This paper seeks to present and explore the age old debate

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to present and explore the age old debate surrounding the use of violence as entertainment through different mediums such as film, television and video games to ascertain whether this is a time to be alarmed at its use in such widespread capacity. To do this it is necessary firstly to demonstrate that violence is accepted as a mainstream form of entertainment, by reviewing different types of entertainment through the ages, by showing how it is regulated and providing literary commentary from other researchers on the subject. Secondly, the paper seeks to determine what constitutes moral panic through literature review and commentary, and whether the use of violence in entertainment can be described as, or merits, a moral panic. Thirdly, the paper looks to provide some conclusions on the topic and suggest some points for further research along with policy options for the future.

INTRODUCTION

Violence in the media has been the centre of controversy and sparked many debates for decades and our exposure to violence for the purposes of entertainment has often fuelled this debate. We reason with ourselves that it is fictional and confined to the screen, but some people regard our exposure to this type of entertainment as detrimental. They further argue that violence in entertainment influences and can even cause violent acts in real life to be committed against fellow human beings, creating a moral panic surrounding the issue.

On violence generally, Martin Luther King Jr. philosophised that: "If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos". However, director Quentin Tarantino of Kill Bill fame is of the view that, "Violence is one of the most fun things to watch" and fellow director Roman Polanski feels that: "you have to show violence the way it is...if you don't show it realistically, then that's immoral and harmful...if you don't upset people then that's obscenity." Interestingly, Dennis Prager put his thoughts together on the subject like this: "How a society channels male aggression is one of the greatest questions as to whether that society will survive. That's why I am not against violence in the media, I am against the glorification of immoral violence". Actress Sally Struthers criticises that: "If a man is pictured chopping off a woman's breast, it only gets an 'R' rating, but if...a man is pictured kissing a woman's breast, it gets an 'X' rating...why is violence more acceptable than tenderness?" Interesting material.

Herein lies the debate. On one side is the concern for social morality and on the other is someone who stands to explore themes which cannot be explored in a real life context as they are simply too cruel and most likely, illegal. Given the violence depicted is not actually real, are people such as Quentin Tarantino and Roman Polanski, doing anything wrong? The answer depends on how strong an effect the fictional violence depicted on screen has in real life. Does it in fact translate through to real life scenarios? The parents of the school children killed in the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre might have thought so when they were told that the killers were obsessed with the violent video games Doom and Wolfstein 3D. Or the Texan parents of the 13 year old decapitated by his classmate who reasoned that he wanted to be as famous as the characters in the graphically violent 1994 film Natural Born Killers. Perhaps these are extreme examples, however, the fact that they exist does convey a need to explore this subject and to explore it in a logical and rational manner so that emotion does not suffocate intelligent discussion.

This paper is divided into two parts. Part I, "Violence as Entertainment" contains chapter one, which includes a short history of visually violent entertainment through film violence, television violence and video game violence as well as commentary and review of the present literature surrounding the issue. Part II, "A Time to Panic" contains chapter two including a review of moral panic theory together with a discussion on whether it applies to violence as entertainment. The third and final chapter provides conclusions to the study, policy options and points for further research.

METHODOLOGY

When conducting research, it is necessary to become an expert on the given topic as conducting the research for this paper has revealed. In order to do this, many hours were spent reading and reviewing established research and literature on the subject before drawing conclusions and arranging the work in a logical fashion. As the first section of the paper indicates, it is essential to view the material at first hand to gain an understanding of what has caused the controversy and this involved the watching of many films, television programmes and video games. As mentioned above, it was also essential to gain a rounded knowledge of the key concepts of moral panic theory and surrounding issues or theories and this involved detailed reading of seminal works on the subject and lesser known works. To understand the regulatory bodies' function in relation to violence in entertainment, their own websites proved to be the most effective means of doing so.

