Informing/Persuading Editorial
Violence in mass media and its impact on our society
With modern culture developing a higher stance in technology, people are starting to accept violence in mass media which is consumed through television shows, movies, internet, and especially violent video games. Violence on mass media influences many people; especially children because they are in the process of learning new things and they cannot differentiate between realistic or fantasy things. Hence, violence seen in media contributes to violence in our communities and environment (which is really nerve-racking).
The major controversy these days on violence in mass media is through video games. Video games affect many people which impact our communities. Games like Call of Duty, Halo, and Assassin’s Creed are examples of violent video games which affect individuals’ behaviours. A large meta-analysis showed that there is a medium effect in psychology that the average person doubles or triples in aggression after playing a violent video game; this is a psychology effect dealing with violence. Psychology effects dealing with violence can cause depression, suicidal thoughts, and even thoughts of murdering someone. Despite the psychology effects, 70% of children under the age of 17 are marketed to violent restricted video games. On top of that, 89% of video games sold have violent contents included. Does this not have an impact on our crime rates at all? It is bizarre not to think so.
A recent incident took place September of 2012; a young 14 year old boy, Callum Green, was banned from all games excluding Call of Duty. Green ended up killing himself because he was used to the violence that he was allowed to see in Call of Duty but not the other age appropriate video games he was not permissible to see. The violence in the video game obviously gave him suicidal thoughts because his aggression doubled or tripled because he was not allowed playing what he enjoyed playing. This obviously is very absurd and asinine.
Research indicates that 90% of movies, 60% of television shows, and 15% of music videos include some depiction of violence. The amount of violence marketed through media to children as young as 8 years old is traumatizing. On average, children and teens spend 7.5 hours on media. Through that time period they can take in a lot of violence. In fact, once children turn 18, the average seems to witness around 200,000 acts of violence and 16,000 acts of murders. When children witness so much violence, they obviously take it in and use it in their lives; whether it is for