Is Media Violence Harmful?

Is Media Violence Harmful? The twenty-first century is the golden age of media. Following the widespread of technology in the late twentieth century, media has become a constant presence in people’s lives. New innovations in technology have led to blockbuster movies, music at the touch of our fingertips, weekly television programs and a vast array of video games available on various devices. With new consoles and devices constantly being released, everyone, no matter their age, can readily access media. However, over time, media has taken on a violent transformation. The games kids of past generations played such as Tetris and Pac-Man were soon replaced by violent video games like Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto. The comical sitcoms of the
In several studies of violent media, the results have shown that exposure to violence in media have led to desensitization to the pain of others as well as general violence. In a study by Brad Bushman and Craig Anderson, both psychology professors, they studied the correlation between violent video games and movies and the likelihood of helping others. In one part of their study, the researchers focused on 162 adult moviegoers. The researchers created a minor emergency outside the theater where a young woman with a bandaged ankle and crutches dropped her crutches and had difficulty retrieving them. Half of the movie goers were tested before they went in to determine the average helpfulness of people entering the movie theater. The other half was tested after watching their movies. The results showed that those who just watched a violent movie took a 26% longer time to help the woman than the people who watched a nonviolent movie or none at all. In the other part of their experiment they had 320 college students play either a violent or non-violent video game for about 20 minutes. Several minutes after the participants would overhear a staged fight where the victim is left groaning in pain with a sprained ankle. While observing the participants, they found that those who played the violent video game took longer (73 seconds) to help the victim compared to those who played non-violent video games (16
Often times, people will wait outside stores like Apple or Best Buy to get the newest technology available. With new technology constantly being developed it makes accessing media so much easier. From a single device, a person is able to play video games, stream movies or television shows and listen to music. However, few people realize that this constant exposure to media violence has led to many negative impacts on our thoughts, feelings and behaviour. After reading and analyzing all of the articles mentioned, it is quite evident that violent media, no matter how exposed you are to it, will have some sort of negative impact on a person even if it’s for a short period of time. So, while people should continue to enjoy their favourite video games, songs or TV shows, it is important to reduce exposure to violent media and understand the effects it could have on