PART I: VIOLENCE AS ENTERTAINMENT CHAPTER ONE:

A SHORT HISTORY OF VIOLENCE AS ENTERTAINMENT

From The Beginning

We humans have always been fascinated with violence and have used it as a form of entertainment for many ages. From as early as 2000 BC the Ancient Egyptians were entertaining themselves with gruesome re enactments of the death of their god, Osiris. However, it was the Romans who mastered the art of violent entertainment for the masses. Since its birth in 753 BC, the Roman Empire has been described as a "product of violence" by some commentators so is hardly surprising that violence continued to be a major part of how the people were entertained. Indeed, the Colloseum, is one of the most famous buildings in Rome but described by the writer Petronius in AD 60 as "a slaughterhouse" , built to entertain 50,000 people during brutal gladiator fights to the death, animal fighting and the feeding of Christians to lions. In 380 BC Saint Augustine "lamented that his society was addicted to gladiator games and drunk with the fascination of bloodshed" while Cicero in 50 BC wondered whether there was any pleasure in seeing "a puny human mangled by a powerful beast or a splendid animal killed with a hunting spear" . The 19th Century Wild West saw the punishment of its criminals at public hangings and executions, as a staple in its entertainment diet for all the family. It was such good entertainment that one account recalls "a half drunken father...holding in his arms a child, eager to see all; giddy, senseless girls and women chatted gaily with their attendants, and old women were seen competing with drunken ruffians for a place near the gallows" and on leaving the crowd was described as "satisfied and in high glee". While the Americans were enjoying this, the Victorian English pretended to be a tad more civilised and entertained themselves with violent Punch and Judy, often thought of as the epitome of Victorian entertainment and what novelist George Meredith described as "inspiring our street urchins to instant recourse to their fists in a dispute" . It is evident then that violence has existed to entertain us for many ages. What follows is an exploration of the type of entertainment central to this paper: violence as a form of modern entertainment.

Kids These Days

The Big Screen

What follows is a brief history of cinema, focussing on films that portray extreme levels of graphic violence and convey violent themes ever acceptably watched in the public domain as a form of entertainment. It is by no means the most comprehensive guide on the subject; it is merely intended to give the reader an overview, providing a platform for discussion .

Cinematography originates from the end of the nineteenth century, when the first paying audiences had become weary of Punch and Judy and needed something more imaginative. By the beginning of the twentieth century, short films were shown at carnivals, fairgrounds and music halls until 1930, when cinema began to look a lot more like the entertainment experience we know and love today . There are many different genres in the world of film including romance, comedy, action and adventure but for the purposes of this paper, horror and crime films are of the most interest as generally, they contain the highest degrees of violence. Horror films strive to elicit fear, terror and revulsion from the audience and have long been criticised for extremely graphic bloody violence and dismissed as low budget, highly rated films, The Last House on the Left is one such example. Crime thrillers have elements of suspense, action, violence and usually show an attack on the law, for example, Natural Born Killers is one of the most famous crime thrillers containing extreme bloody violence. Despite this, many highly regarded directors, including Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola and George Romero have made huge contributions to the success of the genre. Most horror films incorporate elements of other genres such as the supernatural, science fiction, fantasy and thrillers and, more often than not, centre on the theme of death. Since 1912, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has decided what rating to give films in the United Kingdom, bringing uniformity to the industry. Subsequently, under the Video Recordings Act 1984 the BBFC also monitors the content of videos, now mostly DVDs, for suitability in the home, paying particular attention to whether the recording is likely to harm those watching the film or whether society is likely to be harmed through the behaviour of those that have watched the recording. The BBFC is recommended to pay particular attention to certain types of content including criminal activity and drug consumption but the most relevant recommendation for the purposes of this paper is that the Board must give special regard to those recordings that contain "violent behaviour or incidents" .

It was in the early 1930s that American film producers popularised the horror film and M, released in 1931, disturbingly tells the story of a children's serial killer. In this decade, as in any, this was a controversial violent theme. Once popularity had grown, the late 1950s and early 1960s saw a focus in the industry on producing horror films, including the British company Hammer Film Productions , and understandably so: popularity equals profit in showbiz. Hammer enjoyed huge international success and is acknowledged, along with its director, as the "pioneers of the modern horror movie" . In 1960 Alfred Hitchcock gave us Psycho and the object of horror began to be presented in a more sophisticated manner, not as a monster but rather as a normal human being, making the violent theme all the more realistic . The brutal stabbing of a woman in a shower, while simultaneously creating one of the most famous sound sequences in violent film to both mimic and mask the actions of the killer, was named as the "best death in screen history" over forty years later in 2004. However, the first reviews of the film noticed the violent theme, one warned that it "comes at you with a club in this frankly intended bloodcurdler" and Times Magazine observed, "the camera watches every twitch, gurgle, convulsion and haemorrhage in the process by which a living human becomes a corpse" . However, cinema goers could not get enough of the film it broke box office records across the world including the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Canada, Japan and China . Despite this popularity, Robert Kolker observed that critic Stan Delaplane gave it a bad review, describing it as "contrived" and "not up to the Hitchcock standards" .

