...or “V” intend to commit an act so violent that it will secure their place in history. The following is an expert from Harris’s Journal, mastermind behind the Columbine Shooting: “Sometime in April next year, me and “V” will get revenge, kick natural selection up a few notches. If we’ve learned anything about the art of making pipe bombs, we’ll set hundreds of them around roads, bridges, buildings, and gas stations; anything that will cause damage and chaos. It will be like the L.A. riots, Oklahoma City bombings, WWII, Vietnam, Duke and Doom all mixed together. I want to leave a lasting impression on the world.” One year later on April the 20th 1999, Eric Harris and another Columbine student, Dylan Klebold, committed the worst High School massacre in American history. They killed twelve students and one teacher; injured twenty three others and then turned the guns on themselves (Avila, 2000). Immediately following the mass shootings, media, sociologists and criminologists set about the difficult task of discovering the motives of the killers and answering the question of whether or not problems within society allowed this to happen. As early as the day after the shootings, blame had been pointed at gun availability (Etheridge 1999). The subject remains controversial today. FBI psychologists concluded in 1999 that the shooters were respectively “the depressive and the psychopath” (Cullen 2004). There is consensus that Harris and Klebold were deeply disturbed, but few can...
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...On the morning of April 20, 1999, Eric Davis Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold went into the Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado, and went on a rampage killing spree leaving 12 students and 1 teacher dead and over 20 people injured before killing themselves. This crime is known as one of the most deadliest school massacres in the United States history (Pittaro). On the day of the massacre, previously to the attack both Erick D. Harris and Dylan B. Klebold placed small fire bombs in a field three miles away from the Columbine High School and another one a couple of miles away from the fire station. They had set the bombs to explode at 11:14 to distract all emergency personnel away from the school. The two boys then headed to the school...
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... health, morals, and intelligence. This image is from a website entitled Home of the Heaton’s. The author is unknown but the point of this cartoon is clear. The left image shows a man in the year 1990 with a slender build with a large older model television next to him. The image on the right shows that same man eighteen years later in 2008 with a much heavier build and a new model television next to him. This cartoon is sending the message that television has affected the obesity in America through an increase in watching television. This ad uses pathos and logos to get the point across. Ethos is not used because the author of the cartoon is unknown so there is no way of knowing if the author is credible. The inactivity television causes contributes to the obesity problem America has. Years ago before the invention of television people had to entertain themselves....
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...Colorado one high school was about to have one of the most tragic and deadly days in US history. Columbine High School was in the forefront of this tragedy. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, opened fire on their fellow classmates and teacher. These two students cut the lives short of thirteen students and one teacher. They then turned their guns onto themselves leaving the nation with no answers as to why? They did leave videotape. This videotape contained Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold planning their attack on Columbine High School. This piece of evidence showed two students that were not part of the "in crowd". They were outsiders, losers, as some would consider them. They were taunted, humiliated, and disrespected by their classmates. But how can two intelligent students do something as deadly as they did. Was it because they had bad parents? Not at all, they even went out of their way to save their parents the blame by repeatedly saying that it was not their fault that they were about to do what they did. So what was the cause of all this tragedy and how can it be stopped so it can never happen again in our middle schools and high schools? Elliot Aronson a social psychologist wrote a book called Nobody Left to Hate, Teaching Compassion After Columbine. This book represents his ideas on how to use certain strategies to have a better school environment that teaches compassion, tolerance while putting education in a winning situation. Aronson discusses the Columbine High...
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...Essay Violent Video Games “Children on Murder Simulators:” Violent Video Games as Practice for Real Life A very controversial issue in today’s world is violent video games. Do they have an affect on adolescents? Do they influence their actions and thoughts? Over the past couple of years there have been cases of school shootings. In particular the Columbine High School Shooting and Virginia Tech Massacre were both influenced by violent video games. In the Columbine High School shooting, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed thirteen people and then killed themselves. At Virginia Tech, Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed thirty-three people, including himself, and injured twenty-three others (School 1). Violent video games played a major role in these school shootings because the games were tools used to practice there plan and give them the ideas for the weapons they would use and how they would use them. Harris and Klebold attended Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. When the two teens had planned the attack it was intended for propane tanks to detonate that they left in the cafeteria in duffle bags. “According to the report released by the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office, the tanks contained sufficient explosives power to ‘kill the majority of students’ who would be in the cafeteria for lunch” (Columbine 1). The tanks did not discharge as the boys anticipated. When they came back to the...
