Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

The Effects of Morbid, Graphic, and Violent Media on Mental Health

The more media advances, the more our mental health is affected by what we see and hear. There is limited research on the effects of morbid, graphic, and violent media (MGV) media on mental health. Previous research has found effects regarding video game play and violent movie scenes, but it did not explore various forms of media such as podcasts or books. The study had multiple hypotheses in which the researchers predicted that depression, anxiety, and aggression would significantly be affected by the frequent consumption and the content level of MGV media. In order to conduct research, we created a survey in which we used a convenience sample of 85 participants to collect information. The survey was shared via a link across all forms of electronic media. The variables that were measured within the study were depression, anxiety, stress, aggression, frequency of consuming MGV media and the content level of MGV media. We used a series of regression analyses to examine our hypothesis related to the study. The results indicated that the frequent consumption of MGV media was a significant positive predictor of depression, physical aggression, verbal aggression, and hostility. Some of our hypotheses were supported within the study. The results of our study suggest that the type of media that we consume could possibly have an impact on people’s mental health.