Does watching violence produce violence?

It has be a question that has been playing on our minds for a very long time, but is there a definite answer?

Over the years people have become desensitised to violence. It’s everywhere on the news, in films, and various other places. The media shows it everywhere that it is almost “normal” to see or hear about someone getting stabbed or ripped into with a chainsaw. 50 years ago, a violent film such as “Saw” would have shocked the audience as they weren’t so exposed to so much brutal violence.

Now days we have all seen a range of violence and it has almost given us a “moral limit”. Seeing the media and society’s reaction to real life violence and violence in different media texts gives us a limit or understanding of what is acceptable or not. We see the effects and problems that violence creates in media texts that we don’t want to do it ourselves; it also fulfils our curiosities and we gain pleasure causing catharsis.

However some may agree that violence is mirrored by violence in media. They believe that viewing violence creates aggressive feelings and thoughts. For example 1993 was the year of The Bulger Case. Three year old James Bulger was kidnapped by two 10 year olds who brutally murdered him. It created a moral panic because the two kids rein-acted a scene from 1991 horror film Child’s Play 3, by splashing Jamie with blue paint, which made people question the acceptability of violence in films. This reinforces the Hypodermic Model Theory- that the media injects ideas into its audiences; and the media effects idea that people will imitate what they see on TV. It could be argued that the boys lived in a neglected house hold and were vulnerable to anything they saw.

Another example of media effects is when a French boy obsessed with the film Scream watched it and the same night decided to kill someone. He admitted to murdering a 15 year old girl, who was stabbed 17 times. However, he said he had hallucinations after watching the fill- hearing voices which said to kill his parents, and the teenager was sent to a psychiatric hospital. Again it could be argued that he was not in a mentally fit state to judge his own actions as right or wrong.

In 2004 Stefan Pakeerah, 14, was murdered by his friend who, according to his mother, was obsessed with the video game “Manhunt”. This created a moral panic due to sensationalisation and companies such as Game removing the sales of the game. However it was found that the game had no link to the murder, but that Stefan owned the game, not his murderer. This shows that the media can exaggerate an idea again reinforcing the Hypodermic Model theory.

At first I didn’t think watching violence produced violence. But now I have reconsidered my opinion: It doesn’t produce violence depending on the individual. It all depends on a wide range of things such as the experiences you have encountered, your mental state and you maturity or age. Some may understand what is morally right or wrong and some don’t. Overall, no, watching violence does not produce violence.