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...Running head: Does Media Violence Promote Aggressive Behavior Does Exposure to Media Violence Promote Aggressive Behavior? Valerie Bean Psychology 150-107 October 29, 2011 Abstract There have been many studies done on the effects of media violence exposure and aggressive behavior. First the term media violence needs to be examined. What form of media violence is perceived to be the most influential? There are television shows, movies, music, news shows and newspapers, video games and cartoons. What type of violence such as, murder, rape, bullying, or theft is the public more apt to associate with and be affected by? Should a look at how true violent crimes are reported by the media also be considered? Last we should also look at statistics of rising population and families that have more than one income to survive now compared to 60 years ago. The term “media violence” is defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary as: Media – Plural of the word medium which is the means of communication, such as radio, television, newspaper, magazines, music etc. that reaches or influences people widely Violence – an exertion of physical force so as to injure or abuse; injury by or as if by distortion infringement or profanation; an intense, turbulent or furious and often destructive action of force. Does Exposure to Media Violence Promote Aggressive Behavior? There are many forms of media and different ways they can influence behavior. Researchers, Politicians, Psychiatrists, and...
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...Youth violence in America is an ongoing discussion that has been in the news for quite some time now. Kids are so easily influenced that it is normal to see them in some type of negativity. This matter causes children in our society to engage into violent crimes in school and in their communities. Some say the reason for this is because lack of attention in the homes or parents just not being available for their children. Are these reasonable excuses and why do our kids act in such violent behavior? For many years we try to get our youth involved into extra-curricular activities to stay out of troubles. Sports teams, educational activities, and tutorials can keep children busy when they are not in school. Many factors are mentioned when the media discuss youth violence including: video game interaction, trouble in our schools, and dysfunctional communities. Parents should be aware of signs that their child can be in danger of either committing a crime or being a victim. Something should be done to convince the kids that trouble is so easy to get into but so hard to get out of. The research will continue to grow in the upcoming years to investigate the youth violence and to find ways to keep our children out of trouble. During the teenage years of a child’s life, they are exposed to quite some violence in the media. The main source is video games. Every child loves to play these fast-paced games that contains three-dimensional graphics. The parents do not know if they are safe...
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...Media Violence as an Instigator of Aggression and Violence You are what you watch. Easy to say, and not too difficult to imagine either. A little over a decade ago, two boys who later became household names in America, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Colorado and went on a mass murdering spree where they killed 12 students, 1 teacher and injured 23 others before shooting themselves. While their motives behind doing so can not be ascertained, one possible contributing element which did surface was the influence of violent video games. At the risk of oversimplifying what is possibly a complex psychological mindfield, Harris and Klebold did enjoy playing a game called Doom, which is licensed by the American military for the purpose of training soldiers to kill effectively. Harris had customized his own version of this game and put it up on his website, which was later tracked by The Simon Wisenthal Center. This version of the game had two shooters with an unlimited supply of weapons and ammunition, and their targets lacked the ability to retaliate. A class project required them to make a video of themselves similar to the game, and in it, they dressed in trench coats, armed with weapons, and conduct the massacre of school athletes. Less than one year had gone by when Harris and Klebold played their videotape out, in real life, and became the protagonists of the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history (Anderson & Dill 772). ...
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...In recent decades there has been a growing concern among researchers, parents, and the public in general that violent interactive media may incite violence in teens and young adults. Particularly, it has been suggested that violent video games may condition a person to commit atrocities. It's not unreasonable to suspect a correlation between the exposure to violent media and the eventual enactment of violent crime; however, much consideration of variables such as mental illness, physical and mental abuse, and any other variables that would cause an individual to have a predisposition to violence must be done if any position or perspective is to be gained on the issue. A case that has been the center of much controversy regarding video games...
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...Are Video Games really to Blame for Violence of Children? Kid violence and video game violence: Is there a correlation? When a child commits an act of violence, there are times when video games are brought into the equation of the cause. Sometimes, depending on the nature of the crime, violent video games are being blamed directly for the violence of children. There has been research done to learn more about the effects playing violent games on children’s behavior. Since children learn through repetition, repeatedly watching acts of violence over and over again will have an adverse effect on a child’s mind. While the debate continues of whether violent video games are the cause of child violence, one thing that is certain is that parents need to be educated about the effects that playing unsuitable games can have on their children. Cases that seem to show a link between violent video games and children’s behavior are countless. In Jacksonville, Florida, a little girl accidentally shot herself with her father’s handgun (Warford). When Action News asked the little girl’s mother, Lachrisha Holmes, how the little girl even knew what to do with the gun, her mom replied, “I walked past my son and saw her on the computer and they were playing game called ‘Maria Wars,’ they were disassembling a gun” (Warford). Holmes said that she isn’t blaming video games but wonders if that is how her daughter learned what to do with a gun (Warford). In Marble Falls, Texas, a thirteen-year-old...
