The violent activities have been increased over the period of time with the increase in time that is spent with media-content and the accessibility of individuals with these contents. The violent theme of movies, cartoons and comic-characters has made the individuals to perceive that these activities are not harmful and are morally right and hilarious to be carried out (Browne and Hamilton-Giachritsis, 2005)
e. hero or villain is not punished in any manner with respect to the violent activities that they carry out or the punish for violent activities is not too big and in this way the individuals perceive that the violent activity that they are carrying is right and is not considered unethical in any manner (Carter, 2003)
Real-Life Evidences The real-life event, that took place on 12th February 1993, in which a two-year boy was killed by the two boys, who were aged 10 years old. Both kids were found to be the youngest murderers in the history and the experts suggest that the violent content of media made the children indulge in the violent activity of killing a two-year-old boy (Franklin and Petley, 1996)
Both perpetrators were found to be exclusively involved in the violent video-games and tend to possess the aggressive behavior. Their aggression that was stimulated from their access to violent video-games was transferred in the real world and their imitated behavior towards the action and killings in video games caused the real life event of massacre (Ferguson, 2008)
Catharsis theory presented by Feshbach and Singer, (1971) suggests that the continuous exposure to violent situations by means of television and video-games make the individual resistant towards the violent situation and makes the individual being able to deal with such situations in real-life. The study conducted in this respect represents the idea that the energy that is being captured by an individual during the exposure of aggressive video games is often used in real-life which has increased the individual's tendency to act violently in some situations (Gentile, 2013)
These individuals like to carry guns and weapons as a part of being influenced by the media contact that shows the fads and fashion of weapons. Therefore, the indulgence of media content in this respect is found to be questionable by means of youth's involvement in the violent activities in real life (Herrington, 2011)
Theories -- Analysis and Evaluation The theory of desensitization refers to the decreased tendency of an individual to respond to the real life situations, however, the notion with respect to the media indicates the individual's inability to respond in actual real-life violent situations which are usually the causal effect of individual's exposure to violent situations in transmitted media. The media source could vary from television to video games and comic-series and the adherence of violence in these sources of media makes the individual to encounter with hostile thoughts in terms of observing and perceiving the actions of the people whom they are surrounded with (Huesmann, 1982)
Some authors believe that only aggressive people are involved in violent activities and use media as intermediary support to take ideas and strategies to conduct their violent activities whereas, some experts believe that only such individuals adhere in such activities that prevail some psychological disorders and stay unable to distinguish between right and wrong. The media targets the over-all population, whereas, the occurrence of events with respect to violence is not as much as the accessibility of violent content to people and this notion overrules the perspective of violent media in relation to violent behaviors in real life and it entirely depends on an individual that how he wants to carry out his activities that are being transmitted through the media sources either negatively or positively (Livingstone, 1996)
The perpetrator was found to be obsessed with the video game named ManHunt and followed the exact way of killing his friend by using the hammer. The video-game contained the violent content in which players are supposed to kill people with the most brutal ways and the influence and perspective of game was clearly illustrated in the perpetrator's mind and caused him to kill his own friend by following the rules and type of weapon in accordance with the video game (Mac-Sithigh, 2010)
For instance, the people become involved in the TV-programs and represent their emotions with respect to what they see;they feel anger when they watch something offensive is happened and feel happy when they watch that something pleasant has been happening. The research study conducted in this respect provided the empirical evidence that the individual's behavior is changed and manipulated in accordance with the media-content with which they are exposed (Zillmann, 1971)
The hypothesis of Hopf et al. related to an effect hypothesis that watching violence in the media contributes to aggressive behavior and a selection hypothesis which states that violently aggressive actions stimulates exposure to violence (Hopf et al
It will actually be useful to consider the counter arguments to this study's thesis before making the case that there is no causal relationship between media violence and aggressive behavior, because these counter arguments tend to represent the consensus public view despite their lack of convincing evidence. To begin, one must acknowledge that there is substantial, verifiable data indicating a link between media violence and aggressive behavior (Boxer et
This fact is not in doubt, and anyone seriously interested in this discussion is not attempting to claim otherwise. While there have been notable attempts to argue that there is no connection between media violence and aggressive behavior or even that media has no affect on behavior at all, such as in Jonathan Freedman's book Media Violence and Its Effects on Aggression: Assessing the Scientific Evidence, to suggest that there is no connection between the media and behavior "flies in the face of decades of research on persuasion, imitation, and child development" (Freedman 204; Cantor 468)
The real question, then, is whether one can go so far as to say that this link is causal, meaning that there is evidence to suggest not merely a correlation between the consumption of media violence and aggressive behavior, but that media violence actually causes aggressive behavior. Furthermore, because this issue cuts to the heart of social and public policy, the evidence in favor of a causal link must be overwhelming, because only then would it be sufficient to justify certain public policy decisions (something that proponents of a causal link almost inevitably recommend) (Muscari 585; "Special Commission on Media Violence Confirms Aggression Link")
To understand the lengths that proponents of these policy changes will go to make their case, one need only point out the fact that, for example, an article in the peer-reviewed publication Pediatric Nursing makes the erroneous claim that "more than 3,500 studies, including laboratory experiments, naturalistic studies, correlational studies, and longitudinal studies, discuss the impact of media violence on children" (Muscari 585). In reality, "recent meta-analyses have placed the number between 200 and 300," and the fact that such an egregiously false statement was included in a peer-reviewed article indicates the degree to which this faulty assumption regarding the link between media violence and aggression has permeated the culture (Cantor 468)
The point of the research was to document the difference between what mothers' estimates were (of their children's viewing time) versus what children's estimates were of how much time they spent in front of the television set. The results, while not earthshaking or socially provocative, showed that in general "parental estimates of global viewing" was more accurate than estimates given by children (Borzekowski, 1999, p
A research article in the journal Early Childhood Research & Practice examined the behavior of 70 preschool children at play -- and the relationship of those children to television violence and regulatory status. The authors claim that children between the ages of 2 and 18 years of age participate with media -- all forms including the Internet and electronic games -- between 38 and 45 hours a week, on average (Daly, et al
1662). A research project published in the journal the Future of Children reports that people who begin drinking alcohol at age fourteen or younger are approximately "four times as likely to become alcohol dependent as are those who begin drinking at age twenty or older" (Escobar-Chaves, et al
, conducted, 4,880 boys and 5,028 girls from Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class were part of a study. The dependent variables were "TV time during weekdays and weekends" and the predictor variables at the first level were "child-body mass index status, ethnicity, physical activity, motor skills" (Foley, et al
In another study, this one involving a survey that was completed by 365 pediatricians in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), revealed that first of all, most pediatricians agreed with and were familiar with the three AAP recommendations. Those three are: a) limit children's media time; b) discourage any television viewing for children under the age of 2 years; and c) "encourage alternative entertainment for children" (Gentile, et al