TV Violence Essay, Research Paper

TV Violence

Tear gas flushes a gunman out of a house where he had been held up. He comes out shooting, then falls in a hail of bullets from the S.W.A.T team. A film of the shoot-out and removal of the gunman’s body appear on the on the evening news. Is this what Americans want to watch, or should it be censored out of the news? Many people think it should be banned. But would that be breaking the first amendment?

I believe that TV doesn’t control what people do, people control what people do. There was violence before TV was invented, but people can’t blame themselves, so they blame TV for their problems. In most shows murderers get caught or killed. Why would someone want to take the risk of getting killed just to act like someone on TV?

Getting rid of TV violence will not change the way people think. People will always think of violence. How could they of anything else? Violence is everywhere, TV, Music, Movies, Video games, news, and newspaper. You would have to ban all violence to stop people from thinking about it. TV is not the only problem.

Is there too much TV violence, or is it just what people want to see? In a recent survey, violent scenes in nonfictional shows went up 150% and in fictional shows they went up 39%. The overall violence went up 41%.

What about the V-chip? The chip that would block out violence and sex on TV. But is that offending people’s freedom of speech? Who would choose to use the V-chip? The government can’t force people to use it, so how could they re-enforce its use?

In conclusion, I think it is almost impossible to erase violence by ridding the world of TV violence. There’s too much violence and banning violence off TV is not the answer to solve our problems.