Research paper: The Influence of Media Violence on Youth
Conducted by Ivan Nedeljkovic at University of Prishtina
Abstract
It has become a growing issue in the past few decades that media violence has influenced youth’s behavior, health, and it is regarded both time-consuming and depressing. First and foremost, this research paper will show how media violence produces its effects on aggressive and violent behavior, which features of media violence are most influential and how widespread and available is violence in the media (television, music, video games, Internet, movies). Secondly, it will describe, using results from various questionnaires including the one here conducted, both the correlation between the progression of video game violence and youth violence consumption throughout the 20th century and positive and negative effects violent video games cause. This research will provide essential data regarding whether violence in media has more of a positive or negative impact on youth’s mindset, behavior, health, and their mental development.
Research
Introduction
With the vast development of technology, in the past few decades, there has been a growing concern among the public over its influence on young generations. The biggest issue that seems to stand out is concerning the amount of violence being broadcasted on different types of media. The goal of this research is to find out what type of broadcasting should we, as viewers, be most concerned with controlling. In order to gain a deeper understanding of this issue, a questionnaire was conducted among the key demographic (young adults). Further down the line, this paper will be analyzing the subject in more detail, and try to provide data regarding the attitude our key demographic has towards the availability and restrictions of modern day technology contents. We will illustrate their opinion regarding different types of media and their position towards the general concern of the public about how easy it is for all generations to access any type of media with violent content. We will be tackling one of the biggest questions the community has regarding, by what margin, has the amount of violence increased over the past few decades; where it resides the most; has it influenced adolescents and in what way; and whether or not, we should, as a society, raise restrictions on such type of content in order to protect the easily influenced ones. By the end of this research paper, we will hopefully have a better understanding of the impact media violence has on adolescents. We will try to isolate who the biggest culprit is by using the results supplied via our questionnaire; whether it is a TV show, a movie or a video game and, offer a certain solution to the problem.
Methods
In order to receive feedback information regarding whether media violence has a negative effect on youth or not, the questionnaire was conducted which included 49 participants. The questionnaire was given to our key demographic (young adults) to fill by their free will, which they performed successfully. The questionnaire was mainly constructed quantitatively; however, there were 3 qualitative questions, where the participants were asked to give their own opinion regarding a certain topic. It is important to state that the questionnaire was constructed in the Serbian language because our key demographic (young adults) didn’t have a good command of the English language. The quantitative part of the questionnaire consists of 13 questions, where the participants were asked to declare how old they were, what they did for a living, what amount of time they spent using a certain type of media, whether the violence in media has gone out of control in the past few decades, whether it should be restricted for a certain age, whether it had some positive effect regarding their physical and mental abilities, and finally, they were asked to state their opinion whether or not parents are the ones who should be controlling the content of what their children see. On the other hand, a qualitative part of the questionnaire demanded their opinion regarding what type of media broadcasts violence the most, and whether or not the displayed violence had any influence on them.
Results
What is of the utmost importance is that every participant answered each question appropriately and adequately. 86% of our participants had between 21 and 27 years and were students; furthermore, 65% of them stated that they use electronic devices very often. Most of our participants thought that violence display in media has increased in the past few decades, while 7 of them believed it stayed the same. Surprisingly enough, 27 participants stated that violence in media has gone out of control, whereas 22 of them thought that it didn’t. What is even more interesting is that 35% of our participants totally agreed that violent media has a negative impact on the development and behavior of young adults. Additionally, 27% of them simply agreed, whilst 18% of them stayed neutral. This means that only 20% of our participants said that violent media doesn’t have a negative impact on the development and behavior of young adults. Furthermore, this issue will endure a certain contradiction in one of the following sections of this research. Judging by our participant’s responses, video games and movies were considered to be the most violent media with over 90% percent of our participants saying so, while only 10% said that TV series were dominant. Interestingly enough, no one stated that violence is the most prevalent in music. 67% of our participants assumed that there should be a legal restriction concerning the usage of violent contents and playing such games for a certain age. The majority of participants, 88% of them, thought that every child should have parental control and supervision.
Contradicting themselves while rattling through the questionnaire, almost 60% of our participants replied that video games enhance psychomotor development of young adults. Astonishingly, only 20% of all participants indicated that media violence directly influenced them, their development, and their worldview as well. How and in what manner media violence influenced them will be elaborated on and further discussed in one of the following segments of the paper. In addition, various particularities and interesting factoids will be provided so as to cater to everyone’s preferences.
Discussion
The findings that the questionnaire provided both support and refute the thesis that media violence has a direct impact on violent behavior of young adults. Furthermore, due to provokingly designed questions, participants managed to contradict themselves by inferring different conclusions on basically the same questions.
As it can be seen from Chart 1, over 60% of all participants stated that violence in media has a negative effect on development, cogitation and behavior.
