Studies have shown that there has been an increase in the amount of television viewing especially among children, teen and young adults. This has been attributed to the fact that the programmers in this modern age have turned to provide what they perceive this group of people would be inclined to view. According to Paquette, Gosselin and DeGuise (1997), most of the cartoons that are classified among the leading in violence. This is because most of these cartoons have the greatest percentage of violent scenes that are mostly designed suitable for boys. George Gerbner came up with several effect of heavy and light television viewing. There are more effects beyond those identified by Gerbner and they shall be the topic of discussion in this essay.
Tendency Toward Violence
The number of cases that keep being reported on violence is alarming. In Canada, due to an increase in the number of cases that had been reported concerning violent acts by people especially those in urban areas, a law was formulated to help the media houses re-program their programming to try and reduce the cases (Paquette, Gosselin and DeGuise, 1997). It was noted that this was brought about by an increase in the amount of content coming from America, which is recorded, to be leading in violent television programming (Paquette, Gosselin and DeGuise, 1997). This tendency can be seen since there is increase in aggressive behaviors like hitting, pulling hair and clothes, and kicking among others (Wagner, 2004).
Approval of Violence
It is not very clear why the society is turning to approving violent behaviors but it is happening (Paquette, Gosselin and DeGuise, 1997). In the works of Heath and Petriatis (1987), it is noted that the society slowly developed the a...
... middle of paper ...
...and tendency towards violence that were not addressed. Light and heavy television viewing of violent oriented programming have effects that are adverse. People have turned into applying what they see on television in real life and the consequences are truly evident.
Works Cited
Wagner, C. G. (2004). Aggressive and Violent Media. The Futurist, 38(4), 16. Retrieved June 4, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 653010121).
Heath, H., & Petriatis, J. (1987). Television views and fear of crime: Where is the mean world? Basic and Applied Social Psychology 8(1&2), 97-123. Retrieved June 4, 2011, from, Academic Search Premier.
Paquette, G., Gosselin, A., & DeGuise, J. (1997). Violence on Canadian television and some of its cognitive effects. Canadian Journal of Communication, 22(2), 143. Retrieved June 4, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 393953081).
Friedrich-Cofer, L. & Huston, A.C. (1986). Television violence and aggression: The debate continues. Psychological Bulletin, 100, 364- 371.
Torr, James D. Introduction. Violence in the Media. Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven. 2001. 13-15.
One of the culprits of criminal behavior is T.V. violence. Violent programs may have a negative influence on those individuals who are already violence-prone, or children who are living through vulnerable periods of their development. Adult violent offenders tend to have shown certain personality features as children, ?one being they tended to have viewed violence on television.? The amount of violence on television continues to grow. ?A typical child watched on television one thousand murders and twenty five thousand acts of violence before finishing elementary school.? When displayed this often, how can people not become desensitized to criminal acts? ?By allowing this type of material to be openly exposed to the public we are endangering safety and society?s values.? Without control of what material is delivered to the masses, we cannot expect people to have a proper sense of right and wrong as they will constantly see the horrific things that happen in the false reality of the media and become immune to feelings of disgust toward such atrocious deeds in real life. Controlling what is viewed on television is the responsibility of the government in order to decrease violence in the real world.
addition the average American child will witness over 200,000 acts of violence on television including 16,000 murders before the age of 18 (DuRant, 445). Polls show that three-quarters of the public find television entertainment too violent. When asked to select measures that would reduce violent crime “a lot”, Americans chose restrictions on television violence more often than gun control. Media shows too much violence that is corrupting the minds children, future leaders of our society. In a study of population data for various countries sh...
Television with its far reaching influence spreads across the globe. Its most important role is that of reporting the news and maintaining communication between people around the world. Television's most influential, yet most serious aspect is its shows for entertainment. Violent children's shows like Mighty Morphing Power Rangers and adult shows like NYPD Blue and Homicide almost always fail to show human beings being able to resolve their differences in a non-violent manner; instead they show a reckless attitude that promotes violent action first with reflection on the consequences later. Contemporary television creates a seemingly insatiable appetite for amusement of all kinds without regard for social or moral benefits (Schultze 41). Findings over the past twenty years by three Surgeon Generals, the Attorney General's Task Force on Family Violence, the American Medical Association, the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other medical authorities indicate that televised violence is harmful to all of us, but particularly to the mental health of children (Medved 70-71).
