Television Violence Essay, Research Paper

It often seems that anywhere you look, violence rearing its ugly head and sadly it plays a big part in many peoples lives. Violence can be found almost everywhere in the streets, back alleys, at schools, and even in the home. In fact, in almost all living rooms in homes across North America a television can be found and on it violent images are being shown. The television is the one that provides children with entertainment and knowledge they need and therefore they often believe anything and everything they see. Research has been done to show why children are so captivated by t.v. and violent programs in particular . The research proves time and time again that aggression and television viewing go hand in hand. Some are trying to fight this problem, while others are ignoring it and hoping it will go away, and still others don t even seem to care. However, the facts are obvious and spek for themselves, television violence casuses children to be violent and the effects can be life long.

Violent television viewing does effect children, and the effects are shown in several cases. For example in New York, a 16-year-old boy broke into a cellar, and while doing this he was wearing gloves. The boy said he learned to do this so he would not leave any fingerprints and that he learned this from a television show. In California, a seven-year-old boy put ground-up glass into the family dinner. When asked why he did it he said that he wanted to see if the same thing would happen in real life as it did on television (Howe 72). These are serious and true examples of how television can affect the child. It is important to point out that children watching violent television directly caused all of these situations. Not only does television violence affect a child there youth, but it also can affect them in their adulthood. Television violence can destroy a young child s mind and the effects of violence can be long lasting. For some, television is an attack on a child s mind that makes a child prone to aggressive behaviour and alters his/her view of the world. Television violence also disrupts a child s learning and thinking ability that can cause many problems. If a child cannot do well in school, his/her future is at stake.

Children seem to be drawn to violent shows because, media violence is much more vicious than that which children normally experience, real-life violence appears boring by comparison (Dorr 127). Basically the violence on television is more exciting and entertainning than the violence that is normally viewed on the streets. Instead of the police officer handing out a ticket he/she can beat up the offender television. However, children do not always know that this is not the way things are handled in real life. Kids begin to expect it, and when they don t see volence in the real world it becomes boring and it needs violence. The children then go out and commit crimes. Other ways in which television violence can cause actual violence can cause actual violence are as follows. The children find the violent characters on television fun to imitate. Children do imitate the actions of models such as those portrayed in television, movies, etc because the ideas that are shown to them on television are more attractive to them then those they can think up for themselves. (Brown 98) An example of this is the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Young children cannot seem to get enough of these characters and enjoy hours and hours of imitating their fighting moves. As previously stated a lot of research about the topic of children and television violence has been conducted, and all of the results show a connection between violent television and aggression in children.

An example of the results was found in a survey of London school children in 1975. Greensberg discovered a strong relationship between violence viewing and aggression in children (Dorr 160). Seventy-four children from farms and one hundred ans twelve from the city were tested. The researchers found that the city children watched more television than those children from the farms. However, both groups of children were just as likely to choose a violent program to watch when watching television. The city children tended to assume violent television programs as realistics situations of real life then the farm children (Huesmann 166). Along with Huesmann the Government also did research in this area. They experimented with children who were left alone in a room with a monitor playing a videotape of other children at play. Soon, things got out of control with the onset of violent behaviour. Those children just viewed a violent commercial showed higher levels of aggression than did the children who hadn t seen it (Langone 50). The combination of aggression and continued viewing of violent television leads to poor academic achievements and unpopularity. This causes even more aggression and a pattern is created.

The most important aspect of violence in television istrying to prevent it. There are many simple solutions that are easy to implement, but are often overlooked. On solution is to have conflicts in shhows that do not include violence. An example of this is the show Little House in the Praire , in which problems are present but without violence, other examples include The Cosby Show Full House etc. Probably the most important way to prevent children from watching television violence is to stop it where it starts. Parents should step in and turn off the television. The parents are supposed to set examples for their children, so if they don t watch violent television neither will their children. Fixing the problems of children and television violence is not easy. There are many factors that have to be considered and it is important to take aciotn. This problem will, continue to grow as violent shows becime more popular. However, steps can be taken to prevent children from ever experiencing this, and letting it change the way they view the world.

Bibliography

Academic Press, 1980.

Carter, Douglass. T.V. Violence and the Child. New York: Russel.

Cheyney, Glenn Alan. Television in American Society. New York:

Door, Palmer. Children and the Faces of Television. New York:

Franklin Watts Co., 1983.

Howe, Michael J. A. Television and Children. London: New.

Husemann, L. Rowell. Social Channels Tune T.V.s effects.

Langone, John. Violence. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1984.

Sage Foundation, 1977.

Science News 14 Sept. 1985: 166.

University Education, 1977.