From M/Cyclopedia of New Media
In April 1999, two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, shot thirteen people at the Columbine High School of Colorado before committing suicide. It is speculated that violent videogames were a factor in their actions. Both students were seemingly obsessed with games like DOOM.
The key item of evidence related to videogames is a video shot by the pair in which they relate DOOM's shotguns to their own (Wikipedia, 2004). Media coverage of this led to a renewed spark in the violence debate and another senate investigation into games. Families of victims have issued numerous lawsuits against DOOM manufacturers, idSoftware, with results pending currently.
What caused two teenagers to commit murder? While research into violent videogames is complex, there are several theories and speculative ideas concerning Columbine:
- Media factors:
- Klebold and Harris were obsessed with Goth musician Marilyn Manson. They were also fixated with a movie called the Basketball Diaries (- in which a teenager in a trenchcoat massacres students.) Freedman (2001) writes that DOOM may not have been the strongest influence on these teenagers when other media are considered.
- Realism: Which media product had a stronger impact of the teenagers? Movies with photorealism or games with active participation (Huesmann, 1986)? The Matrix (released that same year) featured a scene in which a trenchcoated-outfitted Keanu Reeves uses machine gunes to massacre a lobby of innocent guards.
- Non-media factors:
- Environment: Klebold and Harris had a history of depression and mental conditions that resulted from being bullied.
- Gameplay:
- Emotional states: it is unclear whether playing DOOM was a release of mental angst for the teenagers or a concentrated exercise in channeling aggression. Funk (2001) writes that while theorized ‘high risk players’ fall under the second category, there is often a great overlap between the two.
On some level, there is certainly a correlation between violent media and Columbine. However, the strength of a game/shooting correlation is hard to prove as it is impossible to separate the interplay of all aforementioned elements. Funk (2001) writes that a ‘low correlation’ between games and violence could be a slight increase in negative or aggressive behaviour in a teenager (i.e. truancy), while a ‘strong correlation’ would be an incitation to commit aggressive acts.
Concerning the actual events, were the shootings styled after in-game violence (DOOM) or film violence (Basketball Diaries)? Conversely, do games like DOOM present “real-life�-styled violence?
Post-Columbine: Societal reactions to games
However, there are numerous social factors (post-Columbine) that cloud proper analysis of the case. They include:
- Moral panic towards games that resulted from society’s inability to quantify the Columbine tragedy (Walsh 2001).
- Fallacies of rhetoric within the debate:
- As mentioned, there were undoubtedly more factors that affected the two teenagers. Pinning heavy emphasis on games has created a faulty causal relationship.
- Due to existing anti-game rhetoric, Goldstein (2001) writes that many in the public have difficulty separating rhetoric from fact.
Research into videogame violence operates in a complicated territory. While definitive answers to the Columbine shootings might never surface, it is clear that there is more to video game correlations than meets the eye.
Related Wiki Links
References:
- Freedman, J. (2001) Evaluating the Research on Violent Video Games, Toronto: University of Toronto, retrieved August 2, 2004, from http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/freedman.html
- Funk, J. (2001) Children and Violent Video Games: Are There High Risk Players?, Chicago: University of Chicago, retrieved August 1, 2004, from http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/funk1.html
- Goldstein, J. (2001) Does Playing Violent Video Games Cause Aggressive Behaviour?, Utrecht: Utrecht University, retrieved August 1, 2004, from http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/goldstein.html
- Huesmann, L. (1986) Psychological processes promoting the relation between exposure to media violence and aggressive behaviour by the viewer. Journal of Social Issues, 42, 125-139.
- Walsh, D. (2001) Video Game Violence and Public Policy, Minneapolis: National Institute on Media and the Family, retrieved August 1, 2004, from http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/walsh.html
Wikipedia (2004) Columbine High School Massacre, retrieved 6 August, 2004, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre
--Ian Cho 22:07, 28 Oct 2004 (EST)
