Violence in the Media

"Ezekiel 25:17: The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the Valley of Darkness; for he is truly his brother's keeper, and the finder of lost children. And, I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers! And, you will know my name is The Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee!"

This is the speech given by Jules Winnfield, moments before he executes several men for stealing from his boss, Marcellus Wallace. Of course I am talking about "Pulp Fiction", a Quentin Tarantino movie. Quentin Tarantino, while in my opinion makes great movies that are entertaining, has in recent movies pushed the envelope for how much gore and bloodshed can be fed to an audience. For example, the movies, "Kill Bill, Vol. 1 & 2", a young woman with a sword kills and dismembers more people than I could count. At what point is it too much?

Video games are just as guilty. The most recent anxiously awaited release of the game "Halo 2" closes it's trailer teaser with "Someone get me a weapon". Concerns about the impact of television violence on society are almost as old as the medium itself. As early as 1952, the United States House of Representatives was holding hearings to explore the impact of television violence and concluded that the "television broadcast industry was a perpetrator and a deliverer of violence." In 1972 the Surgeon General's office conducted an overview of existing studies on television violence and concluded that it was "a contributing factor to increases in violent crime and antisocial behavior." In his testimony to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Surgeon General Jesse Steinfeld said, "It is clear to me that the causal relationship between televised violence and antisocial behavior is sufficient to warrant appropriate and immediate remedial action... There comes a time when the data are sufficient to justify action. That time has come."

Over the years, there have been literally hundreds of studies examining the connection between violence in movies and video games and violence in real-life, the results of which were summarized in a joint statement signed by representatives from six of the nation's top public health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, and the American Medical Association: "Well over 1000 studies... point overwhelmingly to a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children. The conclusion of the public health community, based on over 30 years of research, is that viewing entertainment violence can lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values and behavior, particularly in children."

Today, the connection between media violence and aggressive and violent behavior in real life has been so well documented, that for many, the question is settled. In fact, a position paper by the American Psychiatric Association on media violence begins by declaring: "The debate is over." According to Jeffrey McIntyre, legislative and federal affairs officer for the American Psychological Association, "To argue against it is like arguing against gravity."

In March of 2003 at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on neurobiological research and the impact of media on children, Dr. Michael Rich, Director of the Center on Media and Children's Health at the Children's Hospital of Boston testified that the correlation between violent media and aggressive behavior "is stronger than that of calcium intake and bone mass, lead ingestion and lower IQ, condom non-use and sexually acquired HIV, and environmental tobacco smoke and lung cancer, all associations that clinicians accept as fact, and on which preventive medicine is based without question."

Movies on television and video games can be profoundly influential in shaping an impressionable child or adolescent's values, attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors. Television reaches children at a younger age and for more time than any other socializing influence, except family. The average child spends 25 hours a week watching television, more time than they spend in school or engaged in any other activity except sleep. Is it any wonder then that children so readily absorb the messages that are presented to them?

So what is the cumulative impact of 25 hours of television a week?

It is estimated that by the time an average child leaves elementary school, he or she will have witnessed 8,000 murders and over 100,000 other acts of violence. By the time that child is 18 years-of-age; he or she will witness 200,000 acts of violence, including 40,000 murders. One 17-year longitudinal study concluded that teens who watched more than one hour of TV a day were almost four times as likely as other teens to commit aggressive acts in adulthood.

Television and movies teach viewers - especially young viewers, who have more difficulty discriminating between real life and fantasy - that violence is the accepted way we solve problems. Moreover, studies show that the more real-life the violence portrayed, the greater the likelihood that it will be learned. And while it's true that not every child who is exposed to a lot of televised violence is going to grow up to be violent, "every exposure to violence increases the chances that some day a child will behave more violently than they otherwise would," according to Dr. L. Rowell Huesmann of the University of Michigan.

Violent entertainment leaves a mark, even on children who don't engage in aggressive behaviors. Witnessing repeated violent acts increases general feelings of hostility and can lead to desensitization and a lack of empathy for human suffering. Over time, consumption of violence-laden imagery can leave viewers with the perception that they are living in a mean and dangerous world, giving them an unrealistically dark view of life.

For children who do act out aggressively, the results can be deadly. Week after week, newspapers are filled with blood-chilling accounts of children committing copy-cat crimes inspired by the latest horror film or violent video game. Are movies and video games really that violent? Let's take a closer look.

Video gaming has made advances alongside those in the technological world. As computer chips and hard drives shrink in size and are able to hold and process data at higher speeds, video gaming systems have reaped the benefits. Games are far more advanced, with high definition graphics