Violence In The Media

 
Back in the 1990s, after the killing of Jamie Bulger by young boys who acted out scenes from horror film Child's Play 3, a fellow Journalist and i looked into whether violence on TV and movies inspired real life violence and i went into the project thinking it would be easy to prove, as there was surely a link.
To my shock and surprise, we where unable to find a consensus amongst the many psychologist and psychiatrists we spoke to, some said probably, some said probably not but mostly it was a non committal 'maybe' but on the whole they just didn't know.
Our research uncovered many scientific experiments but just as many showed viewers having no reaction to violence as showed a reaction but then i left for another job and we never actually reached a conclusion but still, at the back of my mind i always felt surely that what people see must have some effect, what would be the point of advertising if it never?
I was reminded of it when i heard a radio debate about the amount of Pornography on the internet available to anyone with an Internet connection and the effect that watching it from a young age has on developing minds.
That debate between scientists leant towards it being detrimental and leads to relationship problems in the future and other consequences including how males (primarily) view females as well as problems with becoming desensitised to sexual arousal and mental problems.
A World Health Organisation (WHO) report found that that the number of people watching porn has doubled since 2019 and up to 8% of the world’s population is affected by porn addiction and 90% of children age 8-16 have viewed porn.
A classic case of what the viewer is watching having a direct effect on the viewer but watching porn and getting turned on is obviously different to watching violent films and then being violent yourself but we can throw violent video games into the equation and it is just too big a subject for me but despite everything, i still end up at the position of if you have violent tendencies anyway, violent films only make it more likely you will act on them but if the Worlds scientists can't reach a conclusion about it then who am i to argue...but still...