POST 2

For my research, I found the following articles. If you would like to read the article, simply click on the title (the title is linked to the article page)

The Speed Death of the Eye: The Ideology of Hollywood Film Special Effects

This article discusses how the average audience can not keep up with the fast pace on screen events that are happening in modern films as a result of increased technological innovations. These technological innovations include the beginning of digital animation and standard editing room techniques. As a consequence, the viewer is left upset and overwhelmed with the visual excess. This is relevant to our argument because research provided in this article proves that the increased special effects today can have a negative effect on the viewer.

Movies May Cause Special Effects on the Body

Evidence in this article suggests that horror films can cause physical and emotional changes in viewers. It has been proven that horror films can affect your body physiologically and intensity can increase heart rate, chest pain, and blood pressure. In modern viewers, horror movies can trigger memories of traumatic events and therefore this response could be even more dramatic in children.  This introduces the possibility of violent films having negative health effects on children viewers. Evidence of this can be seen in the following youtube video First Impressions: Exposure to Violence and a Child's Developing Brain

The Influence of Violent Media on Children and Adolescents: A Public-health Approach 

This article is an analysis of the extent of the effects of media violence on children. This article takes on a public health perspective. This article proves that violent imagery in the media has short-term effects on arousal, thoughts and emotions, which increase the likelihood of aggressive or fearful behavior in children, especially boys. This proves my hypothesis that increased violence in films viewed by children increases their violent behaviors.

Mitigating the Harmful Effects of Violent Television 

This study involved an experiment in which children were taught lessons that emphasized the many ways in which television distorts violence. This intervention resulted in a reduction of children’s viewing of violent TV as well as less identification with violent TV characters. This shows that like we hypothesized, increased technological innovations make violence seem more accurate which makes children respond more dramatically to violent films. Therefore, when students were told that the films they watch are fiction, they do not have such aggressive responses.

POST 1

Hello readers! My research topic deals with violent film's effect on young viewers. To answer this question, my friends and I (Derek Kerr and Dugan Kemple) came up with the following research question: How does exposure to more realistic violence in film, as a result of enhanced special effects and technology, affect children's behavior, and how are these different from children's responses to older, less realistic films with violence?

This is an important question because as movies become more commercialized and the movie-theatre experience becomes a frequent activity for children and families, children are being exposed to more violence in films. We must analyze these films impact on children before more children experience negative effects of movie violence.

I will answer my research question through analyzing previous research done on similar topics. After summarizing these findings, I will make a formalized conclusion.

I do not consider this family bonding:

If the parents are scared of the movie, then this is not a movie that the kids should be watching. After reading my blog and my research, I doubt these parents would make the uninformed decision of letting their children watch a scary movie again!