The Effect of Violence in the Entertainment Industry

The theory that violence in the entertainment industry encourages violent behavior in individuals has been a controversial topic for many years now. While some people believe that violence in entertainment can make people aggressive, others see no link between the two. Based on the information provided, I believe violent actions are not due to the entertainment world, yet it is more related to the real environment in which a person is raised.

The video game industry has expanded immensely throughout the years. After the 1999 Columbine shootings in Littleton, Colorado, the debate of violence in video games was brought to light. The two Columbine shooters were both fans of Doom and Resident Evil—two games known for their heavy levels of guns and ruthless violence.1 Can you really contribute their actions to video games? If it were based on the video games alone and no outside forces, such as previous aggression and out of whack thinking, wouldn’t there be more individuals acting out? Over millions of copies of Doom have been sold to this day. Over fifty million copies of Resident Evil have been sold.

So if you go off of the belief that the shooters of Columbine acted out in the way they did only because of their enjoyment of the video game seems farfetched. Before video games were even around, there have been murderers, serial killings, and other horrific figures long before someone plugged in a gaming system or went to a movie theater.

Violence in entertainment does not drive people to be aggressive. There are many different traits that go into every person’s behavior such as environment, poverty, and family lifestyles. Therefore it is impossible to tag entertainment as the source of mass violence when there are already too many different contributions in each and every situation.

Reference

1. Bond, David. The Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior and the Relationship to School Shootings. (April 1st, 2011). Retrieved from: file:///C:/Users/britt_000/Downloads/The_Effects_of_Violent_Video_Games_on_Aggressive_Behavior_and_the.pdf