But then, after questionnaire took a turn and started to demand feedbacks on positive statements regarding the influence of video games on psychomotor development of young adults, entire 59% of all participants suddenly changed their opinion and agreed (Chart 2).
Another important issue is the correlation between “video game violence” and “youth violence consumption”. According to Christopher J. Ferguson of Stetson University in Florida, examining gamers by way of subjecting them to various tests is wrong and, in order to verify the connection between video games and violence, Ferguson studied information that should indicate some correlations whether violent games were connected with violence. Afterward, Ferguson took 5 most popular games ranging from the years of 1996 to 2011, classified them from 1 to 5 for violent features established by the ESRB evaluations. The ESRB evaluations for every game were then calculated and analyzed by unit sold in order to see how violent video games went through the market. With all these sets of data in hand, Ferguson correlated the statistics in order to see if any overlapping would occur (Chart 3).
It did, but very briefly, around the year of 2000, and shortly afterwards video game violence took over, while the rates of youth violence consumption were persistently dropping.
When it comes to this correlation, the majority of our participants were already well-informed, even 86% of them thought that the display of violence in media has increased in the past few decades.
Further down the questionnaire, as could be assumed, our participants chose Defense of the Ancients 2 (DOTA 2) as their most preferred game, even though there were some more popular ones. Similarly, they were in favor of violent games (GTA, Resident Evil, DOTA 2, Counter-Strike, Other) rather than non-violent ones (Sims, Football Manager, and Angry Birds).
With reference to the part which describes how media violence influences our participants, the replies were very satisfactory. For instance, one of the participants said that it reflected very badly and, as a consequence, he must take his pills every day in order to keep his sanity intact, nerves stabilized and his life less miserable. Moreover, another participant stated that it reflected very negatively on his psyche so he started behaving more aggressively and became fearless, but it did give him a certain command of the English language. Few participants added that media violence reflected on their worldviews, therefore they realized that everything isn’t as easy as it seems. Even though the majority of participants stated, throughout the questionnaire, that they are in everyday contact with the violent contents coming out from media, only 20% of all participants said that it had any influence on them.
Conclusion
This research paper has shown that the effect of violent contents coming out of media can be both positive and negative. When it comes to positive effects media violence could cause, we came to the conclusion that video games, as one aspect of media violence, can enhance psychomotor abilities, multitasking and troubleshooting. On the other hand, when it comes to negative effects media violence could cause, we came to the conclusion that violent video games were actually the most popular ones, but also the most addictive. In addition, our participants stated that it changed them mentally and influenced their psyche in a very bad manner. Some participants even said that they experienced health problems in terms of back pain and episodes of occasional tantrum.
All these issues regarding negative effects of media violence, from our perspective, could be solved by parents namely by restricting or controlling their playing or watching time, depending on what type of media they are using.
Bibliography
Craig A. Anderson, Leonard B., Edward D., L.Rowell Huesmann, James D.J., Daniel L., Neil M.M., & Ellen W.(2003, December 3). The Influence of Media Violence on Youth. Department of Psychology, Iowa State University., Department of Psychology, Univesrity of Wisconsin. State of Iowa: Ames.
Goldstein, J. (2001). Does Playing Violent Video Games Cause Aggressive Behaviour?. Paper presented to Playing the Rules Conference, University of Chicago. State of Illinois: Chicago.
Craig A. Anderson, Brad J. Bushman. (2001, September 5). Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggresive Behavior, Agressive Cognition, Agressive Affect, Physhological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature. Iowa State Unveristy. Iowa: Ames.
Wekesser, C. (1995). Violence in the media. San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press.
Christopher J. Ferguson. (2014, November 5). The Most Objective Study Yet Finds No Link Between Video Games and Violence. Department of Psychology, Stetson University. State of Florida: DeLand. Retrieved from: http://www.nerdist.com/2014/11/the-most-objective-study-yet-finds-no-link-between-video-games-and-violence/
Rezime
U poslednjih nekoliko decenija, nasilje u medijima postaje sve veci problem iz razloga sto negativno utice na ponasanje i zdravlje mladih ljudi, I moze se okarakterisati kao “vremepotrosno” I depresivno. Kao prvo, ovaj istrazivacki rad nastoji da pokaze kako nasilje u medijima utice na agresivno I nasilno ponasanje, koje odlike nasilja u medijima imaju najveci uticaj I koliko je rasprostranjeno I dostupno nasilje u medijima (televizija, muzika, video igrice, internet, filmovi). Kao drugo, ovaj rad ce opisati, koristeci se pritom rezultatima raznoraznih upitnika ukljucujuci I onaj koji je ovde sproveden, korelaciju izmedju “rasta nasilja u video igricama” I “porasta nasilja kod dece” u 20 veku. Ovo istrazivanje pruza znacajne podatke, koji dovode u pitanje to da li nasilje u medijima ima vise pozitivan ili negativan uticaj na nacin razmisljanja, ponasanja, zdravlja I mentalnog razvoja omladine.
