Summary of First Source

From a public-health perspective, there is support that violent imagery has short-term effects on arousal, thoughts, and emotions, increasing the likelihood of aggressive or fearful behavior. However, the research does not correlate as well with older children and teenagers in this case. The research that discusses sex differences, suggests that boys are more likely to show aggression after viewing violent media than girls. That is something that had always been a long argued topic because many feel that boys are naturally more aggressive and therefore more likely to be influenced by violent subjects. Long-term outcomes for children viewing media violence are more controversial, mostly because of the practical difficulties in linking behavior with past viewing. Theories of aggression have been used to explain these effects have predicted a stronger influence of media violence for those with a predisposition for aggressive behavior because of their disposition or situational factors like growing up inside a violent home environment or even both. However, there is only weak evidence from correlation studies linking media violence directly to crime, but certainly enough to be able to claim that media violence does have some sort of negative effect on children and their development.

I don’t necessarily agree with their findings for a number of reasons. I myself grew up pretty well exposed to everything on TV, movies, and videogames including violence. But I cannot honestly say that at any time I felt inclined to imitate what I had seen on TV. If at all, it would be more likely to see me trying to fly like superman or dunk a basketball like Michael Jordan. So I guess from there you can at least make the assumption that media will always have an effect on child development because when we are young it is a “Monkey see, monkey do” attitude, but I don’t think that’s enough to jump to saying violence on TV is the only factor that makes children violent. But don’t get me wrong, I understand exactly what the author is saying, and he also doesn’t feel that media is the only attribute to violence. He also points out how other factors such as environment or a previous disposition, but my response is more to those out there who feel like media is the real villain in the exposition of violence to our children.