Transcript Effects of Media Violence

Effects of Media Violence
Wong Renhao
Graham Choo
Heng Hailee
Kenny Yeo
Roshni Rawla
Hans Yamin
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 violence
in our society today.
In this paper, we would uncover more about the relationship
between media and violence, and discover the real truth
behind it.
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
The Copycat Phenomenon
• MTV’s Jackass
– The fire stunt
• The World Wrestling Federation
Lionel Tate
– Children have died, imitating wrestling moves
on each other
• As many as 1/3 of convicted male felonies
admit to copycatting crimes (Centerwall,
1992)
The Copycat Phenomenon
• Are the murder and mayhem on television
really to blame for the increased violence
in society?
Statistics
• The presence of violent content on
television
– ↑ in ownership of television sets from 1/10
homes having 1 (1950) to 1/10 homes NOT
having 1 (1960)
– The average child spends >3 hrs each day in
front of the tube (Minow, 1996)
– According to the APA, the typical child will
view >8,000 murders and over 100,000 acts
of TV violence in the course of a lifetime
Statistics
• BUT these studies have nothing to say
about how the violence may be affecting
people
• Content ≠ effect
• Humans react differently to media
messages
Research Studies
• The causal link between viewing violence
and behaving aggressively
Research Studies
• Albert Bandura’s 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 and
received rewards for his actions
– Video 2: The leading characters acted aggressively and
received punishment for his actions
– The children played in the room and their actions were
monitored
• 2 findings:
– Children who saw aggressive behavior rewarded were more
likely to imitate the aggression
– The effects emerged most strongly for boys (predisposition to
behave more aggressively)
Research Studies
• BUT not every child who saw the
aggression being rewarded behaved
aggressively after the video
Research Studies
• Leonard Eron and Rowell Huesmann’s
long term studies
– Studied over 800 children under the age of
10, during the 1960s
• Tendency for children who watched higher levels of
TV violence to have higher scores on the ratings of
aggressive behavior
Research Studies
• BUT there is no way to tell which came
first – the TV viewing or the aggressive
behavior?
Research Studies
• Leonard Eron and Rowell Huesmann’s
long term studies
– Longitudinal investigation (2003) that followed
children into adulthood
• Boys and girls in the upper 20% on TV viewing
were significantly higher on the measures of adult
aggression
Research Studies
• BUT not every child who watched large
amounts of TV violence 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
Research Studies
• Brandon Centerwall’s research
– ↑ in U.S. crime statistics from 3 homicides
per 100,000 people (1945 – Just before TV
emerged) to 6 (1974)
– Claimed that TV was the major culprit in the
rise of homicides
Research Studies
• Brandon Centerwall’s 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, the
numbers still have to be taken seriously
Research Studies
• Seymour Feshbach’s Catharsis
Hypothesis
– Viewing TV violence could be therapeutic for
a person filled with anger
– Catharsis – To cleanse or purge; to get rid of
– Media violence was actually a +ve thing
Research Studies
• Seymour Feshbach’s 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 less
aggressively
• BUT we should be slow to arrive at definitive conclusions
from any single study
• Only demonstrated that people will act more violently if they
can’t watch their favorite TV programs than if they can watch
them
Research Studies
• Leonard Berkowitz and associates’ priming
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 about
reminds you of other thins in your mind that you
associate with the first thing
Research Studies
•
Leonard Berkowitz and associates’ priming
analysis
–
3 findings:
1. Violence can prime thoughts that are related to hostility
2. 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
Desensitization
Desensitization
• making us numb to violence in real life so
that we don’t react to it as we should if we
had never seen it on the screen
Evidence
• Anecdotal
• Research
Anecdotal Evidence
• sequels have more violence than previous
movie
• Increased violence to give viewers who
have seen the previous movie heightened
emotional charge
• There is no easy way to go backwards
• Ever-increasing level of violence
Evidence from Research
• Ronald Drabman and Margaret Thomas
• Children watch violent/non-violent film
• Asked children to watch TV monitor to observe children
interacting in another room while researcher went to
adjacent room, to report if there was any trouble
• Monitor was actually playing video of children fighting
• Children who watched violent video were far less likely
than other children to actually make an attempt to notify
the experimenter about the fight that they observed on
the monitor
Funny Violence
• From the concept of desensitization
• Viewers experience desensitization
particularly when the violence is in a
comical context
• Effects of funny violence > Effects of
regular violence?
Funny Violence
Family Guy:
A Case Study
Family Guy
• 9 clips from ‘Best of…’ compilation videos,
1 standalone clip
• Played in ascending order of level of
(funny) violence
Trend of Increasing 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
Games – Violent Games
Living with violent games…
 Plenty of violent games in the market
 Guns, machine guns, bombs and all sorts
of weapons
 Realistic
 Technology improves, game graphics
improves as well
 Close to life-like.
Violence…
• Grand Theft Auto
• Counter-Strike
• Evil Dead
*all are rated Mature(M) – blood and gore
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)
Columbine Massacre
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Littleton, Colorado, 1999
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
Fans of Doom
Playing violent games
= Aggressive behavior?