The Last House on the Left (1972) directed by Wes Craven and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) written and directed by Tobe Hooper were two of the most controversial films of the 1970s. Craven's horror depicted graphic sexual violence and torture, resulting in problems with censorship in many countries, and was particularly controversial here in the United Kingdom. The film was refused a certificate for cinema release by the BBFC due to the film "linking sex with violence in a potentially harmful way" and scenes of sadism and violence were considered too disturbing to merit public viewing. The Video Recordings Act 1984 in turn banned the film when it had escaped the remit of the BBFC produced as a home video and it remained banned throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Twenty six years after it was first presented to the BBFC, the film was presented again and rejected in 2000, although a license was granted for a unique showing in Leicester. After various appeals, rejections and recommendations that the most graphic of the violent scenes should be removed from the film, in 2008 the BBFC finally classified the film uncut with an adult rating for video release. It is easy to see how standards of acceptability concerning graphic and disturbing violence have changed through the decades in the plight of The Last House on the Left.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, as the title might suggest, is extremely violent and, as one reviewer observed, "so terrifying the uncut version was not approved for general distribution in the UK until 1999, 25 years after it was made" . The BBC describing it as a "gory classic" revealed in 2005 that the film topped the Total Film Magazine Poll to be named the "greatest horror film of all time" and triumphing over colossal films such as The Exorcist, released in 1973, and the famed Halloween. Again, in 1984 the BBFC banned the film but later, in 1999, passed it uncut with an "18" rating attached, suitable for cinema and home viewing. Again, this is evidence of the changing moral standards of society through the change in standards of the BBFC. The reaction to release was positive and critic Keith Allen mused, "The film is, in truth, so repulsive, brutal, and terrifying that watching it can be exhausting...however, thanks to the presence of these very qualities, one of the most effective horror movies I have ever encountered" . It is notable that the increase in quality of graphics and overall digital production through its modern release helped to portray the disturbing graphic violence in an even more realistic manner, drawing the viewer into the dark story.

The film Natural Born Killers is not included in the horror genre but instead is considered to fall into the category of "crime thriller" by many critics. Conversely, this paper submits that the film is one of horror due to its extreme gore, disturbing theme and devastating although alleged, societal impacts. The film tells the horrific story of a homicidal couple, their multiple killings and the incredible mass media coverage of the incidents. The pair are almost portrayed as god like simply because of the copious amounts of material produced to tell the public about them. Unfortunately, the film has been blamed for an explosion of alleged "copycat crimes" which started soon after its release into mainstream cinema. As mentioned in the Introduction of this paper, in 1994 the state of Texas in the United States of America witnessed a terrible day in the classroom when one child decapitated another saying that he intended to "be famous, like the natural born killers". This is disturbing not only because of the mention of the film title and the gore that resulted in real life but also because the traditional view of the classroom as a place of safety for children was undermined. Also in 1994, the New York Times reported that a teenager murdered his stepsister and stepmother while they slept but when he was arrested he claimed to have watched the film many times in the days prior to the killings, styling himself like one half of the homicidal couple in the movie, Mickey. It is also widely known that the teenage killers in the Columbine High School Massacre 1999 used the initials "NBK" as their code word, however, this has never been proved but one website dedicated to the tragic massacre revealed a journal entry by one of the boys to read: "When I go NBK and people say things like 'oh it was so tragic' or 'oh he is crazy' or 'it was so bloody' just because your mommy and daddy told you that violence is bad, you think it's a law of nature...wrong, only science and math are true and everything, and I mean everything else is man made...before I leave this worthless place I will kill whoever I deem unfit for anything at all, especially life". This account is disturbing in its own right without the added knowledge that many people could watch the film even on a daily basis and could have the same effect. Rationally though, the key word is "could" since there is a lack of hard evidence available to support these claims. However, it has to be ascertained whether the very existence of these claims, while not considered damning evidence against graphic violence in entertainment, points to a concern that should not be dismissed simply because it is a difficult, unclear area.

