Does a Violent Media Create a Violent Society?

This issue is one of constant debate, with no real solution. There are many things society as a whole and individuals can do to appease or inflame the issue, however each argument has a counter argument and a counter argument will exist for that and so on.




Because it is an issue of such heated debate with no answer or possibility of an answer should we just leave the issue be and choose not to address it further? Or should we   make the issue widely known so society is more aware of the role the media can play. Or perhaps we should leave it to the media to publicise that. After all the media does have a strong influence.




Take the late 1980's film Terminator, one of the highest grossing films of the 80's. This means millions of people worldwide have been to see it at the movies, and then most probably, rented it out on video. Have these millions of people gone out and killed their arch enemies? I think not.




However the file Terminator may have inspired, planted the idea, or conceptualised the seed of an idea in someone's mind. And one or, possibly more murders can be associated with the movie Terminator, a certain method of killing perhaps mimicked in a psychos' rage.




Yet isn't it more than likely that the ONLY aspect of the murder affected by Terminator and such films may have been just the technique used. I believe it is more than likely the killer/murderer/stalker would have performed his duties anyway.




I should not single out one form of media alone. News broadcasts, in comparison to films and fictitious TV shows,   show us the reality of day to day living. We see footage of car-wreck, murder scenes and hear of graphic telling of ones' untimely demise. We take this information in, absorb it as real life, and perhaps over time become de-sensitised to these effects as we see them on the news.




The news is a medium which is there to present the facts of the events during the...