Is Media Violence Responsible For Real Violence?

1459 Words6 Pages
Current cultural discussion concerning the effects of entertainment media violence on society implies that entertainment media violence is a quantifiable phenomenon that can somehow be separated from art, literature and other social narratives. Violence is an inherent part of society and its cultural artifacts, such as video games, television, and movies because aggression is a fundamental human experience. Instead of condemning the depiction of violent acts, there should be broader and deeper discussion about entertainment media constructed violence, so that people can draw meaning from these depictions instead of simply being suspicious and fearful of the video games, television, and movies. Violence in video games, television and movies cannot be isolated from its context nor can it be easily identified, quantified and studied in the laboratory. First to begin with, there is no evidence to support either a causal or co-relational relationship between playing violent video games and aggressive behavior. The term aggression is very general and can refer to and involve a large number of personality traits and behaviors. Time and time again blaring headlines to various articles are seen which claim that “violent video games are dangerous”, and politicians insist that they need to do something to protect our children. However there is no real evidence that violent video games lead to violent behavior. According to Annalee Newitz, author of an article “Blame Game” in San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, dated 14th February 2002, there is a huge debate about whether or not video game violence is responsible for an increase in crime rate. Ms Newitz points out that the rate of violence in video games is very high in Japan yet the rate of crime is low. Why then are violent games are held responsible for increases in the crime rate in America? (Newitz, para 1). Henry
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