Mental Health and Violence in the Media

Violence in the media and the effect it has on people has been a constant cause for concern for society. Many believe that exposure to violent media increases violent and aggressive behaviors in the same way experiencing real-life violence does (Huesmann, 2007). Short-term exposure to violent media has been seen to increase the probability of physical and verbal aggression, as well as aggressive thoughts and emotions. Research has found that long-term exposure of violence in the media, specifically during childhood, has been linked to exhibiting aggression later in life, including increases the chances of physical assaults and intimate partner violence (Anderson et al, 2003). It is for this reason, this writeup will assess the different models of examining violence in the media, the impact it has on children and adolescents, as well as the effect violence in the news has on people.     There are many models that have been developed to ascertain the exact effect of violence in the media on people. The hypodermic needle model is one that proposes behavior in the media is injected into viewers who then inculcate these viewed behaviors. This theory also supports the claim that viewing violence in the media is no different than experiencing it in real life (Ferguson and Beresin, 2017). This theory has been criticized as violence is the result of an interplay of a multitude of factors, such as environmental and psychological factors, that would contribute to aggressive behavior (Eliah, 2019). The General Aggression Model is one that seeks to explain aggressive behavior in terms of media violence effects by taking into consideration developmental, personality, social, biological, and social factors (Allen et al, 2018). This theory establishes a causal relationship between violence in the media and societal violence.  The catalyst model, on the other hand, postulates that an interaction between the genetic risk of aggression with a cruel environment leads to the development of pathological aggression. It also suggests that media violence acts as a catalyst for aggressive behavior and differentiates between exposure to real-life violence and that viewed in media (Ferguson and Beresin, 2017). This model also emphasizes on biological factors, such as having an inherently aggressive personality, being the reason for violent behavior, specifically during times of environmental strains, such as financial or social problems (Shufen et al, 2016).     There are many professionals in the field of sociology, psychology, and pediatrics that have been intrigued by the effects of violence in the media on children and methods of mitigating these harmful effects. Coker et al (2015) assessed the effect of television, video games, and music violence on fifth-grade children and discovered that media violence exposure has an association to physical aggression in children, along with sociodemographic factors such as home and neighborhood violence, the gender of the child, and mental health symptoms. Levels of proactive aggression in irritation situations and reactive aggression in low-irritation situations has been seen to rise with long-term exposure to violence in the media. This is due to the increased individual anger and individual aggression that is activated due to the provocative stimuli in media violence (Han et al, 2020). Exposure to television violence also increases the likelihood of children using violence as a means of conflict resolution (Pieper, 2022). Low exposure to real-life or media violence can result in increased blood pressure and anxiety for adolescents watching violent movie scenes. On the other hand, increased exposure to real-life violence causes low physiological reactivity to media violence due to desensitization (Madan et al, 2014). Along with increasing violent and aggressive behavior, violent media has also been seen to decrease helping behavior, empathy, and compassion for other people (Bushman and Anderson, 2015).     Along with its effects on children, recent research has also focused on whether online violence ever spills over to offline violence among young people. Youth violence, such as gang violence, bullying, and even self-directed violence, has been observed to occur in online spaces. Online violence is not only limited to online spaces but can even spill over as face-to-face acts of violence (Patton et al, 2014). A study done (Elsaesser et al, 2021) to assess the reasons for the spill of online to offline violence discovered that romantic conflicts were one of the main reasons for this. Video streaming and comments on social media platforms were also seen to spark online threats and increase the risk for offline violence. The findings of this study prove that violence on social media escalates interpersonal peer conflict. The increased violence on social media since the onset of the current Covid-19 pandemic has skyrocketed the risk for spillovers such as these. Studies done on violence in the media during the Covid-19 pandemic has found that abusive conversations on Reddit and Twitter increased after lockdown measures were enforced in March of 2020. Abuse-related subreddits had the highest activity growth, even more than subreddits posting about sensitive topics such as mental health (Babvey et al, 2021).    In recent years the news has become progressively more violent and distressing, and with the advent of social media news of this nature has also become ubiquitous. Research has shown that short-term fright reactions and long-term worry can be triggered in children exposed to television news violence (Molen and Bushman, 2008). Many headlines and news articles intend to be eye-catching and have the tendency to normalize associating violence with mental disorders, worsening the stigma surrounding mental health. That being said, violence in the news adversely affects older people and their perceptions of reality as well. This skewed portrayal of violent individuals who have mental illnesses distorts social perceptions in relation to the nature of people who suffer from mental health issues. People then ascribe to the notion that all people with mental disorders exhibit violent behaviors (Ciyem et al, 2020). The news tends to misrepresent people who undergo violence. This is especially the case for survivors of sexual violence. Rape myths and western beauty standards are recurring themes in articles, videos, or images of sexual violence. The news tends to perpetuate the false belief that rape only takes place in secluded outdoor places and also fuels the concept of passivity in survivors, often portraying them as weak, helpless, and devoid of the agency to leave their victim status (Schwark, 2017).     In conclusion, there is a myriad of research that has proven the effect of violence in the media on increasing violence and aggression in children, which then increases the likelihood of them becoming aggressive or violent adults. The proliferation of violent news stories and posts on social media has risen the chance of online violence turning into real-life violence, especially for young people. Violence in the news also perpetuates misconceptions in regards to mental health and specific violent behavior, such as that of a sexual nature.  

