Effects of violence in mass media
[8] Various media/genres, including dime novels, comic books, jazz, rock and roll, role playing/computer games, television, films, internet (by computer or cell phone) and many others have attracted speculation that consumers of such media may become more aggressive, rebellious or immoral.
According to the article by Hygen Beate in 2019 mention the video game violence can impact an individual's essential social skills such as their emotions, behavior towards others, listening and understanding ability, responding or communicating, knowing verbal and non-verbal cues, sharing their thoughts, and cooperating with others.
[12] According to the survey in medical journal JAMA Network Open written by Chang published May 31, 2019, kids who repeatedly played violent video games learned to think viciously that could eventually influence their behavior and cause them to become aggressive in nature.
It is theorized that with repeated exposure to media violence, a psychological saturation or emotional adjustment takes place such that initial levels of anxiety and disgust diminish or weaken.
[15] For example, in a study conducted in 2016, a sample of college students were assigned at random to play either a violent or non-violent video game for 20 minutes.
Nonetheless, social cognitive theory was arguably the most dominant paradigm of media violence effects for many years, although it has come under recent criticism.
Playing violent video games created a fear in everyone's heart of violence in real life, which was only valid for adolescents with underlying psychological problems.
Gerbner believes that the population will think that violence, whether fictional in movies and shows or non-fictional from the news, will directly effect them.
Over time, consumers of media will cultivate the violence seen on television and will consider this to be how the real world actually is.
Research studies and positions taken by scholars and politicians tend to confirm the pre-existing belief, rather than dispassionately observe and evaluate the issue.
Rather, only about two hundred studies[27] have been conducted in peer-reviewed scientific journals on television, film, music and video game violence effects.
[5][page needed] Criticisms of the media violence link focus on a number of methodological and theoretical problems including (but not limited to) the following:[28] A small study published in Royal Society Open Science on 13 March 2019 found that "both fans and non-fans of violent music exhibited a general negativity bias for violent imagery over neutral imagery regardless of the music genres.
[50] When exposed to media violence initially, the user tends to generate responses dealing with discomfort, fear, sweat glands activating, and an increase in heart rate.
For example, if a child plays a lot of violent shooter games, they may start to become numb to the consequences of actual gun violence and how dangerous of a threat it can be to others.
Because it is "just a game" to them, they can commit actions virtually that they won't be reprimanded for and this can cause them to believe that such behavior is socially acceptable under certain circumstances.
For example, in modern hip-hop music, there are a lot of popular songs that glorify murder and openly talk about killing others as a means of squashing beef or asserting dominance in the community.
This constant exposure to glorified violence keeps the listener in a state of arousal and heightened aggressiveness, which in turn causes changes in behavior.
An article published in 2006 by the National Institute of Health investigated whether music genre affects a listener's tendencies for substance use and aggressive behavior.
The study was conducted on college students under the age of 25 and results showed that 69% of the population reported listening to rap music, and that it positively predicted frequency of marijuana use and aggressive behaviors.
For example, in 1974 the US Surgeon General testified to congress that "the overwhelming consensus and the unanimous Scientific Advisory Committee's report indicates that televised violence, indeed, does have an adverse effect on certain members of our society.
However, by 2001, the US Surgeon General's office, The Department of Health and Human Services had largely reversed itself, relegating media violence to only a minor role and noting many serious limitations in the research.
Today's popular games include Call of Duty, Fortnite, GTA, Rainbow Six Siege, and Red Dead Redemption.
It is hard to blame aggressive behavior on a single cause, but with that much exposure to violent media, researchers have examined if such pastimes can be negatively influencing mental health.
A 2007 article published by the National Institutes of Health states that three ways in which media violence is believed to affect individuals short-term is through priming, arousal, and mimicking, all aspects of social cognitive theory.
In terms of media violence, some researchers believe that constant exposure to violent content can cause consumers to always be in a heightened state of emotion, or "on edge", therefore making them behave in an overly aggressive manner.
Consuming a diverse media diet increases the likelihood that a child engages in seriously violent behavior, five to ten years after consumption.
Samples obtained from seven different countries (Australia, China, Croatia, Germany, Japan, Romania, and the United States) completed a questionnaire about media habits.
Lastly, the fourth finding is that media violence is equal to or similar enough to other risk factors that influence aggression meaning special treatment or attention is required/deserved.
[42] Lewis argues that violence is largely generated through the interaction of social processes and modes of thinking which are constantly refreshed through the media, politics and other cultural discourses.
These hierarchical organizational systems shape our knowledge and beliefs, creating a ferment in which violence is normalized and authorized by governments and other powerful institutions.
