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The Effects of Violent Media on American Society

Marijeanne Santina

California State University Monterey Bay

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Abstract:

The study focuses on the effects of violence in media on real life violence, through a

telephone survey administered to American adults. From the study five questions were

applicable to the research inquiry,Q48B Impact of violence in video games on violence in real

life,Q48C Impact of violent music lyrics on violence in real life,Q48d Exposure to violence in

media desensitizes violence in real life,Q48D Violence in media has no effect on sensitivity to

violence in real life. The results showed the younger generation had a positive relationship

between media violence and real life violence. This is an important topic to study because media

is easily accessible to everyone, especially to children.

Introduction:​​The Effects of Violent Media on American Society

Violent media has been blamed as educating society to become more violent in recent

years but there is little empirical research behind that claim. To further understand the behaviors

and attitudes towards media violence in real life the research question proposed for this project

is, does media violence impact real life violence. The differences in age and the impact of

violence is the focal point in the research. By comparing the results of the study between the

younger generations and the older generation we hypothesize to find that the younger generation

will have a higher significant relationship between media violence and real life violence. The

data was taken from the 2000 survey and using the five questions a separate regression analysis

was conducted.By analyzing different attitudes by age towards media violence it will offer a

deep insight into the perceptions of US citizens and the causes of violence.

The past research has been carefully examined and critiqued over the past decades as the

rise of access to media increases. The trailblazing study was conducted in 1994 by Paik and
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Comstock, which revealed that “media violence viewing consistently is associated with higher

levels of antisocial behavior.”(Cantor 2000).Although short term and longitudinal studies have

been conducted and determined that there is an effect of media violence on aggressive behavior,

it is a factor that can contribute to unwanted behavior. (Bushman & Anderson 2015).The main

critique is the exposure to violent media and the skewed data that experiments have had in the

past that don’t account for the time exposed to violence. Another critique commonly found in

literature is the misuse of terminology, there is more antisocial behavior promoted by media than

actual violence. (Gunter 2008).

Method:

Participants in the study were interviewed f​or the State of the First Amendment 2000, a

total of 1,015 interviews were conducted with a national scientific sample of adults 18 years of

age or older, between April 13 and April 26, 2000.​The materials used were a ​computer-assisted

telephone interview (CATI) system, questionnaires are computerized, reducing the amount of

human error in the survey process. The design of the experiment was a survey.​The survey

questions focused on is on attitudes towards media’s impact on violence in real life. The

independent variable used to analyze the data is age group and the dependent variable is the

attitude recorded to media’s impact on violence. The age groups are divided as follows: 18-24.

25-44, 45-64, and 65+. Our research will focus on comparing the different attitudes between the

younger age group and the older age group (18-24 and 25+). This is a between-group design

because of the independent variable of the two separate age groups. The questions are;Q48A

Impact of violence in media on violence in real life,Q48B Impact of violence in video games on

violence in real life,Q48C Impact of violent music lyrics on violence in real life,Q48d Exposure
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to violence in media desensitizes violence in real life,Q48D Violence in media has no effect on

sensitivity to violence in real life.

The telephone interviews took place on weekday evenings, on Saturday mornings and

afternoons, and on Sunday afternoons and evenings. This procedure prevented a bias in selecting

people only at home at certain times.​The national sample used for year 2000 of this research

project included residential telephone numbers in the 48 contiguous states. The sample was

stratified to insure that broad geographic regions were represented in proportion to their share of

the total adult population in the United States. Within each of these regions, telephone numbers

were generated through a random-digit-dial telephone methodology to ensure that each possible

residential telephone number had an equal probability of selection. In conclusion, the participants

were given a variety of questions, and scaled their responses on a two ranges. One range was as

follows: Great deal, Somewhat, Not very much, Not at all. The other range was: Strongly agree

A, Mildly agree A, Strongly Agree B, Mildly Agree B. We are focusing on five questions from

this dataset regarding violence and the media. We are analyzing our data by age group: younger

generation vs. older generation.

Results​​:

The experiment was centered around the question, does violent media impact violence in

real life. By looking at age it was hypothesized that ​the younger generation will have a higher

significant relationship between media violence and real-life violence. ​The four different age

groups in the experiment are 18-24 (n= 112), 25-44 (n= 441), 45-64 (n= 297), and 65+ (n= 156).