The Small Screen

There are two areas that this paper seeks to explore in this section, namely television and computer or video games. The former is of interest primarily because of the extent to which it contributes to entertainment through high levels of consumption in the home and the latter because such games are widely recognised as one of the main methods of entertainment used by young people.

Television

Television is one of the most important inventions of the twentieth century for the entertainment industry. Countless hours have been filled through the generations with soaps, news bulletins, sport, documentaries, films, advertisements, drama, chat shows, cartoons, music shows and game shows since the television became available to own in the home. It is hard to imagine a living room in a family home without a television and as one of the most popular ways to spend time relaxing, watching television is part of the daily lives of many people and therefore is one of the most effective mediums of mass communication. Perhaps it is our modern alternative to sitting in the massive Colloseum in Rome. Instead, millions of people can view the same television show from the comfort of their own home and can choose exactly what they want to watch from hundreds of channels, each catering for individual taste at different times of the day. The variant nature of television content available established a need for regulation and Ofcom, under the Communications Act 2003, conducts this. Under the Act, Ofcom has legal duties, which include guaranteeing that "a wide range of high quality television and radio programmes are provided, appealing to a range of tastes and interests" and that "people who watch television and listen to the radio are protected from harmful or offensive material" . It is here that high levels of controversy exist in relation to what constitutes "harmful or offensive material", but portrayals of violence on the small screen have long been the centre of debates on the subject. The Broadcasting Act 1996 also allows for the monitoring by the Broadcasting Standards Commission of television standards, stating that it shall "ascertain how violence and sexual conduct are portrayed in those programmes" and "the extent to which those programmes meet the standards of taste and decency" . In assessing whether material on television is harmful, whether is sufficiently violent to merit concern and whether taste or decency standards are met by what we watch on television, there is a huge problem: conceptions of these standards are likely to vary considerably over time. Court cases on the matter reveal this to be true, for example in the 1965 indecency was held to be "something that offends the ordinary modesty of the average man...offending against recognised standards of propriety at the lower end of the scale" but in 1973 it was said to be "anything which an ordinary man or woman would find to be shocking, disgusting or revolting" .

News reports serve to bring the general public information on what is happening locally and globally in all aspects of life including health, law, business, sport, entertainment. Most notable for the purposes of this paper is the presence of violence, in the news, especially when accompanied with a graphic report depicting the extent of that violence. This encompasses a wide range of stories from the beating up of an elderly woman in her home or a brutal stabbing in local streets to mass killings in times of war or crowd protest violence. Interestingly, it is often felt that the level of violence portrayed on television in the form of news reports can be of a higher degree than that which is present in dramas or soaps and that it can be instructional in nature. It is also submitted by scholars that the media is drawn to stories that provoke shock or distress through violent acts rather than those that may be of the most interest or benefit to the public.

As mentioned above, soaps and dramas contribute to many hours of television and are watched by millions. By their very nature, these types of programme depict real life scenarios and can follow the lives of characters for years, providing the opportunity for writers to explore dramatic, often controversial storylines. These can involve the most sensitive content from teenage pregnancy to terminal illness and quite often, the theme of violence is explored in different contexts. This can be used as a dramatic tool from various platforms; previous examples include involvement in drugs culture violence, intimidation violence, crime stories and murder. Recently, the popular soap Eastenders was criticised by viewers for violent scenes involving "a gang of thugs carrying out an attack" and "violent and abusive treatment of EastEnders' Little Mo screened over Christmas last year went too far" , while Coronation Street viewers have "objected to a 'beating' scene" screened before the traditional 9pm watershed. British crime dramas such as The Bill or successful American dramas screened in the United Kingdom and all over the world, such as the many Crime Scene Investigation series can contain extremely violent scenes and in the absence of graphic violence, the theme is based on violence: "CSI shows a dark and negative vision of the world, with extremely violent crimes motivated by greed, lust or hatred" . One reviewer of the CSI: NY branch of the show said "CSI is nice, but sometimes I can't watch when it is too gory! Do they HAVE to show a dead body or the inside of someone's guts?" However, defenders of violence in these dramas urge that the level of violence contained in these shows is realistic and parallels with violence present in real life.

