Guns, Lies, and Video

Guns, Lies, and Video

Research has shown that there may be a connection linking violent television, movies, and video games with actual violence, primarily in children. The author of this article identifies many studies that show this to be true, but she does not list many opposing studies. The author obviously believes that there is a connection between violence and media; She does a superb job of supporting this theory. Many case study examples along with surveys are used to support this argument. More than a thousand studies have actually been conducted to try and demonstrate this linkage. Experts estimate that 10 percent of all juvenile crime is related to media violence.

Psychologist Jonathan Freedman of the University of Toronto published a manifesto showing that the “bulk of the research does not show that television or movie violence has any negative effect.” The British medical journal The Lancer admitted that “experts are divided on the subject,” and that both cartels can support their views with a sizeable amount of published data. Violence on television is a concern for both groups. Today a common adolescent spends up to two hours a day watching television. Most children’s programming contain between twenty and twenty-five acts of random violence per hour. Jeffrey G. Johnson, a psychiatric epidemiologist at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York stated that, “The message going out to children is that violence is OK and that it is funny or somehow heroic.” Thus far, there aren’t any consensual standards defining or quantifying violent content. Many premier investigations proved simply that aggressive kids like to watch aggressive television, without enlightening which tendency leads to which. It is apparent that environmental variables such as poverty, abuse, drugs, and access to weapons can affect how violent that person is. I believe that environmental factors along with violent media are both...