Negative Influences of Violent Media - Essay Example

Joe Han Mr. George Argument Based Research 28 October 2102 Negative influences of violent media and policy that should be created. I. Introduction1. Hook: The negative influence of violent media is like pollution because it is harmful and causes negative consequences. 2. Problem: Exposure to violent media increases aggression in peoples’ minds. The most influential medium is your kid’s favorite video games. Doctor Anderson’s study shows that “violent video games are considered to be more harmful in increasing aggression than violent movies or television shows due to their interactive and engrossing nature. With different types of new game control devices, video games allow more physical interaction; the immersive and interactive characteristics of video games can increase the likelihood of youth violence” (Carll). 3. Audience: Parents and school teachers and children 4. Policy Claim: Parents’ understanding and use of the various rating systems of general media, especially video games should be enacted before a parent is allowed to buy the gadgets for their children. a. Reason 1: “Today’s biggest selling movies, music, and video games contain high levels of violence. The problem is that they can possibly have negative influences on a child no matter how old he or she is.” b. Reason 2: It also is wrong and unethical because it increases aggression. c. Reason 3: The negative influence of violent media is strong enough to be a contributing cause to horrific events such as the 2012 Aurora Shooting or the famous Columbine Massacre. II. Convincing the Reader of the Problem If you have ever been shocked by how violent your child’s favorite video games are, it is time to do something about it, because studies have shown that violent video games have significantly more influence on people at a young age than on people at a mature age, because most of today’s video games require active participation. 1. Definition Claim Paragraph a. Definition of the Issue: Aggression is the behavior is expected by the perpetrator to have some chance of actually harming that individual (Anderson & Bushman, 2002). i. Criteria: Violent media increases aggression because it teaches people how to associate violence with pleasure, and how to attack, and dehumanizes people too. ii. Evidence: Studies have shown that violent video games have significantly more influence on people at a young age than on people at a mature age, because most of today’s video games require active participation. The more interactive violence is exposed in video games the more youth may find themselves in experimental practices against their friends or neighbors. 2. Value Claim Paragraph a. Value of the Issue The enactment of aggression is largely based what is stored in the memory and that can be rehearsed and put to use any time. Situational input variables such as recent exposure to violent media influences aggressive behavior through its impact on the person’s present internal state, represented by cognitive, affective, and arousal variables (Carnagey). i. Criteria: Violent media increases aggression by teaching children how to become violent not necessarily against an oppressor but being taken through a rehearsal of how to aggress. It becomes an affective stage. ii. Evidence: “The study shows results of 33 independent tests of the relation between video game violence and aggression, involving 3,033 participants. The average effect size was as significant as the effect of condom use on risk of HIV infection (Weller). The study has shown other surprising results. The study has shown that as the amount of time spent on playing violent video game increases, the increase of aggression increased exponentially. They further divided experimental tests into two categories, based on whether the aggression target was another person. The magnitude of the effect depended on the aggression target. The average effect was larger if the target was an inanimate object than if the target was a person, respectively (Anderson)”. 3. Causal Claim Paragraph a. Cause/Effect of Issue An idea is like virus - once it is given, it continues to grow and grow. Just introducing the idea of violence can have a significant effect. i. Reason: If someone were exposed to high levels of violence for long periods of time, with enough motives, he or she could display extreme behaviors, like a school shooting. ii. Evidence: I was able to observe the behavior of my 5 year old nephew who enjoys lots of cartoon shows that contain a mild level of violence. After a long exposure to his favorite cartoon show, there was significant change in his behavior. At his birthday, one of his presents was the sword of a character in his favorite show. After unwrapping the gift, he started to swing his sword at his friends, mimicking the character in the show. There is only one thing to blame for such aggressive behavior: the cartoon show. He would have not known what a sword is and what it does if he had not seen the show. His favorite cartoon show has taught him how to aggress with the sword. III.: Policy Enthymeme Many media programmers are independent in the rating of their video games and many parents are poor in knowing the exact content of the videos. Measures should be put in place to decide who rates them. Is it through a board? 