Children's programmes are not the first to come to mind when discussing the level of violence on television. However, many classic and modern cartoons actually use violence to entertain young children. Roadrunner is an undeniable classic along with the likes of Tom and Jerry and The Flintstones, while more modern cartoons such as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and Pinky and the Brain all depict acts of violence inflicted on other characters in almost every episode. These shows have worried many parents because of their underlying themes of violence and sparked many case studies. For example, Douglas Bruce has used the violent themes in Roadrunner as a basis to explore critiques of a culture that allows technology to dictate what our children watch. Subtly, the United Kingdom changed the title of the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because the word "ninja" was thought to evoke too high a degree of violence for the young viewer. However, The Observer reported that new research had shown that the violence in cartoon actually taught children to be less aggressive or not make any difference to their behaviour rather than have a detrimental effect.

Video Games

When considering "video games", we often think of the modern phenomenon that keeps teenage boys shut up in their rooms for hours on end, on the contrary, the games have been around for over fifty years. One of the first games created was an electronic version of tic tac toe (noughts and crosses) in which the player battles the computer to win, created in 1952 by Alexander Douglas in order to demonstrate a human computer interaction thesis. However, Spacewar! is acknowledged as the first influential video game, which involved two players controlling missile capable rockets, firing the missiles at each other while at the same time avoiding the disastrous black hole. Both of these early games used a primitive form of what we now recognise as the personal computer but in 1966 the first console styled game to be displayed on the small screen television was born. It was produced by Ralph Baer, named Chase, and forty years later in 2006 his contributions to the medium were recognised through receiving the National Medal of Technology. During the 1970s, the technology used to create Chase spread to other areas and one of the most significant is that of the arcade game. The first coin operated arcade game appeared in Stanford University Student Union based on Spacewar! in 1971 and in the same year the first mass manufactured video game was released for commercial sale, also based on Spacewar!, called Computer Space. This era reflects a fascination with space travel in video games, a parallel with the outside world developments in space travel and exploration. 1978 spawned one of the most loved arcade games of the time and even now, the recognisable Space Invaders and this was a cause of inspiration for the famous Asteroids and Pacman in the following years. By the nature of competition, whether it is with the computer itself or playing against another human, one side must be defeated so that the other side can win. Words like "kill", "defeat" and "battle" spring to mind and consequently, so does "violence" in its many forms. As Janet Kuypers observed in Pacman, "you went around a maze eating monsters that were trying to kill you, but they were monsters, and it was a measure of trying to keep yourself alive" . Unfortunately, the assumed success of gaming was challenged in the 1980s due to a crash in the market caused by poorly manufactured and conceived games. During its recovery, computer based games regained popularity and by 1990, the console based video game was ready to make a comeback.

During the next decade, video games rose into mainstream entertainment with high budget games, huge production teams and exciting collaborations with the big screen to produce games allowing a player to be the main character that they have just watched kill enemies and complete mission in the cinema. This brought violence accepted on the big screen into the home in a unique way: the violence was created and conducted by the player as he overcame enemies, not by the producers of the film. Imagine the delight of a teenager when he (or she) can violently "kill" someone in a "fight" real enough to have been on the big screen, progress through the game and become that "hero" so many people love to watch in the cinema. However, along with the huge rise in consumption of video games from the 1970s to the present, improved graphics and higher levels of engagement through strategy and competition brought huge concern that the violence portrayed was not positive in nature. Death Race, released in 1976 is accepted as the first controversially violent game in which players must kill "gremlins" by running them over with a vehicle and it was removed from shop shelves. Legislation was sought in relation to how close a game should be allowed to be stationed to a school but violence in video games became more realistic with time, especially with the release of Mortal Kombat. Called to the debate, Anderson revealed that: "Some studies have yielded no significant video game effects...but when one combines all relevant empirical studies...violent video games are significantly associated with increased aggressive behaviour, thoughts and affect; increased physiological arousal and decreased pro social behaviour" . Conversely, many attempts at researching the violent effects of video games have been heavily criticised for not being standardised, biased and misleading. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City tells the story of gang wars, one of the biggest real life violent problems and was similarly criticised, leading to more attention being paid to the ratings placed on such violent games. As with films and television in the United Kingdom, the BBFC is the regulating body for the industry, giving "15" or "18" ratings to violent video games, making it illegal to sell these types of games to those under the specified age. This input from the legal system that reinforces the BBFC creates a strong impression of how important the issue of unwarranted exposure to violent themes and images is to our society.