References:

Allen, J.J., Anderson, C.A., and Bushman, B.J., 2018. The General Aggression Model. Current Opinion in Psychology, 19, pp. 75-80.

Anderson, C.A. et al, 2003. The Influence of Media Violence on Youth. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4(3), pp. 81-110.

Babvey, P. et al, 2021. Using social media data for assessing children’s exposure to violence during the Covid-19 pandemic. Child Abuse & Neglect, 116(2), 104747.

Bushman, B.J. and Anderson, C.A., 2015. Understanding Causality in the Effects of Media Violence. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(14), pp. 1807-1821.

Ciyem, E. et al, 2020. A retrospective examination of the content of violence in headlines of news related to individuals with mental disorders. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 34(6), pp. 545-556.

Coker, T.R. et al, 2015. Media Violence Exposure and Physical Aggression in Fifth-Grade Children. Academic Pediatrics, 15(1), pp. 82-88.

Eliah, J., 2019. The Hypodermic Needle Theory at Work: Understanding Violent Media and The Connection Between Media Violent Actions. Mediated Minds Conference, Blue Ash.

Elsaesser, C. et al, 2021. Small becomes big, fast: Adolescent perceptions of how social media features escalate online conflict to offline violence. Children and Youth Services Review, 122, 105898.

Ferguson, C.J. and Beresin, E., 2017. Social science’s curious war with pop culture and how it was lost: The media violence debate and the risks it holds for social science. Preventive Medicine, 99, pp. 69-76.

Han, L. et al, 2020. The long-term effect of media violence exposure on aggression of youngsters. Computers in Human Behavior, 106, 106257.

Huesmann, L.R., 2007. The Impact of Electronic Media Violence: Scientific Theory and Research, 41(6), pp. S6-S13.

Madan, A., Mrug, S., and Wright, R.A., 2014. The Effects of Media Violence on Anxiety in Late Adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43, pp. 116-126.

Molen, J.H.W. and Bushman, B.J., 2008. Children’s Direct Fright and Worry Reactions to Violence in Fiction and News Television Programs. The Journal of Pediatrics, 153(3), pp. 420-424.

Patton, D.U. et al, 2014. Social media as a vector for youth violence: A review of the literature. Computers in Human Behavior, 35, pp. 548-553.

Pieper, C., 2022. Television Programming and Violence. Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, & Conflict (Third Edition), 4, pp. 259-267.

Schwark, S., 2017. Visual Representations of Sexual Violence in Online News Outlets. Front.Psychol, 8:774.

Shufen, X., Ying, J., Danyang, W., and Chongde, L., 2016. Catalyst Model: Does Media Violence Really Predict Societal Violence? Psychological Science, 39(6), pp. 1485-1491.