Here is what I had to say on our classes discussion board. (nevermind the repeated citing in the second paragraph, i need to see exactly how my instructor wants me to cite it.
I believe most of the blame on violence in the media today is misplaced. Do children and teens who commit acts of violence witness violence on TV and video games? Yeah, they probably do. But so do the rest of them. Violence in the media is nothing new to teens. It has always been right in front of them. The only difference modern technology makes is the way in which it is displayed. Most of today's video games, movies, and TV shows are based on comic books and movies from the 50s and 60s, and even earlier. Most of these are just as violent, if not more so, than their modernized counterparts. Batman is a prime example of this, who hangs and kills a mental patient from an airplane in the very first issue, released in 1940 (White, 2012). The only difference today is that teens are seeing it on a screen instead of a sheet of paper. Imported cartoons from Japan and other Asian countries, called "anime", is often much more violent than cartoons produced in America. Jim Rutenberg (2001), from the New York Times, states "Many of the shows are imported directly from Japan, where the public's tolerance for blood and guts on TV has traditionally been much higher than it is in the United States." in an article in which he discusses the progression of violence in American cartoons, and how they have practically been a staple since the television was first introduced. This suggests that violence in the media is not considered to have a large impact on teen’s behavior outside the US. I believe it is an issue created by the media itself, through its various news and political outlets, as a sort of scapegoat. The teenager cannot just be violent anymore; they need something to blame their violent behavior on.
I think this is supported by an article written by Subrata De from NBC. In the article, she interviews Dr. Katherine Newman regarding the case of Jeff Weise, who shot up his school in Red Lake, MN, before committing suicide. Before the shooting Jeff visited numerous Neo-Nazi type websites and blogs, and made an animation depicting violence (De, n.d.). Dr. Newman spends the majority of the interview blaming the media and violent games for Jeff's shooting, saying he's "following out a script he's very familiar with, with a tragic suicidal ending to it.", and she follows with "What I mean by "a script" is that when you look at popular culture, movies, video games, you will see this kind of "shoot ’em" pathway running through many of them. It's not an original idea of his; it's something that kids are exposed to by the millions." (De, n.d.). Later in the interview she also reveals that he, as well as many other school shooters, are very depressed, and at the beginning stages of serious mental illness (De, n.d.). A news clip attached to De's article also reports that Jeff's father had committed suicide, and his mother was in a nursing home. Dr. Newman puts the blame on violence in the media, with nothing to back it up, while completely disregarding his mental state and broken family history, which are well known and documented risk factors.
De, S. (n.d.). School shooter followed video game-like 'script'. NBC News. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7288381/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/school-shooter-followed-video-game-like-script/#.UibH5z_pytO
White, L. (2012, November 17). The 6 most brutal murders committed by Batman. Retrieved from http://www.cracked.com/article_20111_the-6-most-brutal-murders-committed-by-batman.html
Rutenberg, J (2001, January 28) Violence finds a niche in children's cartoons. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/28/us/violence-finds-a-niche-in-children-s-cartoons.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
Discuss.