61

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)


47/61

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)


48/61

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)


49/61

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)


50/61

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


51/61

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.


52/61

Interesting Facts

RoboCop featured 32

bodies

RoboCop 2 featured 81!

Similarly,

Die Hard 2= 264 deaths

Rambo 3= 106 deathsTotal Recall= 74 deaths!


53/61

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


54/61

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.


55/61

Effects of Violence in Movies

Some violent movies may result in:

- Increased Aggression- Increased Crime

- Influence and Effect

Cognition- Create Hostile Feelings


56/61

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).


57/61

WARNINGS

VIOLENT KILLING SCENES IN THIS

MOVIE

MAY DIRECTLY ORINDIRECTLY CONTRIBUTE TOTHE

INSIDENCE OF VIOLENCE.VIEWER DISRETION IS ADVISED.


58/61

VIDEO URL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL0SI

LzGs4g


59/61

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


60/61

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


61/61

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

Documents

Com242 Effects of Media Violence