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...Bloody Pixels: Video Game Violence There are many speculations on video game violence and its harmful effects on the kids who have come addicted to playing them. Many people believe that video games are the ultimate cause of why we see aggression and violence from our youth today. In reality video games are not the main cause of this violence that is being seen. There are many factors that are not being accounted for when determining the cause of a child's violence. Factors such as abuse, depression, and environmental influences have more of an effect on children then actual video games. Violence in video games is not the reason children become violent. Said violence comes from the abuse, depression, and other environmental factors. My support for this claim is for many of reasons, but the big one being that I myself have played many violent video games as a child yet I have grown to be caring and refrain from violence towards other people. I have not committed a violent crime or acted aggressively towards another in any way. A major argument that comes up is that children act based on what they see. With today's advanced technology video games have become so clear and graphic that one could get lost into the "gaming world". Albert Bandura, a famous psychologist, did a study on children and aggression. The study showed that children who witnessed a bobo doll being abused by an adult also committed those same actions, sometimes worse and sometimes less when encountered with...
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...industry but a few genres make up the core. Within this core are game categories, such as FPS (First Person Shooters), which have some aspect of violence to it. The popularity of these violent video games has risen greatly within the last 5 years. In 2008, from the age group 12-17 in the United States, 97% of them played video games, and 10 of the top 20 best-selling video games in the United States contained violence (ProCon.com). These violent video games are attributed to the cause of increase in school shootings as well as increases in domestic and youth violence. Critics of these violent video games argue that the because the violence is encouraged to do well in the game through reward, that the player becomes desensitized towards the violence and will teach children that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflicts (ProCon.com). Video game advocates claim that the research is deeply flawed because there has been no link between video game violence and that of social violence. Many argue that the game actually relieves anger and aggression in a safe outlet (ProCon.com), as well as it keeps kids occupied and off the streets and out of danger. With all the new consoles and mobile platforms, as well as the price being in a stable and affordable state, it is now very easy for a younger child or teen to get involved playing these violent video games, some being rated by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) as intended for Mature (+17)...
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...The majority of research on the subject of violence in the media have looked at passive visual media. Passive visual media would include media that the viewer is solely limited to observation such as movies, television, and videos. Since the beginning of television, people have been interested on the impact it has on the population, especially youths. Shown agressivness in relation to violent passive visual media would relate to oberservational learning. For example, in 1985 Bjorkqvist took 5-6 year old Finnish children and had them observe either violent or non violent videos. After this, the children were placed in a room, told to interact, and two observers, unaware to which videos they watched, took note of how they behaved. The children...
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...Adolescent Bullying: Is it the Cause of School Violence? In the last fifteen years there have been numerous school shootings within the United States mostly occurring in the 1990’s. Although there have been many variables as to why, a common denominator in most shootings has been bullying. The shootings in Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and Colorado are just a few examples of the violence that left many dead and many more wounded. Bullying is considered to many to be a rite of passage. In some occasions it is common, such as college fraternity hazing. “Bullying is typically defined as aggressive peer-to-peer behavior in which (1) there is an intention to harm or disturb the victim; (2) the aggression occurs repeatedly over time; and (3) there is an imbalance of power, with a more powerful person or group attacking a less powerful one” (Elias, Zins 46). Bullying tends to occur between the 6th grade and 10th grade. What is astonishing is that 75% of children have admitted to being bullying at some point of their lives during the school years. Victims of bullying tend to be quiet, sensitive, withdrawn, have low self-esteem, poor social skills, and feelings of being rejected. “Between 1992 and 2001, 35 incidents occurred in which students showed up at their school or at a school-sponsored event and started firing at the schoolmates and teachers. These incidents, represented most starkly by the incident at Columbine High School, in Littleton, Colorado, left...
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...usually ignored and overlooked. This documentary focused on a school shooting that never should have happened. This tragic incident lead Moore to ponder many questions and create an extremely interesting documentary. Michael Moore has been in the film industry for quite some time. He’s created numerous documentaries that have received a large amount of public attention. He is also a filmmaker, author and political activist that not only knows how to work a camera, but also an audience (Deming). In his documentary “Bowling for Columbine”, Moore uses facts, interviews, and personal stories to really get the viewers undivided attention. He also uses multiple statistics to prove his points throughout the documentary. In 2002, Moore won an Oscar for the Best Documentary Film for “Bowling for Columbine” (Ecksel 1). This film not only touched the hearts of many Americans, but also created an argument for several businesses and associations that were involved. On April 20, 1999, the halls of Columbine High School changed forever. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris altered the lives of numerous people, and ended many others. After their morning bowling class, together they shot and killed 12 students and one teacher from their Colorado High School (Lally). Others were injured and still live with the scars and stories that haunt them today. This massacre created a lot of unnecessary pain and trauma for innocent victims. It also created a story for Michael Moore....
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