And yes, I personally don't mind and even to some extent enjoy the violence in media. I play lots of FPS and action games and I am a big fan of them, not to mention the fact that I would prefer a good scifi/actiony/horror/psychological movie to a romantic comedy any day, same goes for cartoons, comics and even books.
BUT, I know, along with many other people, that violence- in real life- is wrong. Very wrong. It's bad, it hurts, it's disgraceful, HEY IT KILLS PEOPLE etc.
Yes, it's bad. In real life.
And what are we talking about here is not real life. It's movies, cartoons, comics, books, etc.
These mediums are known to portray many things differently from the real world, also things that don't exist in the real world. That's one of the reasons people love this stuff. And not all things that are portrayed in media are essentially good, or seen as good in real life: madness gets glorified, indecent realationships get romanticised etc. And not always the real-world wrongness of the subject is seen through the veil of fiction that covers it.
And, let's face it, violence has gained many shapes in media too, most of which are as unrealistic as it comes. Still, people seem to care mostly only about the typical action movie stuff, the brutal one dimensional violence only meant to impress the common menfolk. And then every movie that has violence in it, for one reason or another, seems to be met with prejudice by some people just because of the violence.
But let's think about it- I've already mentioned that violence, along with many subjects portrayed in media, has gained more shapes than the usual Rambo routine. How about epic and breathtaking sword battles between two honourable armies? How about the incredibly beautiful duels in the air in those asian movies? Hah, what about slapstic violence? Not to mention all the cases where the portrayed violent acts have a meaning and are well integrated into a story...
Are those things really that bad?
Also, let's not forget one of the essential things in media that makes us forget the world and enjoy them instead- excitement. And this seems to be the reason why violence is used quite a bit- it's movement, it's action, it's a duel, friction it's exciting. Along with many other things we don't do everyday, because we can't and are not allowed to.
Also, those many forms of violence in media are the consequences of the main thing that creates a story- confict. Violence is physical conflict.
While conflict can be shown and be played out by different means than violence and it might be overused sometimes and sometimes definetly misused, I really don't think that violence in media is unecessary or entirely replacable.
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When talking about this subject it's also inevitable that I have to say something about it's impact on society. Many people claim that violence in movies, etc. makes kids violent, that this is the reason of the school shootings, etc.
Many of them refer to that school shooting that had a connection with the videogame Doom. But, as it was shown in the lectures, the kid that was obsessed with Doom was already not all right in the head. Normal sane people don't think of themselves as gods and don't connect a video game with reality to the extent that kid connected it. The thing is, in my opinion, he was already insane, he already wasn't all right and he didn't see the difference between the game or reality.
I think that that game, that work of fiction, acted as his object of obsession and he crossed the line that shouldn't be crossed with any work of fiction- started seeing it as reality. And it applies not only to violent games and such, but even to the "harmless stuff" such as soap operas or anime. There have been cases of ladies doing crazy things in name of their soap heroes, and anime fans marrying fictional characters and dangerously harrasing and endangering anime voice actors and the such, even killing or trying to kill people who endanger their anime collections or while imagining to be samurai demons. As works of fiction, these things are harmless, and are only meant to bring joy, excitement, food for thought for the reader. Yet people cross the line between fiction and reality, and I really doubt the roots are in these works themselves. Could it be parenting? Society? Someting in the water? Probably, these seem to be more likely causes for that, in my opinion.
Also, many cases of the "usual" real-world attacs on people don't have any connections, atleast don't seem to have any obvious connections to any works of fiction (not possibly counting religion driven attacks, but this is not the subject I want to discuss).
Of course, media plays a role in forming a person and his/hers life, but it shouldn't teach us about such essential things as "don't hurt people", "don't kill". Would you find a person who was taught all the life's lessons by the TV set normal? No. People's views on things of such importance, in my opinion, should be formed by real people and the real world, with fiction acting only as a supplement to the person's experiences.
Violence in fiction is fiction too. And fiction should never be seen as reality.
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