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Correlation Between Media And Aggression

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Among media researchers and the court of public opinion, violence on the television can be blamed for accelerated aggression, but whether or not it results in violence is another story. Aggression is defined as “any behavior intended to harm another person who does not want to be harmed.” Aggression can be in the form of verbal threats or as severe as physical attacks with intent to harm. Violence, however, is defined as “aggression that has as its goal extreme physical harm.” Brad J. Bushman (Ohio State University, VU University Amsterdam), Carlos Cruz (Ohio Stae University), and Mario Gollwitzer (Philipps University Marburg), attempted to review studies and researchers by asking a series of questions in order to determine whether there was an actual disagreement to the question of media violence induced …show more content…

Violent TV Media may indeed be to blame for short blasts of aggression, but is there a correlation between media and violence? In the wake of the Newtown shooting, where 20 children and 6 school employees were tragically gunned down by Adam Lanza (after killing his own mother), speculation was justified when researchers found out that Lanza had a fascination with Call of Duty, a violent war game in which he had “notched up 83,000 online kills including 22,000 head shots.” However, determining whether Call of Duty can be directly blamed for the slaughter is a more complex argument. Most agree that extremely violent crimes such as mass shootings take several triggers and are not instigated by one aspect of life, even if that aspect is an imaginary place where the gamer kills thousands of people. (Bushman, B. J., Gollwitzer, M., & Cruz, C., 2015) The fact is, the vast majority people who play these video games are not planning on hurting

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