Violence in media

• Violence in media linked to aggression
• Violent computer games have played a part in causing recent school shootings in America
• Seeing characters in a computer game being rewarded for violence can increase aggression
• Paik and Comstock - Media violence and aggression - Method

  • Meta-analysis investigating impact of media violence on behaviour
  • 217 studies between 1957 to 1990
• Paik and Comstock - Media violence and aggression - Findings

  • Significant correlation between watching violent television and films and violent behaviour
  • Correlations for men stronger than women
• Paik and Comstock - Media violence and aggression - Conclusion

  • Correlation between aggressive behaviour and watching violent media images
• Paik and Comstock - Media violence and aggression - Evaluation

  • Review was large included many studies
  • Lab studies lacked ecological validity
  • Results only show correlation
• Some studies find no link to media violence and aggression
• Charlton et al looked at children in St Helena before and after TV introduced, slight decrease in anti-social behaviour in children after exposure to media