... for children. Children are exposed to 20,000 advertisements a year. The average child watches 8,000 televised murders and 100,000 acts of violence before finishing elementary school. By the time children graduate from high school, those numbers more than doubles. Furthermore, television is shown to influence attitudes about race and gender. Pro-social and anti-social behaviors are influenced by television.
American society emphasizes violence in the media. Television shows, movies, and video games, are all outlets researchers often place blame when considering the effects media has on violent behavior. Television shows, movies, and video games frequently revolve around violent plots, characters die in gruesome ways, and violence against others is common place. “Social learning is the branch of behavior theory most relevant to criminology. Social learning theorist, most notably Albert Bandura, argue that people are not actually born with the ability to act violently, but that they learned to be aggressive through their life experiences.” (PG. 161)
Javier, Rafael Art., William G. Herron, and Louis Primavera. “Violence and the Media: A Psychological
Van den Bulck, J. (2004) “Research note” the Relationship between Television Fiction and Fear of Crime” An Empirical Comparison of Three Casual Explanations” European Journal of Communication Vol. 19, Issue 2, p.239-248.
Television programs that are targeted towards children, such as cartoons, can affect children in both positive and negative ways. I examined a variety of cartoons on both commercial and public television to observe the content of children's programming and determine the effects, both positive and negative, that programs have on children. The cartoons contain a wide variety of subject matters that can influence children in many different ways. I found that the majority of cartoons choose to use violence and inappropriate subject matter to entertain children. These images and stories can have a tremendous negative impact on children because the violence is rewarded without consequences, is glorified, and idealized. Children look up to the characters that have a negative impact by distorting their views on conflict resolution. There are, however, cartoons that contain little or no violence and often try to incorporate educational lessons that concern values and morals that are important for children to learn, thus having a positive impact.
Society has been bombarded with violence from the beginning of time. These concerns about violence in the media have been around way before television was even introduced. Nevertheless, there have been numerous studies, research, and conferences done over the years on television, but the issue still remains. Researchers do acknowledge that violence portrayed on television is a potential danger. One issue is clear though, our focus on television violence should not take attention away from other significant causes of violence in our country such as: drugs, inadequate parenting, availability of weapons, unemployment, etc. It is hard to report on how violent television effects society, since television affects different people in different ways. There is a significant problem with violence on television that we as a society are going to have to acknowledge and face.
Summary #1 Television violence, and media violence in general, has been a controversial topic for several years. The argument is whether young children are brainwashed into committing violent real-world crimes because of violent and pugnacious behavior exposed in mass media. In his article “No Real Evidence for TV Violence Causing Real Violence”, Jonathan Freedman, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and author of “Media Violence and Its Effect on Aggression: Assessing the Scientific Evidence”, discusses how television violence, claimed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), does not cause real-world aggression among adolescents. The FCC determined to restrict violent television programming to late night hours only because their “scientific research” proves of increasing aggression among young viewers (Freedman Par. 2).
Romer, D, Jamieson, K, Aday, S (2003). Television news and the cultivation of fear of crime. Journal of communication. 53, 88-104
Ledingham, Jane E., Ledingham C. A., & Richardson, John E. (1993). La violence dans les médias: ses effets sur les enfants. Retrieved October 28, 2009, from http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/H72-21-91-1993F.pdf
Furthermore, television violence causes aggressive behavior in children. Many people believe that children who watch violent television programs exhibit more aggressive behavior than that exhibited by children who do not (Kinnear 23). According to the results of many studies and reports, violence on television can lead to aggressive behavior in children (Langone 50). Also, when television was introduced into a community of children for the first time, researchers observed a rise in the level of physical and verbal aggression among these children (Langone 51). The more television violence viewed by a child, the more aggressive the child is (“Children” 1).