Is there a connection between media and real life violence?

Let’s look at some examples of how movies inspired violent behavior of children and adolescents. One would say that violence is portrayed only in thrillers, horrors, action movies or dramas, but it is not quite true. Even comedies may portray criminal and aggressive behavior, but people often do not realize that just because it is funny. An example of that is a comedy called Wedding Crashers. Olga Louniakova tried to poison her teacher by putting Visine eye drops into the bottle of water of an instructor because she has seen it in Wedding Crashers. An actor, Owen Wilson, demonstrated this prank in the movie, and caused diarrhea to his friend. But it is just a myth associated with this medicine. Olga was not aware of the real consequences, which lower body temperatures to dangerous levels, make breathing difficult, and bring on nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, seizures and even coma. Olga was found guilty of endangerment and was sentenced to two years prohibition. This incident shows that Olga simply imitated behavior observed in the movie, and could not critically distinguish real life consequences. 
http://www.wfsb.com/news/15563298/detail.html

Another striking example happened in Winchester. Only 13-year old girls got inspired by series of horror movies called Saw, and left a message on Beverly Dickson’s phone: "Hello, Beverly. I want to play a game. You need to decide if life is worth living for. We have one of your friends hidden in your house. You must find them within 10 minutes and get the key out of their heart. Get out of your house because there are vents and there is toxic gas that will be fogged out in 10 minutes. It will kill you in half a minute, so you decide, it's your game. Do you want to live or die?" The trouble was that Beverly was in a funeral procession when she got the message and it caused the stroke, and was rushed to hospital. Two girls were charged with phone harassment. One may say that it was just a fun, but consequences of this fun could have been fatal. Girls reproduced violent behavior from movie and did not realize the risk of the situation. 

http://www.wsmv.com/news/11345969/detail.html


Have a look at next to links which provide even more examples of real life crimes inspired by movies. The only conclusion we can make is that movies are not the best sources to look for  information and inspiration.
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/psychology/movies_made_me_kill/1_index.html
http://mydoubts.net/movies-inspired-real-life-crimes/