A revered expert on the subject of violence in the media, ex military Lieutenant Colonel David Grossman continually puts forward the argument that video game creators and publishers desensitise and immorally teach children in the art of violent combat. First person shooter games like Doom and Half Life are described by Grossman as "murder stimulators" as the player "kills" scores of opponents, rewarded with the pleasure of getting to the next level or completing the mission of the games. Anderson again brought his expertise to the debate and reasoned that "the 14 year old boy arguing that he has played violent video games for years and has not ever killed anybody is absolutely correct...but [he is] wrong in inferring that [his] exposure to...risk factors...has not causally increased the likelihood that they and people around them will one day suffer the consequences of that risky behaviour" . In Anderson's study on violent video games, in conjunction with Douglas Gentile and Katherine Buckley, the three focus on the effects of such violence on young people finding that, "adolescents who play a greater number of violent video games hold more pro violent attitudes, have more hostile personalities, are less forgiving, believe violence to be more typical, and behave more aggressively in their everyday lives."

From this exploration of key methods of entertainment, one can see that there is widespread use of violence as a form of visual and aural entertainment and is consumed by people of all ages all over the world. Since it is so prevalent and is commonly a part of daily life, this paper submits that greater regulation should be in place to combat undue influence of persons as a result of viewing extremely graphic entertainment, especially with regard to non adults.

PART II: A TIME TO PANIC? CHAPTER TWO:

MORAL PANIC

What is moral panic?

Moral panic is not by any means a new concept in the fields of sociology and criminology, evident, by the presence of many works on the subject and numerous debates throughout the decades. The term "moral panic" is understood to have been first used by Jock Young as he investigated reactions to drug use and Stanley Cohen, author of leading work on the subject, has theorised that a moral panic occurs when some "condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests" . Indeed, the concept was further defined in 1999 as "the intensity of feeling expressed by a large number of people about a specific group of people who appear to threaten the social order at a given time" . Kenneth Thompson has argued that there have been changes to the pattern in which moral panics are arising: firstly, he observes that there is an "increasing rapidity in the succession of occurrence" and secondly he argues that moral panics have reached a stage of "all pervasive quality" . To develop a deeper understanding of the concept, it is necessary to explore the key aspects of the theory. Firstly, "moral entrepreneurs" are said to recognise a threat to the moral values of society and commence the panic. This phrase is attributed to the work of Howard Becker and in his view there are two categories of this type of entrepreneur: "rule creators" and "rule enforcers" . As Thompson also interpreted, rule creators can be described as moral crusaders, concerned primarily with the successful persuasion of others but are not concerned with how this influence is attained. Becker noted that the crusaders must have power, generate public awareness of the issue, have public support and be capable of highlighting a straightforward solution to the moral problem and when these steps are complete, the moral crusader steps back and relies on scientific experts to add weight to their recommendations with evidence. The police force is an example of a rule enforcer and each officer will inflict the new rule, not because of any belief or faith in it, but because it is a part of duty. The enforcer must strike a balance between showing that they are effective in carrying out their duty and therefore successful, but not so effective as to withdraw the need for their contribution to the process. Secondly, it is the "folk devil" who gives the moral entrepreneur cause for concern described above, first described by Cohen in his Folk Devils and Moral Panics: the creation of the Mods and Rockers as he studied the impact of the two youth movements on the United Kingdom throughout the 1950s. He found that these movements, as folk devils, threatened the social order and sparked a moral panic about the condition of British youth and that generally, folk devils were recognised as being both outsiders and of a deviant nature. To further aid us in our understanding of these difficult concepts, Cohen revealed his "Deviancy Amplification Spiral". Interestingly, one of the main points to note about moral panics that they are volatile; they vanish as soon as they appear and what follows illustrates the extent to which we allow ourselves to become consumed by a moral panic, only to lose interest and look to another. Usually, a criminally deviant act begins the process of the spiral but it is observed that these acts do not have to be considered criminal, instead they may be immoral or not in keeping with the accepted moral standards of the time. It is next that the mass media plays its crucial role of reporting to the public the newsworthy, shocking or scandalous stories, exploiting every detail that may be of relevance but would not be considered except that it adds to the concern of the public. Rational explanations and reassurance will be excluded from the mass media at that time, creating disproportion between the supposed threat and the actual impact on society it could have. In turn, minor problems look insurmountable, and these shocking happenings seem widespread, creating ill feeling towards the deviant folk devils. Human nature brings forth a need to obtain as much knowledge as possible on what appears to be threatening the morality of the nation and every newspaper, magazine and television programme even slightly concerned with the subject is consumed with gusto. This creates a nationwide sense of agreement that morality is threatened simply because of the evident unease through that mass consumption. A good summary states: "Moral panics then, are those processes whereby members of a society and culture become 'morally sensitised' to the challenges and menaces posed to their accepted values and ways of life by the activities of groups defined as deviant...the process underscores the importance of the mass media in providing, maintaining and policing the available frameworks and definitions of deviance, which structure both public awareness of, and attitudes towards, social problems". There have been many moral panics concerning a diverse range of issues, ranging from 1920s jazz to the amount of time spent by young people in coffee bars , and from sexual permissiveness to drug use . Every moral panic by its nature demonstrates an ability to shake the moral standing of society at the time of occurrence and as Frank Furedi points out, "newspaper headlines continually warn of some new danger which threatens our health and happiness" .

