Media Violence Promotes Violence

Violence has always been prevalent in TV and movies, an action movie isn't complete without a blazing gunfight and an arsenal of curse words right? From Sandy Hook School Shooting to the protests in Ferguson, violence is becoming the staple of media. Not only in television is violence glorified, but video games as well. With games like Grand Theft Auto, Assassin's Creed, and Call of Duty children have aspirations to be like Trevor, (Character from GTA) a meth addict who is reckless and careless. I therefore support the resolution that media violence promotes violent behavior.

My first resolution is media violence causes children to depersonalize people. Everyone is familiar with the tragedy known as the Columbine School shooting. Two mentally ill, gothic, social outcasts kill thirteen college students and end their killing spree with suicide. You may think "Open and shut case Johnson!" they were psychopaths, but it would be ignorant to chalk this up only to a mental illness. A plausible factor in the shooters' decisions is the amount and kinds of games played by the shooters. Investigators at the time were able to deduce violent video games were a central part in the boys' lives, but were unable to link the video games to the murder spree. While the investigators were not able to link the obsession with video games to the shootings, researchers at The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology were able to connect the dots. The university had 70 young adults play either a violent or nonviolent video game for 25 minutes. After the game, the subjects looked at neutral pictures - like a man on a bike - or violent pictures - like a man with a gun - as the researchers measured their brain wave activity. It turned out that when shown a violent image, those who had played a violent game showed a smaller brain response than those who had played a tamer game. In other words, the violent games desensitized players to violent imagery. This isn't saying violence in video games or the media is the sole and only cause in school shootings, but that they add fuel to a sparking flame.

My second resolution is that popular rap lyrics promote violence. From an insider's perspective I will turn to Eminem's song "Stan." A song about an extreme fan, Eminem demonstrates how literal his words can be taken. In the second verse Stan states "you're like his [expletive] idol," referring to his brother.