Media Violence for Entertainment vs. News Whenever I think about violence in the media I am immediately primed back to 1995. I remember sitting in the movie theater watching Cher from Clueless make the winning argument, "Until mankind is peaceful enough not to have violence on the news, there's no point in taking it out of shows that need it for entertainment value!" How right is she?!?!

Violent video games, television shows, and movies don't really appeal to me, but I expose myself to them occasionally. I have a hard time watching the news at night because the violence activates ideas in my head and I start to worry that the murderer on the loose will magically find my apartment or that I'll be the next person to get mugged in a parking garage.

I identify with Kelsey Smith (and others like her), the girl kidnapped from Target and murdered. I go to Target all the time. That could have been me or one of my friends. I cannot handle the emotional effects of watching "real" violence. I become paranoid, anxious, and fearful and I start to think the world is an overly dangerous place. I feel like the news displays a perceived reality that intensifies the violence in a way that differs from violent television shows and make believe video games.

I saw 300 in the theater and had a completely different reaction. Yes, it was violent. Yes, I turned my head away at certain gruesome points, but I didn't leave the theater emotionally damaged and I also didn't leave with a heightened sense of aggression. I feel the same way on the rare occasion that I play a violent video game. There is a sense of detached reality in these forms of media that make them personally more tolerable. So I agree with Cher, why restrict or criticize other forms of violent media when the news is readily accessible by the masses?  ¶ posted by Stephanie Lauren Kahan at 2:02 PM •