Is Violence in the Media Good for You?

Violence in all forms of media has been prevalent for as long as media has existed, but never has the debate concerning its significant impact on society raged as strongly as it does today. In a society such as ours, anything remotely borderline is much more likely to receive accusation of producing negative effects on anything than it is to receive support for its positive effects. Because of this, the research on the issue has been more to prove that violence in media has caused real world violence or to disprove this research, rather than to actually create research on its positive effects. According to Richard Rhodes, a popular leader in the debate against the causal relation between media violence and its real-life counterpart, the major research which supposedly proves this relation is "poorly conceived, scientifically inadequate, biased and sloppy if not actually fraudulent." So, it's not too hard to say media violence causing real violence has no hard evidence to support it, but does that mean it's actually good?

Gerard Jones and Melanie Moore have said, although without the aid of research, that "violent media is good for kids," because it allows them to experience their natural feelings of desire for violence and destruction without actually doing anything violent or destructive. This is especially true of videogames, but similarly so through vicarious feelings while watching TV or movies. The ancient Greek idea of catharsis certainly lends credence to this idea. It basically says that if a feeling is felt by a person, but acted out on stage, that person experiences a similar release of feeling as if he'd actually indulged it. Certainly, boys and any young children have some natural aggression, and if the idea of catharsis can be applied to current media, the violence in it may actually lower their own propensity towards violence and aggression. We all know that cartoons are full of violence, with Tom & Jerry always fighting, Bugs Bunny comically beating someone up and plenty more.

But even if there were not any reason as easily acceptable as violent media actually lowering violence, it is at least well supported on economic grounds. The truth is that violent media simply sells better. And what sells better, sells more. In a day where a booming economy is of more concern to the general population than world peace, the consumption of violent media is a major driving factor towards that. People may have to realign their total moral values, but if economy is of utmost importance (as it is to many), it can't be denied that violent media contributes greatly to our current economic success.

Nonetheless, these several statements and ideas of its possible positive effects are not strong enough to outweigh the possible bad effects. Yet, neither does the strength of the argument towards its bad effects outweigh the positive ones. After research on the issue, the outcome is still neutral. The scientific evidence for the negative effects is so small and poorly researched as to render it inconclusive, yet I could not even find attempted research to support the claims towards violent media's positive effects.

I have been a consumer of violent media for as long as I can remember and as I have grown up my taste for violent content has only increased. However, the idea of violence is one that I stray as far away from as possible, especially the idea of committing violence myself. I believe that the effects of violence in media are more a factor of the individual's predisposition than the manner or extent of the violence in the media itself. If a person is prone to real-life violence because of real-life situations they've been involved in (i.e. child abuse, school bullying, etc.) or because of the rationalization of certain types of violence within their cultural upbringing, violent media may help to push such a person over the edge. Or it may release their feelings of aggression. At the moment, there is still no hard-and-fast conclusion that can be taken and you'll have to decide for yourself how media violence is affecting you or those you love.