Is Violence as Entertainment a Moral Panic?

Before answering the above question, it is necessary to establish whether there has been a moral panic surrounding violence as entertainment in the past. In short, the answer to this is in the affirmative when reflecting on the "video nasties" moral panic of the 1980s. The term itself is British, first used to describe some films that were released on video but that were criticised due to highly controversial violent themes. Films presented for cinema release were subject to regulation but films made solely for video distribution or films that had been viewed in the cinema and then released for home viewing were not subject to any regulation. Moral panic ensued, resulting in legislation being passed in the form of the Video Recording Act 1984, reassuring the British public that we still have high moral and social standards against inappropriate images and themes in entertainment. As mentioned earlier, the Act gave legal backing to the BBFC and the moral panic was abated.

Could a moral panic surrounding violence as entertainment happen again? Logic says "yes", it happened before so it can happen again, but we must apply the standard concepts of moral panic as we know them today to establish a more intelligent answer. Firstly, applying Cohen's thinking, is violence in entertainment "some condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests" ? The phrases "condition" and "episode" convey a fleeting image, which the history in the first part of this chapter shows is not true in the case of violence in entertainment. However, violence has been recognised as a "threat to societal values and interests" as there exists so many accusations and theories on the subject; some individuals feel that society is genuinely frightened by what Quentin Tarantino frivolously described as "fun" to watch. Secondly, does the use of violence in this way have "an all pervasive quality" as Thompson theorised when he was describing the shift of moral panics in modern times? This paper submits that the answer is yes, due to the many ways in which one theme of violence or one horror story can infiltrate many mediums such as film, newspapers, television, the internet, literature and music to touch the lives of countless people. However, it is significant that many people will never come into contact with violence as a form of entertainment as they choose not to watch any form of violence, use modern technology or are unaffected by the alleged panic, disagreeing with the concept. It is interesting to note the dichotomy inherent in this debate. If there was another moral panic on the issue of violence in entertainment, it would stereotypically be publicised and heightened by the media, yet, as we have discovered, the media on television, especially in violent news reports has been accused of producing stories that are too graphic, images too bloody and themes too frightening. This would contribute to the volume of violence on television that is being consumed in the home, even further heightening the sense of moral panic. However, as the National Crime Prevention Council noted, "Increasingly horrifying and graphic pictures are shown daily in the news from the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and other violence taking place around the world. These images can confuse and frighten children and, similarly to overly violent movies and video games, frequent viewing of news coverage of traumatic events may cause children to become aggressive, desensitized to violence, and have less empathy for others" .

Perhaps the "folk devil" in the debate would assume the form of a film director, television producer of video game creator or is it the actor that endorses the images to his faithful fan following? It is easier to persecute these people when it seems they are only interested in making money at the expense of demoralising our precious society. Instead, it is submitted that some of these artists seek to explore themes, which inevitably draw our attention to the flaws in society, and our response is one of closing ranks: we turn against those who point out the flaws in a state of denial.

