TV Violence Essay, Research Paper

Affects of media violence ?Nearly four decades of research on television

viewing and other media have documented the almost universal exposure of U.S.

children to high levels of media violence? (Norris, 187). Violence is a

component characteristic of many television programs and unfortunately our

lives. Every day we tend to watch news, and every day we hear that people were

killed, robbed or tortured. Four out of ten people said that they had been the

victims of actual or threatened violence in the United States. Usually I ask

myself why some people have tendencies toward violence. What factors cause those

violent and aggressive behaviors? Among broad other reasons such as mental

health, personal characteristics and economic status there is the violence in

media that gives people those nonsensical ideas and inspiration. In my Core II

research paper, I am manly concerned how children K-12 are affected by movie and

television violence. In the long-term research over the forty years, researchers

have proven the link between watching television violence and perpetrating

actual violence and that exposure to TV violence is hazardous to children health

and welfare. Nonetheless, others have managed to conclude that there is no

relationship what gives the issue controversy and a number of contributing

factors must be consider (Journal of Psychology, July 1997). Factors that I have

to take in consideration are: every day exposure to television (estimated time

spent of watching TV), type of favorite programs, frequency of talking about

death and violence with parents and friends, child age, gender differences,

parental control and responsibility, peers, child?s communication, orientation

and interaction with environment and may other. Four years ago I in my

psychology class I have studied about learning habits in early childhood when I

encountered affects of movie and television violence on child development. It

was from psychological perspective but it gave me a good insight about the

topic. Almost every day track in the news and politics only expended my

knowledge in this field. The only things I did not know were about U.S. Senate

approval of an amendment which probe the marketing of violent and sexually

explicit materials to minors, and about President Clintons effort and concern

that children by the time they are eighteen will be very exposed to violence and

dramatized murders on television and movies. Research for my topic I began at

home on the Internet but with very indigent results. I found few sites with

extensive information on movie and television violence but they did not provide

me with enough information and I headed to the UCF library. In the library, I

started my research using on-line library catalog and the Web-LOUIS system.

Throughout these systems, I found several books related to my topic. These

systems did not provide me with sufficient information on journal nor magazine

sources related to my topic. Thus, I shifted to another host system to look for

journal and magazine sources relevant to my research. At first, I found plenty

articles in various magazines available in the UCF library, but when I narrowed

my search, I obtained just enough to operate with. I wrote down the call numbers

for these magazines and journeyed trough the library to find those specific

articles. When I found articles relevant to my topic, not all were easy to find,

I spent some quality time reading and researching. When I finished with sources

available in the library I began my entire research process again but this time

with Ebsco-hos where I also found loads of full text articles available on line

relevant to my research. Despite all the difficulty I thought I would encounter

in my research, I am satisfied with my research process what was very

successful. I will pursue my research even expand it in order to obtain better

understanding and more information on the issue, conduct one more interview not

with ordinary people like I already did.

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