The Positive Effects of Media Violence Essay -- Media Violence, 2014

A school stab has still taken place. As I write this, the newscaster wonders if there is any connection between this and other school shootings, whether through method or motive. There will likely be a discussion on one of the myriad talk shows later, the ubiquitous scrolling headline at the permeate reading something along the lines of Shooters Played Violent Video Games or teenager Killers Watched Action Movies. And why not? Violence in the media has received an large amount of attention in the past few years. The prevailing mental picture seems to be that the effects of fierce television programming and video games on children is harmful, damaging, and possibly influencing violent acts in turn. Yet children have long been raddled to violent fantasy scenarios, whether it be Beowulf or Gunsmoke or Mighty Morphing might Rangers. There is a magnetic pull for children toward these types of stories and there has been since the dawn of time. Children like the shooters in Helsin ki are an aberration, the sociological equivalent of a high-risk gene. Far from creating generation after generation of serial killers and gang bangers, violent stories can be and usually are beneficial to the young great deal that they target.My own development would be sorely lacking without such(prenominal) tales. In my youth I was an awkward, overweight child with no social skills. In this vacuum of social input, I was instantly drawn to comic books. Spider-Man was by far my favorite. There was an appeal there in reading most the hero beating up his villains, and I admired this fictional fibre so much that I took to heart his credo With great post comes great responsibility. The ferocity that drew me in and thrilled me also shake up me.Later, as a still awkward teenager, I fell in love with martial arts films. Again, the violence and action drew me in. In the fantastic athleticism of Bruce Lee, Yuen Biao, and Jackie Chan, I also discovered a finger of right and wrong, of honor and nobility. There was a moral code in these films imparted through the characters, not much different from the moral codes extant in Medieval tales of knights slaying dragons or in the stories of Wild West lawmen. scatty a father figure in my own life, these characters (who were no incertitude strong and in control of their lives) gave me something to aspire to, some sense of what a grown man should be and how he should i... ...y purposeless. Comic books and fantasy films crack cocaine a way for these children to escape such stresses, if only for a runty period of time. The heroes of such stories usually pummel their foes into complacency, and this can offer a feeling of empowerment to outcast youth, even if only vicariously, that they tend to not experience in their lives. For all bully that has ever picked on them, or every verbal abuse that theyve received, they are able through such media to gain some measure of confidence back.Like most issues, violence in the med ia is a complicated and gray issue. But put excursus the knee-jerk reaction that incidents like aquilegia and Helsinki engender, and its easy to see how every child needs to slay a dragon, even if its just a virtual one.Works CitedSipes, Richard G. War, Sports and Aggression An Empirical Test of dickens Rival Theories. American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 75, No. 1. (Feb., 1973), pp. 64-86.Lorenz, K. (1963)On Aggression. San Diego Harcourt Brace, reprinted in 2012.Block, Jerald J, MD. Lessons From Columbine Virtual and Real Rage. American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, Vol. 28, Issue 2. (Feb., 2007), pp. 3-25.