Professional Opinions…
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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 deficiency
syndrome”)
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”.
Researchers: Nicola Schutte and
colleagues (1988)
•
Targets: Children 5-7 years old
•
Karateka (violent) vs. Jungle Hunt (nonviolent)
•
Result: Kids who played Karateka
showed aggressive behavior towards
other kids. Jungle Hunt kids were more
gentle at play.
Researchers: Craig Anderson and
Catherine Ford
• Targets: College students
• Zaxxon (high-aggression) vs. Centipede (mildaggression).
• Result: Students were asked to check off words
that describe their feelings. Zaxxon players felt
hostile, Centipede players were less hostile.
Control group least hostile.
Researchers: Karen Dill and Craig
Anderson
• Targets: College students
• 1st study – Students’ habits of playing video games vs. aggressive
delinquent. Measurement of trait of aggression.
2nd study – Wolfenstein 3D (violent game) vs. Myst (non-violent
game) Both games generate the same amount of physiological
arousal. After that, all students play a reaction game which they did
not 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 aggressive
according to the trait of aggressive.
2nd study – Students who played the Wolf 3D tend to blast their
opponents louder and louder.
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.
Researcher: John Sherry
• Meta-analysis
• Result: Significant effect of video game play on
aggression, however, the effect found was smaller than
violent TV on aggression.
• Meta-analysis is the combination of the results of several
studies that address a set of related research
hypotheses. In short, meta-analysis is the studies with
small sample sizes; analyzing the results from a group of
studies can allow more accurate data analysis.
IRL (In Real Life)
2005’s Top 10 Most Violent Games
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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)
Grand Theft Auto
• Game-play revolves around gang warfare
• Heavily influenced by gangster films
(Scarface, Miami Vice, Boyz N the Hood)
• Free-form ‘sandbox’ play
– Steal
– Rob
– Kill
– Mass destruction
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)
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 delinquent
teenagers dropping bricks from motorway and railway bridges is
to sue the creators of Tetris.”
(The Register, 2003)
Case 3
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Devin Moore, 18
Killed 2 police-men and 1 dispatcher
Sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2005
“Life is a videogame. Everybody’s got to die sometime.”
• Again, an isolated case in the US
• In the 50s, comic books were blamed for juvenile
delinquency (‘scapegoatism’)
• Retailers selling games to minors.
• David Walsh, child psychologist, believes that teenage
brains are wired differently.
(Fox News, 2005)
Media Violence- MOVIES
‘In a crowded marketplace, where everyone is trying to be heard and where there's an
amazing 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)
Top 10 Most Violent Movies
1) Taxi Driver
2) Blood Simple
3) Natural Born Killers
4) A Clockwork Orange
5) Blood In Blood Out
6) True Romance
7) Fight Club
8) Gang Related
9) The Shield
10) Hannibal
Did You Know?
‘When Hollywood Movies Producers
make a sequel to a violent movie, they
pack it up with more violence than they
did the original film.’
Interesting Facts
 RoboCop featured 32
bodies
RoboCop 2 featured 81!
Similarly,
 Die Hard 2= 264 deaths
 Rambo 3= 106 deaths
 Total Recall= 74 deaths!
Action Sells…
Action Movies;
 Don’t require complex plots or characters
 Rely on fights, killings, special effects and
explosions to hold their audiences
 They’re simple and universally understood
 ”Short-on-dialogue, high-on-testosterone"
makes their dubbing or translation relatively
inexpensive
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.
Effects of Violence in Movies
Some violent movies may result in:
- Increased Aggression
- Increased Crime
- Influence and Effect
Cognition
- Create Hostile Feelings
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).
WARNINGS
VIOLENT KILLING SCENES IN THIS
MOVIE MAY
DIRECTLY
OR
INDIRECTLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE
INSIDENCE OF VIOLENCE.
VIEWER DISRETION IS ADVISED.
VIDEO URL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL0SI
LzGs4g
Music
• Music is another form of media people like to
point finger on, with regard to the effects of
media violence
• Previously, the accusation mainly points mostly
to underground extreme music, e.g. Hardcore,
Punk, Metal
• However, researchers and scientists were not
able 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
Music
• It seems that the blame on Music is no longer just on the
audio itself, but rather, music videos
• A lot of researchers look into music videos and what kind
of impacts it brings about on youths today, e.g. the
relationship between sexually violent rock music videos
and males’ acceptance of violence against women [JS
Lawrence, DJ Joyner. 1991]
• However, instead of proving the effect of music, such
studies 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 really
affecting people as far as violent behaviors are
concerned
Conclusion
• We have looked into the possible impacts of violent contents in
different forms of media on people, be it TV, Music, Movies, Games,
etc.
• Each affects people differently in different degrees, and different
individuals react to it differently as well
• It seems that it may really affect people in certain ways, but cases
discussed 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 something
happens, undermining the impact of long years of education we
have had, as well as natural instinct and instilled integrity/morality
that people may possess
• There has got to be a better way in explaining violent behaviors in
people, perhaps it is time to look away from the media and reassess the whole thing with a fresh point of view