Patrick Flood

Does Media Violence Cause Real Violence?

Media Violence, or more specifically, video game violence has been a
popular debate among families and researchers. Does media violence cause
real violence? is the question here. Since the beginning of popularity for
violent video games there has been violent terrible events such as shootings
that have been said to coincide with these video games. Many people
believe that violent video gaming results in violent behavior, but others
believe there is little or no connection between the two.
In 1993 a violent shooting video game called Doom was released.
Sparking a huge interest from the masses for more shooting games and
other violent video games. After the release of Doom came the school
shootings in Paducah, Kentucky; Springfield, Oregon; and Littleton, Colorado.
In all three cases, press accounts emphasized that the shooters loved Doom,
making it appear that the critics' predictions about video games were coming
true. (Sternheimer, 2007) Although over the next decade the research and
suspected results were taken for a twist with a new era of violent video
gaming on the rise, the percentage of homicide arrests for youth actually
decreased by 77%, thus proving that violence was actually not being caused
solely by the violent video game era. At the end of those ten years, two
video game series were released Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto
series. Both series very violent and both combined have sold over 400

million games since their release date in 2003. (Sternheimer, 2007) Even
though there has been a decrease in youth violence, it is not completely safe
to say that violent video games dont contribute to real world violence. Just
because the rates have gone down, doesnt mean that the violence that is
happening isnt caused by thoughts, tendencies, and actions provoked by
violent gaming.
But along with this Decrease in youth violence, an APA research
conducted in 2013 has helped connect media violence to real violence,
although the APA has also stated "No single risk factor consistently leads a
person to act aggressively or violently, Rather, it is the accumulation of risk
factors that tends to lead to aggressive or violent behavior. The research
reviewed here demonstrates that violent video game use is one such risk
factor." (Caspari, 2015) Those opposed to the "Call of Duty" and "Grand
Theft Auto" and other series are not completely right about their assumed
connection.
With this increase in violent video games, it has been a concern for
many that video games are making a turn from family friendly/uniting to
violence, selfish, and shooting. I mentioned that two violent video game
series are collectively selling over 400 million games so far but along with
those top series we have others that have found their ways to the top. Five
of the 10 best-selling video games in the United States last year were
violent, adult-rated games, including the three most popular games, two

versions of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" and "Halo 4."The top 10 also
included family fare and sports games, such as "Kinect Adventures!" "Just
Dance 4" and "Madden NFL 13." (Fisher, 2013) Its no longer lets sit down as
a family and play some friendly super Mario or Just Dance! Its now, I just
wanna be the top shooter in Call of Duty, or Halo!
In the midst of these top selling violent games being sold in 2007,
University of New Mexico pediatrician Victor Strasburger estimated that 10
percent to 30 percent of the violence in society was attributable to media
content. (Bailey, 2015) The research to come up with such a statistic was
done by having teenagers, young adults and even adults play aggressive
games in the shooting or fighting genre. After being subject to playing such
games for about 15 minutes or so, they would then be put in situations that
would test their behavior. From ways such as how loud a noise blast a player
administers to an unseen (fictitious) subject; how much hot sauce he or she
adds to food that an unseen subject will eat (Bailey, 2015) The results
followed to show that those who were subject to the violent video games did
have tendencies to use the louder noise or give more hot sauce and also
through questionnaires it was proven that these people had more tendencies
to think and talk more aggressively.
In conclusion, There are many different factors that contribute to
violence in the world. Whether it be youth or adults, it has been proven that

video game violence can and may be a considerable factor when speaking of
real world violence. But it is not a certain and only factor that contributes.

Sources
Caspari, Sarah. "Does Virtual Violence Provoke Real Rage? Yes and No."
Christian Science Monitor. 18 Aug. 2015: n.p.
Sternheimer, Karen. "Do Video Games Kill?." Contexts Vol. 6, No. 1. Winter
2007: 13-17.
Fisher, Marc. "Video-Game Creators in the Crossfire." Washington Post. 09
Apr. 2013: C.1.
Bailey, Ronald. "Kill Pixels, Not People." Reason. Feb. 2015: 16.
Martens, Todd. "These Games Get Real About Life." Los Angeles Times. 05
Aug. 2015: E.1.