Video Game and Violence
Expository Essay: Final Draft
Video Game Violence and Its Effect on the Youth Audience
By: Jodi Fram
UNV-104
Tamla Johnson
The topic regarding violent media resulting in subsequent user violence in the youth audience has long been a controversial and heated debate. In the time of Plato, it was argued that Greek plays attributed to violence. In the nineties, people argued that violent movies and television resulted in violent behavior. Now, the debate focuses on video game violence and subsequent user violence and aggression. Many studies have been conducted to research the correlation between video games and subsequent user behavior, and the results are in! Video games may attribute to occasional user violence and aggression in the youth audience; but studies about video game violence and youth show this is generally the case if video games exacerbate another condition or third party factors (Ferguson, 2011).
As already mentioned, this has been a long and heated debate. Of course, several studies have been conducted throughout the times to research the topic. Unfortunately, however, those studies were not comprehensive, calling the credibility of the study and its results into question. Previous studies did not consider third-party factors or previous conditions of the subjects being analyzed. Furthermore, the issue of a long-term relationship between video game violence and subsequent user violence and aggression was also neglected throughout the research. As a result, the results are not credible, because long-term relationships weren’t analyzed and it cannot be determined if the violence shown in the youth audience was actually as a result of video game play or as a result of another factor or condition being exacerbated (Ferguson, 2011).
Fortunately, research completed on November 9th of 2010 by Christopher J. Ferguson, considers third-party factors and previous conditions, as well as the long-term relationship between video game
Video Game Violence and Its Effect on the Youth Audience
By: Jodi Fram
UNV-104
Tamla Johnson
The topic regarding violent media resulting in subsequent user violence in the youth audience has long been a controversial and heated debate. In the time of Plato, it was argued that Greek plays attributed to violence. In the nineties, people argued that violent movies and television resulted in violent behavior. Now, the debate focuses on video game violence and subsequent user violence and aggression. Many studies have been conducted to research the correlation between video games and subsequent user behavior, and the results are in! Video games may attribute to occasional user violence and aggression in the youth audience; but studies about video game violence and youth show this is generally the case if video games exacerbate another condition or third party factors (Ferguson, 2011).
As already mentioned, this has been a long and heated debate. Of course, several studies have been conducted throughout the times to research the topic. Unfortunately, however, those studies were not comprehensive, calling the credibility of the study and its results into question. Previous studies did not consider third-party factors or previous conditions of the subjects being analyzed. Furthermore, the issue of a long-term relationship between video game violence and subsequent user violence and aggression was also neglected throughout the research. As a result, the results are not credible, because long-term relationships weren’t analyzed and it cannot be determined if the violence shown in the youth audience was actually as a result of video game play or as a result of another factor or condition being exacerbated (Ferguson, 2011).
Fortunately, research completed on November 9th of 2010 by Christopher J. Ferguson, considers third-party factors and previous conditions, as well as the long-term relationship between video game
References: Ferguson, C. (2011). Video Games and Youth Violence: A Prospective Analysis in Adolescents. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 40(4), 377-391.