How Does Media Perpetuate or Contribute to Violence in Society?

An analysis of 217 psychological studies has concluded that exposure to media violence is correlated to committing violence in real life.  However, correlation does not equate to causation; this means that even though data may show rates of exposure and acts rising together, we cannot definitively say that one is the cause of the other.  The link between media and violence continues to be a complex and debatable topic.

Following up on my previous post, here is a specific example of a time when suicide rates increased following news reports of a well-known person’s suicide.  US suicide rates increased 10% in the 4 months following Robin Williams’ suicide.  Since suicide is a form of violence, and has been known to increase after news reports of suicides, is the media partially responsible for inspiring more violence in these cases?  If hearing sad and depressing news stories makes people feel more reminded of their own sadness and depression, does this mean that repeatedly hearing of violence in the news might bring out the violence in someone too?

This is a report from the Oxford Journal of Epidemiology, stating that a population sees an immediate increase in suicide rates after the report of a well-known person’ suicide is reported in media.  I remember hearing as a high school student that more suicides were more likely to occur among kids after news of one student’s suicide.  For some reason, news of one suicide tends to spike an increase in more.  Perhaps hearing of one person do it amplifies the suicidal thoughts of someone who was considering it before.  Is it better for suicides to receive less media coverage for this reason?

Many studies have suggested that social media use may increase depression, which is an entirely different topic that could be investigated in great depths.  This particular study examines the link between social media use and teen suicide, and since suicide is a form a violence, I found it relevant to my topic.  Between cyberbullying, promotion of unrealistic life/body images, and feelings of loneliness, teens have admitted to social media causing them to feel new stress factors.  To an emotionally developing teen, can these stress factors contribute to them choosing suicide?

It seemed that violence from far-right extremists rose drastically in recent years, given the high coverage of such incidents in the media.  However, it appears that homicides committed by far-right extremists in 2017 were on par with national averages since 1990.  Homicides committed by far-left extremists did see a rise in 2017, since this group was previously known to commit mostly property damage with few fatal acts.  I wonder if the high amount of media attention given to far-rightists’ actions gave some influence to the far-leftists to commit more violent crimes in retaliation.  If so, this is an example of media painting a violent picture that caused a violent response.

Some theorize that Anders Breivik may have become more “radicalized” by reading online hate speech and participating in chatrooms.  While social media has the ability to bring together many people with similar interests, this can be a downside if these people have violent ideals.  Online forums can become a home for radicals and terrorists to encourage each other and feel strength in a group, even though they are a small percentage of people in the normal population and may feel small or weak on their own.

In another article related to Russia’s use of media to cause tensions, their recent propaganda campaigns have been compared to their actions in the Cold War.  Hacking of technologies was a tactic used to destabilize their enemies during the war.  Russia seems to be using similar tactics today, by hacking and creating fake social media accounts to cause tension in the US.  If hacking in media and technologies can be used as a war strategy, it is not a far stretch to consider media to be a weapon.

We have all probably heard of recent social media accounts being shutdown because they belonged to Russian “trolls”.  These accounts were created by Russians to spread propaganda aimed at influencing politics and creating social tension in the US.  One of the main goals was to “exacerbate racial tension”, creating more of a divide among US citizens.  This tactic could weaken our country by pitting citizens against each other.  Increases in social tension can lead to violent actions.  This is an example of social media being used as a weapon, to intentionally stimulate violence.

As I have mentioned before, sometimes media stories about a violent or upsetting event can cause people to react angrily and violently in response.  With the upsetting cases of unjustified killings by police receiving more attention in the media than ever before, many people have felt outraged and want to see a change.  Outrage over police actions exploded on all social media platforms, and people began organizing protests.  Most of the protesting was peaceful, but one man was inspired by all the negative media stories and social media forums in a different way; his response to hearing about the violence was to create more violence, by killing police officers in Dallas. 

This article lists several examples of people who committed crimes and admitted to having some inspiration from a TV show or movie.  These people may have been violent or mentally ill people who were likely to commit a crime anyway, however they may have been encouraged by what they saw on screen.  It may have given them ideas of how to cause more harm at once, such as the teenager who was inspired by Fight Club to make a bomb.  Multiple of the criminals listed were teenaged, which is an age characterized by lack of judgement, impulsiveness, and being easily influenced.  This may cause one to question: if these teenagers had non-violent shows and characters to look to as an influence, would they have been less likely to commit violent crimes? 

We often hear about people receiving death threats after their stories go viral.  In this case, people did not even have the correct facts of what happened but were already eager to jump in with angry opinions and violent threats to this family.  Why do people blindly trust a story when there are multiple reports of an event that say different things, and these people were not there to know what really happened?  Why do people react so violently to stories they hear in the media?  Does the media purposely try to create such strong emotional responses, even if the response is anger or violence?

One of my personal theories on the issue is that maybe if a correlation is drawn between violent game players and violent actions in real life, it is partly because people who are violent are more attracted to playing such games.  Maybe the games didn't make them that way, but the themes in the games appealed to the violence that was already in these people’s minds?  At the same time, young children have very impressionable minds, which can be easily affected by influences in their environment.  I do not think it is a stretch to say video games could be an influential part of their environment if they play them enough.

This article explains different psychological theories that pertain to mass communication (media).  The one that I found most interesting was number 5: Sensitization Theory.  Most of us have heard of Desensitization Theory- the idea that we see violence in media so much that we begin to accept it as normal life and are no longer phased by real violence- but Sensitization Theory is not as widely discussed.  Sensitization Theory is the idea that after seeing violence, people have a MORE emotional reaction that can cause anger outbursts and more violence. 

This article exposes an example of how media can spread misinformation that has the potential to perpetuate violence.  They took a horrible act of violence (the Florida high school shooting), and spun it into a story about white supremacy before finding any solid evidence.  The media knows that linking this event to a larger scale, known hate group would most likely cause a bigger uproar from the general population.  Causing public uproar has the potential to create violence.  The media was also giving a hate group exactly what they want: recognition and time in the spotlight.  This has the potential to inspire groups like that to perpetuate violence.

There has been a debate for a long time about whether or not video games and other media depicting obvious acts of violence will influence young kids to become more violent in real life.  We see violence in many forms of media, and perhaps this makes some people desensitized to it.  However, media may be influencing acts of violence in less obvious ways, such as news reports stirring up riots, or people becoming used to angrily posting on social media and then applying these emotion-fueled impulsive thoughts in real life.

A few statistics on childrens’ exposures from TV, does this have an effect on how they grow up and think?