CHAPTER THREE:

CONCLUSIONS AND THE FURTURE OF RESEARCH

Conclusions

Firstly, this paper has shown that there exists a prevalent theme of violence in many forms of visual entertainment. Like Professor Ray Surette, the paper contends that, "A closer examination of the context of violence in the media would tell us that we should not try to purge the media of violence, for violent media can be good when programs teach that violence is bad." So, although the violence is often presented in the most graphic way possible illustrating that no expense is spared for blood and guts in the film industry, this is necessary in order for violence to be taken seriously when the entertainment industry is exploring the theme of violence for the common good. Contextually, therefore, violence can be very important for the entertainment industry. Secondly, the paper has shown that there exists a dynamic range of prospective and views from the consumer to that of the theorist and from the film director to the recording artist concerning the violence that we are exposed to through the entertainment industry. This is primarily because each person attaches a different value to such entertainment, indeed the theorist is a view of rational scholarly thought whereas the film director has to admit that his intentions are significantly economical. Thirdly, the paper concludes that although it is difficult to ascertain whether violence as entertainment is a moral panic, because of a lack of scientific research on the subject, the risk of a widespread moral panic occurring is high since there are genuine concerns resulting from past incidents attributed to persons influenced by violent entertainment. A mass killing in the United Kingdom or an isolated incident anywhere else in the world have equal capacity to start a moral panic on violence as entertainment, especially if the perpetrator said, "I was trying to be as famous as Leatherface" or "I wanted to be in Grand Theft Auto for real".

Policy Options

There is a range of policies available to curb any sense of panic occurring as a result of violence as entertainment. Firstly, the regulations that are already in place should be reviewed to ensure that they match the moral standards of society now, in the twenty first century, making certain that regulatory bodies like the British Board of Film Classification and Ofcom are fulfilling their role. In order to determine what should be accepted as entertainment, the primary concern is that of the public. However, this could be very problematic as the level of diversity among reactions to violence in entertainment is high, demonstrating the different standards of morality among individuals before attempting to ascertain a standard of morality of the public as a whole. Whatever conclusion comes from this venture, there will be disagreement about the standards of decency in entertainment. Secondly, education on the aspects of violence as entertainment, its possible effects and how to reduce any effects is essential. Not only would parents and guardians be equipped with the knowledge necessary to decide whether what seems like an extremely violent video game that a child wants "more than anything" for Christmas meets the standard of entertainment that they would allow the child to be exposed to. Indeed, education on this subject may reduce the risk of an outbreak of moral panic as the issue is approached rationally rather than with alarm. However, Anderson et al question the effectiveness of large scale education to combat a social problem, "Whether a much larger educational effort comparable in scope to educational efforts concerning the effects of smoking on lung cancer would have a substantial effect is an open question" .

Points for Future Research

There is a huge scope for further work on this subject. Firstly, a concentration on scientific studies of the area must occur in order to put criminological and sociological ideas on a stronger footing. Many people believe that violence as entertainment causes real life violence, but it is doubtful that the cynical element in our nature will accept that argument without the backing of conclusive scientific evidence. Even if such research was to occur, it would be a lengthy process since there are so many different types of entertainment to compare and analyse next to violent entertainment. This brings us to the second point for future research: the need to explore other mediums through which violence is presented as entertainment. As this paper concentrated on visual mediums, there is a need to explore the aural world of music, particularly that of controversial artists such as Marilyn Manson and controversial music genres such as hip hop, rap and death metal. There is also a call to analyse literature such as novels, plays and poetry, all of which can contain vast amounts of violence or use violence as a theme but these are studied in the classrooms of high schools around the world without challenge. Thirdly, as mentioned as a public policy option, better understanding of what public opinion exists in this diverse and challenging area is essential. This could take the form of a national survey or forum, an invaluable method of acquiring knowledge in order to continue research in this area.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Legislation

Broadcasting Act 1996

Communications Act 2003

Video Recordings Act 1984

Cases

Knuller v. DPP [1973] AC 435

R. v. Stanley [1965] 1 All ER 1035

Websites

http://gameinfo4all.wikidot.com

http://movies.nytimes.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk

http://query.nytimes.com

http://uk tv guide.com

www.absoluteastronomy.com

www.bbfc.co.uk

www.damaris.org

www.experiencefestival.com

www.freedomforum.org

www.historylearningsite.co.uk

www.independent.co.uk

www.last.fm

www.media awareness.ca

www.movierapture.com

www.myfilm.com

www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk

www.ncpc.org

www.sbbfc.co.uk

www.tv.com

www.worldandi.com

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