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Opening debate.
Ever since video games become a popular worldwide
phenomenon, there has been a large debate whether or not
there is a link between video games and violence. Craig
Anderson was a university professor who created an
experiment to see if he could find a link between the two. From
his research he found that there is suggestion that playing
violent video games can in fact increase aggressive behaviour.
In the experiment that he conducted, contestants would play
1v1 in a reaction time game. The participant who lost had to
place their hand in a bucket of freezing cold water. Another
psychologist who has looked into the link between violence and
video games is Chris Ferguson who is professor at Stetson
University. Ferguson is completely against the idea that children
are becoming more aggressive and violent due to the time
spent playing video games; this is because youth violence is at
its lowest for the first time in forty years according to the
government.
There are a variety of ways in which audiences perceive media
and how it effects how they view certain things. The reception
theory for example is theory created which helps us understand
how certain people react to media. Based upon three aspects,
dominant reading, negotiated reading and oppositional reading,
this theory explains how certain absorb everything they are
seeing whilst some simple go against it. This theory comes with
arguments for and against when discussing the relationship
between violence and video games. When thinking about
dominant reading, the audience will accept what they are

playing/watching and will often reproduce it. The negotiated

reading is slightly different, as well as sharing the media they
have consumed, the audience can sometimes take the
information and modify it to fit their needs and reflect their own
opinion. Thirdly, there is oppositional reading. This is the
complete opposite to the dominant reading. In this part, they
go against what they are being said. Another theory which has
been around the base of the debate is the uses and
gratifications theory. This theory is similar to receptions theory,
as its all about what the audience does with the information
and how they use it to fill certain gratifications.

In America, 68% of American households

Stories that relate to video games
Facts and stats
Examples of games
First game linked to violence

Links between violence and video games is always exploited by

newspapers and the media. Giving a variety of popular games a
bad name for themselves. Despite all the claims, research has
shown that there is no link that links violence and video games.

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) IS a popular game WHICH IS HEAVILY

LINKED TO VIOLENCE AND SEX. There have been a variety of
occasions when GTA has been blamed for the reasons as to why
someone has acted in a certain way. Take Devin Moore for
example, who said at his arrest life is a video game, everybody
has to die sometime. Devin Moore was found guilty after
murdering two policemen and a civilian police worker Leslie
Mealer. The way he did what he did was related exactly to a
mission that is in GTA. In the game you have to escape a prison,
kill officers and escape in a police cruiser. This is a prime
example of the hypodermic needle theory in action, Moore
literally took everything that happened in the game and
converted it into real life, which is one of many reasons as to
why video games are always heavily linked with violence. There
are a variety of reasons as to why this theory is always debated
about. The link between violence and video games is
something that has been experimented for ages. However,
some may argue that is was not the games fault at all. There is
a reason as to why all of these video games are age rated 18.
Another stand out case was when 14 year old, Eldon Samuel
confessed to the authorities about how he had planned to

murder his family members after idolising the character Trevor

from GTA 5. He was charged on two counts of murder as he
murdered his father and younger brother. It was reported that
he shot he father three times, twice in the face and once in the
brain before he moved onto his brother who had hidden under
his bed. Using a shotgun, he shot his brother four times before
stabbing him multiple times with a large knife and then with a
machete. From this description of how he killed, his family
shows clearly that his was a passive gamer and it had been
reported that he enjoyed playing as Trevor, who we know is an
extreme character in the game. In the game Trevor reacted
very aggressively and violently, and this is believed to be why
Samuel reacted in the way he did. Samuel had stated that his
dad often beat him and this was perhaps why he reacted in
the way that he did. When Samuel played GTA 5 he would have
been passively playing, meaning that he simply accepted
whatever happened in the game, without even questioning
what he is doing. This is an example of the hypodermic needle
theory, as this is when a piece of media injects a certain belief
or moral into the viewer/gamer without realising. The way that
Samuel would have viewed this is that he would have
unknowingly created an idea in his head that violence is ok and
that it is the best way to deal with your problems. Despite
being linked with violence, its hard to blame GTA 5 as the main
reason as to why he did what did. Despite being an 18 game,
thousands of underage teenagers play the same game and do
not have the same ideas planted into their heads. I would say
that it is based upon the individual that is playing the game,
and how they may have been raised and what their lifestyle is
like; as a vast amount of violence related to video games have
been based around people who have gone on to commit suicide
or acts of violence to family members or close friends.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article2640431/Coroner-probes-Call-Duty-videogame-four-teenagers-regularly-played-wentkill-themselves.html

Call of duty is another popular first person shooter which is has been
widely related to cases of mass murder and suicides. One stand out case
of was when 14 year old Callum Green hanged himself after playing Call of
Duty. Which caused an outbreak of discomfort for parents whose young
teenagers play the game, despite the clear age restriction of 18.
A-Level student William Menzies who was 16, suffocated himself in his
bedroom, where he frequently played Call of Duty. William lived with his
parents John and Anne, who had no concern other their child. Their son
was very hard working with his studies and was very self-contained, so
came as a shock when the news broke.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/10857984/Call-ofDuty-linked-to-four-teenage-deaths-coroner-warns.html