There were missing participants (n=9) within the experiment that were not labeled in any of the
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age groups, which resulted in a total of 1,015 participants. The two age groups compared were

ages 18-24 and 45-65 age participants. The mean age was 45.12 and 9 people did not give their

age during the survey. Of the 1,015 participants 44.3% were male and 55.6% percent were

female. ​The questions from the national survey that related to the topic were:​ Q48A Impact of

violence in media on violence in real life, Q48B Impact of violence in video games on violence

in real life, Q48C Impact of violent music lyrics on violence in real life, Q48d Exposure to

violence in media desensitizes violence in real life, Q48D Violence in media has no effect on

sensitivity to violence in real life.

A multiple regression was run to predict age from Q48A, Q48B, and Q48C. These

variables statistically significantly predicted age, F (3, 967) = 29.44, p<.001, R Square=0.84.

Variable Q48A was not statistically significant (p = .882) to our prediction, p <.05. In contrast,

both Q48B (p = .000) and Q48C (p = 0.031) were statistically significant to our prediction,

p<.05.There was a statistically significant difference at the p < .05 level of the impact of violence

in video games on violence in real life (p = .000) as well as the impact of violent lyrics in real

life (p=0.031). In contrast, there where wasn’t a statistically significant difference in the

following questions: Impact of violence in media on violence in real life (p = .892), exposure to

violence in media desensitizes violence in real life (p = .095, and whether violence in media had

no effect on sensitivity to violence in real life (p =.502).

By running a regression analysis, it showed that the Group #1 the younger age group

perceived a greater relationship in media violence to real life violence for Q48B, and Q48C.

Regression Analysis:
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Model Sum of df Mean Square F Sig.

Squares

Regression 22674.866 6 3779.144 14.899 .000b

Residuals 255678.820 1008 253.650

Total 278353.686 1014

Discussion:

Although the data provided by the current study is adequate enough to determine that a

person’s age influences their perception of media violence translated to into real life violence it

is lacking an complete analysis on the topic. Since the questions were taken from a survey that

was on American citizens perceptions towards the State of the First Amendment in 2000 the
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actual topic studied is a footnote in the survey. There were only five questions total that focused

on violent media Of those five questions only three were analyzed by doing a multiple regression

analysis.

By analyzing these three questions Q48A Impact of violence in media on violence in real

life,Q48B Impact of violence in video games on violence in real life,Q48C Impact of violent

music lyrics on violence in real life came a noteworthy insight. The younger generation had a

positive relationship between media violence and real life violence. Age was the dependent

variable used to examine the relationship there were four different age groups in the experiment

are 18-24 (n= 112), 25-44 (n= 441), 45-64 (n= 297), and 65+ (n= 156) and the mean age of

participants being 45.12. The comparison was between the 18-24 participants and the 45-64 aged

participants. The study showed a generational shift in attitudes from the older generation to the

younger, and it seems that the younger generation is becoming more conscious of the ties

between media violence and a violent society.

Limitations:

There are many limitations to the study because the analysis could only be conducted on

three of the five questions out of a long survey. For a more exclusive examination of ages effect

on media violence in relationship to real life violence a entire new study would have to be

created. In future investigations questions could be responded with a scale of the degree of which

the participants agree or disagree with the quesiton.It would be highly encouraged that there

would be three separate sections of media: music, video games, and television. In all three forms

of media there is a different level of interaction between a person and the media. For example in

video games a person can violently shoot another player, where in music the lyrics would
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describe the shooting. There were also nine people that did not report their age which in a future

survey age would be a factor participants are required to report.

Conclusion:

This study is a positive starting point that will spark the conversation on the topic and

will encourage a deeper analysis of the effect of violent media. The study is still significant

because it address three different medias that affect real life violence and allow for Americans to

reflect on the influence of media violence. This study is important for parents raising the current

generation of kids who have an incredible amount of access to all media outlets in school and in

the home. Parents can in many ways control and monitor their child’s access to media violence

and it should be encouraged by this study’s results the importance of non-violent media.
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References
1. First Amendment Center. State of the First Amendment [1997-2006]. Ann Arbor, MI:
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2016-05-26.
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR35592.v2
2. Cantor, J. (2000). “Media Violence” Volume 27, Issue 2, Supplement 1, Pages 30-34.
Journal of Adolescent Health.
3. Gunter, B. (2008) “Media Violence: Is there a Case for Causality?”Volume. 51 issue: 8,
page(s): 1061-1122. American Behavioral Scientist.
4. Bushman, Brad J ; Anderson, Craig A. (2015). “Understanding Causality in the Effects of
Media Violence”. Vol. 59(14) (pp.1807–1821). American Behavioral Scientist