1. Reason Paragraph 1: Violent media increases aggression in people’s mind because it dehumanizes people and reduces people’s empathetic behavior. a. Evidence 1: Seung Hui Cho, who is the gunman of the Virginia Tech shooting and responsible for 32 deaths and 17 injured, mentions, “We have no sympathy in killing humans who have no respect for other people’s lives.” This clearly shows that he had extremely dehumanized way of thinking. Researchers studying his behavior, through interviews, were able to find out that he was a big fan of the first-person-shooter computer game “Counter Strike” and it was a contributing cause to his actions. b. Evidence 2: The words he used on his manifesto were very similar to the words that are used in the game, and before he committed the crime, he took a photo of himself dressed up like one of the characters from the game. c. Evidence 3: He mentions his isolation from social life and expresses how disgusted he was toward people around him who neglected and mistreated him. It isolated him by reducing prosocial behavior. 2. Reason Paragraph 2: The other effect that violent media gives to people is that it can reduce prosocial behavior and isolate them from human interaction. a. Evidence 1: Summer of 2007 was the year that I got a new video game called Call of Duty 3 which contained a high level of violence. I was only 17 and the time that I spent on playing this video game was averaging around 7 hours a day. During this time period, I started neglecting calls from my friends and I noticed a significant decrease of interaction towards others, including my family. The more I got into the game, the more I was falling into the fantasy world deeper and deeper and I was getting isolated more and more. Interaction with friends was not necessary because I was able to get the same joy from playing the video game. My behavior was also changed. I became more aggressive and hostile which made my friends and siblings upset. b. Evidence 2: People are more likely to identify with and believe in a realistic portrayal because they can relate their own personal experiences to it. c. Evidence 3: Violent media increases aggression in people’s mind because it teaches them how to aggress. 3. Reason Paragraph 3: Another reason why I think violent media increases aggression in people’s mind is that violent media teaches how to associate violence with pleasure. a. Evidence 1: Grand Theft Auto is one of the most popular games of all time. It has sold more than 114 million copies. In this game, the player gets placed in an area of a city and is required to accomplish a number of missions which always contain highly violent and unethical actions such as killing pedestrians or stealing cars. A player gets more points if he or she kills more pedestrians in various ways such as running over them with a car, shooting, or stabbing. In Grand Theft Auto, a players automatically associates violence with pleasure by earning more points which will lead him or her to the next mission. b. Evidence 2: Another good example is another of the most popular video games of all time, Call of Duty. Call of Duty is a first-person and third-person shooter video game series. In this game, players are placed in two different military combat teams and required to carry out missions such as planting a bomb in certain cites or causing damage to the opposite team by killing them. Players can use a vast variety of modern weapons, most of which are currently being used in real wars. When a player reaches a certain number of kills, he or she is rewarded with access to new weapons. In this case, a player associates violence with pleasure by earning more options to play the game (Hossini et al). c. Evidence 3: As a player of video games like the ones that are mentioned, I understand how it works and I get surprised by how enjoyable and addictive it is. Whenever I play these kinds of games, I get strong feelings of excitement and thrill due to their competitiveness, violent nature, and joy of accomplishment. Whenever my score becomes higher than others or I accomplish a mission, I get great pleasure and feel success, which is quite overwhelming. This is exactly how violent video games teach people to associate violence with pleasure. Almost every violent video game rewards a player for his or her violent actions, and the pleasure of getting rewarded is very enjoyable. IV. Policy Description 1. Detailed Description of Policy Rather than restraining adult-oriented material from children, policies could be put in place to increase the provision of child-appropriate material. As technology trascends to digital television, and the increase in the number of channels that will result from it, these types of issues are even more important now than in the 1990s. 2. Detailed Description of Policy An effective policy that could be established to assist in the management of a parents control over what the children engage in could be to mandate the formation of one a standardized universal rating system that encompasses all forms of media. Although in the short term parents may feel confused as they attempted to learn a new system, it would reduce confusion in the long term, especially as new media technologies emerge. 