Creative Intellect

Violence and Torture in the Media

"Violence is natural. Without it, humanity would become... unbalanced."
-Ginny Taylor, CSI: Miami

         Violence and torture have taken over the media. From video games to television, it is rapidly filtering itself into our entertainment stuff and heavily influencing society today, as the quote above demonstrates. For example, according to listal  , since Call of Duty's inception in 2003, 20 different titles of the game have been published. Seeing that it is only 2015, this means 1.67 Call of Duty games are released each year. These games glorify war and promote violence. According to Common Sense Media  , Call of Duty: Black Ops II is one of the top 10 most violent video games of 2013.
         Grand Theft Auto V, as shown in the above clip, also helps to "normalize" torture, in its game play.In this case, the torture is simply a form of leveling up. It is as if Rockstar Games wants to say that torture and violence are allowed, if it is a means of self advancement.
         Torture and violence are not just shown in video games. Television and movies are just as guilty of promoting media violence. Season 1, Episode 10 of CSI: Miami opens with a cross-country runner discovering the "horribly mutilated body of a professor is found lynched on a tree" (IMDB  ). The picture is gruesome, and on the medical examiner's table during the autopsy, the injuries are each named out loud: signs of retina burn, "his eyes were glued open"; nine six-inch deep puncture wounds throughout the chest area- "the size and shape of an ice pick"; eight 12-inch contusions "indicating blunt force", 14 one or two-inch cuts that could be razor blades; puncture wounds on the bottom of his feet; for "a total of 62 wounds, all ante-mortem". Everything just listed is named within the first four minutes of the episode. This is evident of the media heavily promoting violence. As each injury is named, the camera pans over the area, giving the audience a clear shot of each laceration, puncture, or contusion site. Additionally, of the 62 wounds the victim in this episode sustained, "not a single one meant to kill him". His final cause of death? Asphyxiation. The victim's ante-mortem treatment can easily fall under the "torture" category.
         It has been said that society is getting more violent with every passing generation. This is probably true. Each new game, each new season, of a series must pass their previous levels of violence, shock, or torture. Otherwise, how will the audience come back for more? It is a psychological approach: the consumers are introduced to a certain level of horror- maybe level 6. They excitedly engage in the violence- shooting, killing, sniping, spying, watching- but the excitement eventually wears off, because they are now habituated to the violent stimulus. The developers must then decide how to dishabituate the audience- less excitement will not sell, so the new product must have more excitement, more violence, more stimuli to keep the consumers engaged until the next one. This cycle repeats, and it is like a spiraling staircase- the next cycle is similar enough to the old cycle to feel familiar, yet different enough to feel new and exciting, thereby drawing in the audience. When will this stop, if ever? Unless someone decides to stop producing violent video games that incorporate torture, never.