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 Benjamin ErmanProfessor SmalleyEnglish 10014 October 2019Does Violent Media Make Children Violent?One of the most controversial issues that continues to pervade the media is the question of whether the exposure of violent media to children makes those children behave in a violent or aggressive manner. A majority of the controversy was sparked with the rise of violent video games in the 1990s. Some parents observed that their children would imitate the characters of these games - such as making punching motions or using imaginary weapons - and were concerned that these games would have permanent negative consequences on their children’s behavior. Violent books, another notable source of controversial media, have been banned by schools across the United States after they were deemed to be “too violent” for young readers. Aside from video games and books, other areas of concern were the music that the children listened to and the movies that they watched. The psychological effects of the combined subjects can be fascinating to study, but the best way to understand them is to break down each section into pieces, and then bring those pieces together to examine the correlation between the violence and levels of aggression found in youth after exposure. Upon doing this, five questions stand to be answered: What are the effects of violent video games on children’s behavior? Violent books? Violent movies? Violent music? Lastly, what is the overall correlation of violent media exposure to children to the behavior that they display afterward?The most popular targets for discussion on violent media are violent video games, beginning with the first Mortal Kombat in 1992. Mortal Kombat was a graphic fighting game in which players could perform a “fatality” at the end of a match; these were very graphic in nature, and depicted the characters performing actions such as ripping out spines, severing limbs, crushing organs, or peeling skin. Each fatality was unique, creative, and gore-filled in its own way. Parents were concerned about the behavioral effects that games like Mortal Kombat would have on the young minds of their children. Dr. Craig Anderson, a member of the Executive Council of the International Society for Research on Aggression, shared these concerns. He determined from his studies that violent video games are “significantly associated with: increased aggressive behavior, thoughts…” and that they “increased physiological arousal; and decreased prosocial [helpful] behavior” (Anderson). Dr. Anderson noticed not only an increase in aggression in children, but also a detriment to the desire to perform helpful actions. Despite his belief, he also admitted that there were still unknowns to the research, such as correlations between habitual play of violent video games and violence later on in the lives of the children.Violent books, while not as commonly scrutinized as violent video games, are also alleged as a source of violent behavior. This is best characterized by mass bannings of violent young adult books in schools and other places, such as The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. The Outsiders contained several scenes of gang violence, assault, and graphic death. Award-winning novelist S.E. Green, who has written scenes of graphic violence into her own works, gave her thoughts on this issue in the magazine Publishers Weekly. She rhetorically asked if she “expect[ed] [her] readers to suddenly become serial killers? Absolutely not” (Green). Green did not believe that violence in novels caused youth to act out violently. Conversely, she also made the claim that even children who watched nothing but nonviolent shows could still get into fights or act aggressively. From this remark, it would seem that Green intended to imply that other factors contribute to violent behavior in children, not just the media that they consume on a regular basis. Despite her personal beliefs, Green also indicated that violent or aggressive actions expressed in books may cause children to at least imitate the behavior, whether it be a permanent development or not. Violent movies fall in line with violent video games and books as being alleged sources of violence in youth. Parents shared concerns about their children imitating violent actions from violent movies, and believed that these actions would find their way into the children’s overall behavior, especially with movies like John Wick. John Wick contains extreme physical violence done via slashing, stabbing, punching, kicking, and shooting. Many graphic executions occur on-screen with uncensored blood and gore. These actions are shown as positive when the hero of the movie, John Wick, performs them, despite being part of the criminal underworld himself. Another example is the infamous Saw franchise, in which the movies display graphic executions of men and women deemed “wicked” by a man called Jigsaw. One particular study analyzed by Dr. Christopher Ferguson from Stetson University made the claim that although children recreate things that they see in movies, overall violence rates fell. This was met with backlash from Dan Romer, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Adolescent Communication Institute. Romer believed that Dr. Ferguson’s research was motivated by an agenda and did not grasp how media worked. In response to this criticism of his research, Dr. Ferguson made the claim that accusing the media gives people a “false sense of control” (Reinberg). While these