Media Desensitisation In The Media And Habitual Media Perception

This research aimed to examine the relationship between habitual media violence, the presence of weapon focus and information remembered correctly about a violent photograph in order to explore the possible effect desensitisation may have on eye witness testimony. Psychology undergraduates (N=32) completed a questionnaire regarding their violent media consumption habits before viewing a photograph for four seconds which depicted a male threatening a female with a weapon. Average eye fixation time was measured using an eye tracker, and participants’ memory of the photograph was measured using a questionnaire in order to determine what contextual details they could remember. Due to problems with calibration of the eye tracker, data collected was unreadable, and as a result the two variables were analysed. Habitual media violence exposure correlated positively with correct answers on the context questionnaire (p < .01), suggesting that there is a relationship between higher levels of violent media consumption and the amount of contextual information remembered about a violent photograph.

The hypothesis that screen based media violence consumption has a detrimental effect has been widely researched and the American Academy of Paediatrics recognises exposure to violence in the media, including television, movies, music and video games, as a significant risk to the health of children and adolescents (Committee on Public Education, 2001). It has been fairly well documented in our society that children become ‘purposeful TV viewers’ by the age of three (Murray, 2008) and by the age of sixteen, the average child has witnessed more than 20,000 murders on television (McGinnies, 1994). There is general agreement that violence exists on tele...

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...of violent media consumption, from reviewing current literature, none thus far has tied the two areas together, by using weapon focus as a measure of the level of desensitisation, and as a result, the effect that it may have on eyewitness testimony. This research aimed to investigate the relationship that may take place between habitual media violence, the presence of weapon focus and the number of details remembered about a given scenario displaying a weapon.

The literature surrounding the area of weapon focus and desensitisation, including eye tracking and questionnaire distribution, leads to the directional hypothesis that average eye fixation time on a weapon in a given photograph, and answers to a questionnaire asking participants to remember the context of the photograph will be significantly related to participants’ level of habitual violent media exposure.