Violence and the Media Image

                Video games and metal have always been a topic in media controversy whenever violent crimes come about, and with the recent release of the newest game in the Grand Theft Auto series, now is an appropriate time to discuss the perceptions wrongly given to these pieces of art. Whenever a violent crime happens, shortly on the news thereafter a long news piece occurs on the personality and thought patterns of the criminal appears on the news networks. These panels will involve criminal psychiatrists and experts to weigh in on the current happenings of the search of a criminal (for instance, during the Boston bombings), or how a case is being prosecuted (with a prime example being the Casey Anthony case). When searching the residency of such criminals, the experts always seem to conclude that the reason these people went over the edge varies, but a lot of emphasis is always put on video games, heavy metal music, and religion (which will not be discussed in this blog post as that is a huge issue on its own).

                As an avid gamer, as well as a heavy metal fan, the emphasis they put on these influences being the cause for psychotic behavior is rather degrading and flat out wrong. If the criminal has a large library of books or movies, the center piece of analysis does not conclude that these books drove the individual to be a murderer. If the criminal listened to top 40s, pop music, or electronica, the idea that the music drove them to kill is never brought up. It is possible to conclude that video games and heavy metal could be a cause, but not any other form of art? There has always been a distaste of metal and video games in the media; the foundations of metal started with Black Sabbath’s self-titled song, based on the tri-chord “of the devil” being played as an arpeggio (one note of the chord at a time). Heavy metal started off being considered evil by the media and Christian leaders due to the sound and lyrics, but still is not completely free of misconceptions by the general populace. The concerts are rowdy, and seem violent to the outsider, but the revelry shared at a metal show between like-minded comrades is astounding; if someone falls down, everyone around them picks it up. Metal shows, and metal music in general, is about letting out frustration and having a good time, all while being respectful and nonviolent. In fact, many times after a metal show the venue is still relatively clean (except for the bathrooms); in comparison, the venue always ends up littered with trash after a country show. Metal is about letting your anger out safely around like-minded individuals, not going around alone murdering people, and while the lyrics do not reflect that sentiment, any fan of metal can express that idea.

                Video games have gotten similar treatment in the past, although they did not start off with quite the hatred that pervaded early metal critics. Video games used to be childish (Pong and Tetris being some of the early example games), but with the release of games like Doom, Quake and Mortal Kombat, criticism of the violence of games started appearing. Despite letting one take out some aggression in a game, the media began perpetuating the idea that violent people are violent because they play video games, not because there are psychological issues they are dealing with. This leap of logic perplexes me; video game killing is not anything near the same experience as killing a human being, and should not be treated as such. Killing someone would probably be a visceral and scary experience, dissimilar to the experience of killing a virtual person unrealistically. Overall, the assumptions the media makes about users of video games and heavy metal music is illogical and the hatred these hobbies receive from general news networks leads to a negative stigma with these activities for the average person not involved in these hobbies.