opinions contrast greatly, most agreed that violent crime was down overall, and could not say for certain whether it was because of violent movies or another, less violent factor.One area of violent media that gets frequently overlooked is the music industry. Commonly associated with heavy metal and rock, aggressive lyrics and violent imagery can be found ranging across all genres of music. One particular example of violent imagery in music is the album cover for Killers by Iron Maiden. It depicts the band’s mascot, Eddie, holding a bloody axe, with the hands of a dying man grasping at his shirt (Iron Maiden). This image is consistently uncensored in every place that the album is sold. To some, exposure to this album cover may be considered to have a harmful effect on their children’s minds. To others, this is nothing but a form of art to give the packaging a dangerous aspect, designed to draw listeners in. In both cases, the concept of violence is present, but interpreted differently. In the case of aggressive lyrics, several bands come to one’s mind, but a specific example would be the horror-punk band, the Misfits. As the genre implies, the majority of their songs are inspired by horror movies, which, in some cases, are notorious for violence and gore. The best example of this is the song “Helena,” which details the brutal murder of a woman as the singer asks her if he “cut off [her] arms and cut off [her] legs/Would [she] still love [him] anyway?” followed by violent scenes of “Cutting with a knife/Blood is spilling everywhere” and other dark moments. Other violent Misfits lyrics include “Hack the heads off little girls and/Put ‘em on my wall” from “Skulls” and “Killed a girl on lover’s lane/I kept her toes and teeth” from “Mommy Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight?” - the name of which itself implies a child performing murder. As with Killers, the album that features “Helena,” called Famous Monsters, is readily available and uncensored in all retail stores, as well as digital stores. While not as prominent to some as Iron Maiden, these dark lyrics by the Misfits also caused concerns over violent thoughts and actions, but were once again defended as artistic expression.After these four aspects of violent media are analyzed, it is important to examine the overall correlation of violent media and aggressive behavior among children. It is generally accepted by all parties that exposure to media has the ability to shape attitudes and behaviors of the consumer. Past studies of the issue concluded that when any form of violence was viewed by children, their aggressive behaviors increased due to imitation of what they saw. A common issue with the results is that while they are true for young children immediately after exposure, they do not account for how the children will be affected as they age, and whether they will incorporate violence into their everyday lives. They also did not take into account how the children were being raised or other factors of their home life - aside from violent media exposure. In addition, when helpful or kind actions were shown to the children, they imitated the helpful behaviors as well (Holmgren). It seems that at the core of either conclusion and the experiments conducted, children reproduced the behaviors that they saw.If anyone should desire to research the effects of violent media on children themselves, some advice to think about as one does their research is that one should be prepared to separate one’s own opinions from the opinions of others that were found for the sake of pure objectivity. To inject oneself in the research ruins the objectivity and clears a pathway for personal bias to creep in. There are also several challenges to be aware of in the pursuit of information on violent media exposure and potential aggressive response in children. One challenge is that there is not a lot of information available on the correlation of violence as youth to violence later on in life, and if that violence is even permanent. Another challenge is that although there is a vast network of resources available on this topic, the majority of information focuses on violent video games, and not so much other forms of media. One has to be specific with the type of media outlet one wishes to search for. A third challenge is that the majority of the sources seem to have a negative viewpoint of violent media and children, and do not address any positives, if any. Yet a fourth challenge is that many sources are filled with unanswered questions or hasty conclusions that can seem quite unhelpful to the researcher. Despite the difference and availability of sources, overall it would seem that many sources agree that there is some kind of increase in aggressive behavior in children exposed to violent media, but not all agree on how great the effect is.Works CitedAnderson, Craig A. “Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, Oct. 2003, science/about/psa/2003/10/anderson.Green, S.E. “Violence in Books: Where Do You Draw the Line?”. Publishers Weekly, 28 February 2014, , HG, Padilla‐Walker, LM, Stockdale, LA, Coyne, SM. “Parental Media Monitoring, Prosocial Violent Media Exposure, and Adolescents' Prosocial and Aggressive Behaviors. Aggr Behavior. . Iron Maiden "Killers" Capitol Records ST-12141 12" LP Vinyl Record U.S. Pressing (1981). Album Cover Art by Derek Riggs.Reinberg, Steven. “Movie Violence Doesn’t Make Kids Violent, Study Finds.” HealthDay News, 18 Jan. 2019, . ................
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