3. Detailed Description of Policy Parents should always be actively involved in and aware of their child’s media exposure. They need to monitor and regulate what their child consumes. Simply reducing children’s exposure to violent media is a positive step that would yield positive benefits. Parents also need to criticize and comment on the media their children consume. V. Rebuttalls 1. Opposing View 1: Some argue that playing violent video games makes it less risky for adolescent boys by providing them with an alternative for a more aggressive and harmful play (Kirsh). 2. Opposing View 2: Some argue that no media is strong enough to influence people into carrying out such horrific tragedies and it is their fault for having weak mental health that would probably be weakened by other real life matters too (Kirsh). 3. Opposing View 3: Another argument is that violent video games provide healthy ways in which children are able to judge what negative consequences come out of violent behavior (Kirsh). 4. Restate the Soundness of Your Argument: The negative influence of violent media is like pollution because it is harmful and causes negative consequences. Parents’ understanding and use of the various rating systems of general media, especially video games should be enacted before a parent is allowed to buy the gadgets for their children. VI. Conclusion Children begin to imitate and learn quickly from their surroundings at a very young age. When aggressive behaviors are what is seen being performed by others, either live or from video images. Observing and imitating other people’s behavior is one of the most important sources involved in the development of a young child’s motor and social skills. Similarly, children observe social interactions and their consequences from numerous sources: parents, peers, older siblings, and even fictional characters portrayed in the media. Children are more likely to imitate a behavior that is followed by a reward than a behavior followed by a punishment. Video games are one and the most significant of such violent social interaction exposures. 1. Restate Thesis: The negative influence of violent media is like pollution because it is harmful and causes negative consequences. 2. Restate Reasons and Summarize Grounds: Violent media may be a contributing cause to horrific events such as 2012 Aurora shooting by increasing aggression. Violent media increases aggression in people’s mind because it teaches how to aggress, how to associate violence with pleasure, and dehumanizes people. 3. Tell Reader what she/he can do to enact your argument. If I were you, I would try to make my children to stay away from those for safety of every children of America. Works Cited Anderson, Craig A., and Brad J. Bushman. "Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature." American Psychological Society 12 (2001): 353-59. Iowa State University. Web. 22 Sept. 2012. . Kirsh, Steven J. "The Effects of Violent Video Games on Adolescents The Overlooked Influence of Development." Aggression and Violent Behavior 8 (2002): 377-89. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. Hossini, Fatemeh, Reza Rezaeeshrazi, Mir H. Salehian, and Amir Dana. "The Effect of Violent and Non-Violent Computer Games on Changes in Salivary Cortisol Concentration in Male Adolescents." Annals of Biological Research 6 (2011): 175-78. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. Narvaez, Darcia. "Playing Violent Video Games: Good or Bad?" Moral Landscape (2010): n. pag. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. Schaenman, Philip, Hollis Stambaugh, Jim Kudla, Harold Cohen, Dr., and Darryl Sensenig. Mass Shootings at Virginia Tech: Report of the Review Panel. Rep. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Governor of Virginia. Web. 16 Apr. 2007. . Elizabeth Carll, "Violent Video Games: Rehearsing Aggression," Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 2012 Bushman, Brad J., and Craig A. Anderson. "Comfortably Numb Desensitizing Effects of Violent Media on Helping Others." Psychological Science 20 (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 10 Nov. 2012.Han 9 Carnagey, Nicholas L., Craig A. Anderson, and Bruce D. Bartholow. "New Questions and New Opportunities." Current Directions in Psychological Science 16.4 (n.d.): n. pag. Wake Forest University. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. Anderson,, Craig A., Leonard Berkowitz,, and Edward Donnerstein,. "The Influence of Media Violence on Youth." Psychological Science in the Public Interest 4 (2003): n. pag. Iowa State University. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. Read More