Violence In The Media

A major topic of conversation nowadays is whether or not violence on television causes children to behave more violently. Shortly after I began to research this topic, I realized that it is not a clear cut issue. Evidence can be easily found to support each position, but without a doubt, violent TV increases the likelihood that a child will behave in a more violent manor.

The United States has shown to be the most violent nation in the world. Each generation is being exposed to more and more media on a daily basis. Television is the most common activity in a child’s life with the exception of sleeping. With that, generation to generation is showing more and more violent acts done by children and teens than ever before. Many studies have shown that children who observe media violence tend to behave more aggressively than the children did who were in the control groups. Violence in television programs in today’s modern world is very popular and easily susceptible to children. Children have access to many different forms of stimuli. Some of which are positive and some are negative. This stimuli needs to be strictly monitored in a child’s life, and not much is being done to do that. For instance, instead of just seeing a police officer handing a ticket to a speeding violator, he can beat the offender bloody on television. However, children don't always realize this is not the way things are handled in real life. They come to expect it, and when they don't see it the world becomes bland and in need of violence. The children then can create the violence that their mind craves. The television violence can cause actual violence in a number of ways. As explained above, after viewing television violence the world becomes bland in comparison. The child needs to create violence to keep himself satisfied. Also the children find the violent characters on television fun to imitate. Children do imitate the behavior of models such as those portrayed in television, movies, etc. They do so because the ideas that are shown to them on television are more attractive to the viewer than those the viewer can think up himself. This has been widely seen lately with the ever popular Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Young children cannot seem to get enough of these fictional characters and will portray them often. Another cartoon you may be able to relate with is good old, Tom and Jerry. Tom and Jerry, for example, includes more violence than a lot of movies. Yes we don't see blood but the violence still exists in a different form. Take a flattened cat, a "broken" mouse, a dog that just got ran over, or even a blown up coyote. These aren't particularly very nice scenes for children, although they find them funny. Reality is that this humor might lead them to try everything they see on TV and if that happens then who knows?

Television is considered both the most effective and the least expensive way to address the largest possible mass audience. If we look closely at the most recent tragedies such as the September 11, New York, or the January 24, Hazmeih, tragedy it is clear that the people behind both tragic incidents (though they are not related) were influenced by TV. Such incidents could, by all means, have occurred in a Hollywood movie but they weren't movies they were real live T.V. What has television really done to our lives? It has corrupted the heads of people and taught them all the means of killing and getting away with it.

Research done from areas of psychology and communications (Drabman & Hanratty, 2001) say that exposure to filmed violence will increase the probability that children will aggress against inanimate and live victims. A study was done to prove that exposure to televised violence serves to increase children's toleration of real-life aggression. The subjects were 20 boys and 20 girls from the fifth grade. The conditions were a 15 minute aggressive film from a current broadcast which contained several shootings and other violent acts. The other was a 15 minute segment of a baseball game. The experimenter brought the children to a trailer that was filled with a number of toys suitable for their age group. There was also a large camera mounted on a tripod that he pointed out to the children. He explained that it was taking pictures of them that very moment. He then sat the children down to watch the film, and said to the children that he had to leave for a minute. He then explained to them that he was supposed to be watching some younger children for a friend and that he was late. He turned the monitor on to see if they were there yet, and he told them they hadn't gotten there yet. He then asked if they could watch for them and to come find him if anything did happen. All of the groups were shown the same video taped sequence, but the children believed it was live. A little while later a 4 year old girl and a 5 year old boy entered the trailer and began to play with the toys. For the first minute or so the children played quietly building blocks until the girl began to criticize the boy's and praising her own. The boy knocked hers over and then they began name calling and pushing one another. The girl, in tears, was chasing the boy while he teased her. Well she caught him and struck him several times. When they came nearer to the camera, it appeared that it knocked over but the audio still continued. Finally you heard the boy yell "watch out!” as a loud crash was heard and the monitor went blank. The experimenter was stationed outside of the room, and timed them from the beginning of the tape until the child left the room to notify him. Below (table 1) shows in seconds how long it took for the children to notify the experimenter.

The results taken provide strong evidence children's aggression can be affected by exposure to television violence. The exact psychological mechanism that causes this is yet unknown. It may be that violence on television teaches children to think that it is a way of life and therefore not taken seriously. Another interpretation is that real-life violence seems bland compared to how it is portrayed on television, therefore children create their own violence to occupy themselves.

There are a lot of negative effects of television, but I'm not saying it's all bad. When it is used in moderation, it can be valuable. First of all, television can be very relaxing after a hard day filled with pressure, challenge, and concentration. Also, television can be used for education. Young children can learn colors, numbers, and letters from valuable shows such as Sesame Street.

There are also some researchers who will argue that television violence will not make normal children abnormal, but children that do have some