Essay

Essay on the relationship between media and violence

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Media and violence

Institution
London Metropolitan University (LMU)

A 2600-word essay. To what extent can it be argued that the media can cause and/or facilitate violence and criminal behaviour? This essay critically explores this issue, providing examples and referring to psychological and sociological theories.

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Uploaded on January 25, 2025
Number of pages 6
Written in 2023/2024
Type Essay
Professor(s) Unknown
Grade A

To what extent can it be argued that the media can cause and/or facilitate violence and
criminal behaviour?

During the last century, there have been significant changes through the spreading of
mass media, in particular television. This paper aims to examine the extent to which the
observation of TV violence may cause or facilitate antisocial behaviours. A brief review of
supporting experiments and longitudinal studies is presented. Subsequently, the
concept of media framing is analysed to understand how values and beliefs can be
shaped by the sight of graphic content. By supporting the social-cognitive information-
processing model proposed by Huesmann (1982), this paper will discuss the short-term
and long-term effects of media violence exposure. Specifically, it will examine how the
processes of media priming, arousal, and mimicry enhance the likelihood of behaviours
related to TV violence to be performed by viewers. Consequently, it will explore the
processes of observational learning, arousal, and suppression of emotions. Finally,
moderators such as viewers’ characteristics, identification with TV characters, and
perception of realism are discussed. Media violence refers to visually depicted acts of
physical or non-physical aggression between two characters, with an effort to identify
the type of violent representations more likely to encourage viewers to be more
aggressive (Huesmann, 2007). The type of content and how it is presented influences the
media violence association with real-world aggression (Huesmann and Taylor, 2006) and
leads to a rise in short-term and long-term hostility. A first study conducted by Centerwall
(1993) on violent crime in the United States was based on the hypothesis that if violent
television had an impact on antisocial behaviours, there would have been an increase in
crime rates in the country following the introduction of television. The results showed
that the crime rate rose but years later than predicted when children became
adolescents and were more prone to become involved in violent behaviours (Coyne,
2007). A possible explanation for these results may lay in the disregard of other
numerous factors such as social-economic status, demographic and social structure
changes, which, according to Ferguson (2002), play a role in influencing crime rates,
regardless of the presence of media contents. However, further research has collected
evidence suggesting that watching TV violence increases the viewer's risk of aggressive
attitudes and behaviours (Huesmann, 2007), particularly among youth. Experiments
have been carried out to establish a causal relationship between the observation of
graphic content and changes in behaviour. For instance, Huesmann and Moise (1998)
theorized that the best predictor of antisocial behaviour in adolescence and adulthood
is exposure to violence during childhood. Their idea was supported by laboratory studies
which showed how children imitated aggressive models after watching them (Martins et
al., 2013), and that such exposure increased the levels of aggression throughout
adolescence. In another experiment conducted by Josephson (1987), 369 children were
randomly allocated to view either a violent or nonviolent movie before playing a game.
Those who were exposed to the first clip acted more aggressively than those exposed to
the second clip. Moreover, the sight of movie-related cues influenced the likelihood of

, behaving violently, and the same effects were found in young adults (Josephson, 1987).
Nonetheless, although the findings from these studies suggest that exposure to media
violence may facilitate real-life aggression, they are insufficient to prove that a causal
link exists out of laboratory conditions. Such studies do not rule out the influence of other
factors and only focus on the short-term effects of exposure to media violence,
disregarding the long-term consequences. According to Browne and Herbert (1997),
factors including abusive parents and poverty may influence the vulnerability of an
individual to become violent later in life. To overcome such limitations, various
longitudinal studies have been carried out (Huesmann and Kirwil, 2007, p.547). An
example is the work undertaken by Eron and colleagues (1972). The results indicated that
when children were exposed to violent television programmes at age 8, they became
more aggressive at age 18 and age 30. This corroborates the theory that early childhood
TV violence exposure correlates with adult aggressive behaviour. Importantly, the effect
was present after controlling for parental style, social class level, child initial
aggressiveness and academic achievement (Coyne, 2007). However, such research falls
short of effectively addressing the nuances of media contents, the audience's distinctive
features, and the socio-cultural context in which the observation took place (Jewkes,
2009), which may have interfered with the media effects. One of the major elements
mediating the relationship between TV violence and aggressive behaviour is media
framing. This concept refers to the selection, emphasises, and exclusion of certain
aspects of a message or story (Entman, 1993). According to Barnett (2016), public
perceptions and beliefs can be shaped by media framing. Previous research on violence
against women portrayed on television illustrates this point clearly. The way in which the
media highlight women’s role in the family and gender norms legitimizes aggression
against them (Bonnes, 2013). Furthermore, women are portrayed as submissive and
objectified, reinforcing traditional characteristics of femininity. At the same time, men’s
sexually aggressive behaviours are promoted, and violence is normalized (Naylor, 2001).
By depicting women as powerless and depersonalised, and by justifying men’s actions,
the media support the misconception that women enjoy rape (Cole, 2005). Through
media framing, people's thoughts, judgements, and behaviours toward specific social
groups can be shaped by constant exposure to biased information, causing them to
conform to stereotyped images (Arendt, 2013). Since such preconceptions are regularly
triggered in the media, they are more likely to become accessible to all viewers (Devine,
1989). Therefore, through the normalization of violent acts and victim-blaming, men may
become more inclined to be aggressive towards women. A widely recognized model in
the study of the relationship between media violence and aggressive behaviour is the
social-cognitive information-processing model proposed by Huesmann (1982).
According to the author, people learn and behave in specific ways following encounters
with their social surroundings, whether real or fictional (Huesmann, 1982). A crucial
element is the idea that behaviour is regulated by social scripts. Thus, an aggressive
individual is a person with several scripts that highlight violence. The model describes

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Essay on the relationship between media and violence

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