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Article 150 words on impact of television on our social values
impact of Media on children
conlclusion on impact of media on childre
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The Media’s Decreasing Morals as Seen Through Television
In today’s world, it is not rare to walk into the living room and witness a man being violently shot in the head…in a television set. The general public seems to be constantly asking themselves where morality and values on television have gone. Taking a look back in time, it is easy to point out how violence in the media is much more evident than it was fifty years ago. Both in the past and now, the media has an ethical duty concerning the general public. Television’s content today has gotten incredibly dirty and contains content to detrimental for children. There have been advances in technology attempting to stop the violence from entering households with children. However it is still the responsibility of the media and the television industry to control the amount of immoral content shown on the air. While the media is only keeping up with the public’s distasteful demands, it has a responsibility to restrain the amount of offensive content because of the effect it is having on today’s audiences.
Consider the trajectory of sitcoms: strong and wholesome family values once promoted in past shows such as Leave it to Beaver and Andy Griffith have developed into the semi-dysfunctional and carefree family values of the present day. Currently, countless television shows, like Enterage and Weeds, both glamorize sexual promiscuity and frequently present illegal acts such as drug usage as acceptable (Bednarski). Movie characters, as well as the stars that portray them, disrespect authority and believe they can remain above the parameters of the law (Szaflik). On any given weeknight, a television viewer can tune into the immoral antics of reality television as well as the taste...
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...ng events in today’s world it may not be a stretch that it might benefit the world to have television return to the morals of the 1950s.
Works Cited
Bednarski, P.J. "The naked truth." Electronic Media 18.36 (1999): 9. Academic Search Premier. 8 April 2007. http://ezproxy.ithaca.edu:2054
Blakey, Rea. "Study links TV viewing among kids to later violence." CNN.com. 28 Mar 2002.
Hazlett, Thomas. "What's the V-Chip done for you lately." Requiem for the V-Chip. 13 Feb 2004. Slate. 9 Apr 2007. .
Halonen, Doug. "VALENTI HITS TV CENSORS' PAUSE BUTTON. (Cover story)." Television Week 25.16 (2006): 1-22. Academic Search Premier. 9 April 2007. http://ezproxy.ithaca.edu:2054
Szaflik, Kevin. "Violence on TV: The Desensitizing Of America." Questions and Effects. 24 Nov 2004. ridgenet. 9 Apr 2007. .
Eron, L.D. (1963). Relationship of television viewing habits and aggressive behavior in children. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 193-196.
For a long time now the debate has been, and continues to be, as to whether or not violence on television makes children more violent. As with all contentious issues there are both proponents and detractors. This argument has been resurrected in the wake of school shootings, most notably Columbine and Erfurt, Germany; and acts of random violence by teenagers, the murders of two Dartmouth professors. Parents, teachers, pediatricians, child psychiatrists, and FCC Chairmen William Kennard and former Vice President Al Gore say violent TV programming contribute in large part to in violence in young people today. However, broadcasters and major cable TV providers like Cox Communication say that it is the parent’s fault for not making it clear to their kids as what they may or may not watch on TV. The major TV networks and cable providers also state it is the TV industry’s fault as well for not regulating what is shown on TV. So who is the guilty party in this argument of whether or not TV violence influences of the behavior young people in today’s society?
When the first television was first successfully shown, people thought that this invention brought people to a new age, and that the television was a huge benefit to humanity. Unfortunately, since then the Golden Era of television's moral and standards have fallen drastically. We are far away from the days when Lassie and the town of Mayberry ruled the airways and were the talk of America. What was once intended as a benefit for society has become its detrimental fall, now instead of upholding American society's standards, television is working to corrupt the very society it intended to help.
In 1973, Thomas Elmendorf, an emergency room physician, made a speech to the American Medical Association about the increase in violence behavior among young adults and it’s correlation to violence on TV. In it he cited that “Murder is the fastest growing cause of death in the United States. The annual rate of increase exceeded 100 percent between 1960 and 1974.” He also goes on to explain that by the time a child graduates high school, they have spent an astonishing 18,000 hours in front of the TV, not to mention other forms of media, versus 15,000 hours in the classroom. Elmendorf also elaborates that within those 18,000 television hours, a young adult will have witnessed “18,000 murders and countless highly detailed incidents of robbery, arson, bombings, shootings...
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...
Today’s society has become a visually based culture and, as a result, people learn and act from what they see. With the advent of television, many programs have been aired ranging from news programs to sitcoms and from game shows to talk shows, but talk shows, today, have the most effect on the public. Daily, viewers turn on their televisions and many are bombarded with images of sex, drugs, and violence on the talk shows. Unfortunately, many people are either disturbed or affected by what they see. As Vicki Abt and Leonardo Mustazza point out in their article, “Coming After Oprah: Cultural Fallout in the Age of the TV Talk Show,” “Surely long-term exposure to this genre has consequences for the way we judge ideas, behaviors, and ‘values’” . . .” (Abt and Mustazza 26). Despite many people’s beliefs that daytime talk TV today is purely entertainment, it is certain that it presents many immoral values and distorts the reality of how our society should behave.
While violence is not new to the human race, it is an accumulative epidemic that is taking over today’s society. With firearms, ammunition and explosives becoming more accessible, this is resulting into more violent behavior and less serious consequences. Violence in the media plays an imperative role in the etiology of violent and hostile behavior in the world today. While it is difficult to determine which age group have experienced more televised violence, studies have shown that the consequences of aggressive and violent behavior have brought a great deal of human agonizing, suffering, pain and financial destitution to our society, as well as an atmosphere of apprehension, distress and doubt. Research indicates that violence in the media has not just increased in quantity; it has also become more explicit, sexual and sadistic. Most acts of violence in media and on television are laughed off and there are no consequences for these actions.
TV heroes endorse tanks of noxious,flesh-eating gas The complex age of elaborate laptops, portable color televisions in every room, and pocket radios the size of a basic calculator have all taken their toll on American society. In a furious outburst reflecting the contemporary society in which we live, television has come to represent all that is evil and wicked for our children. Through gruesome, explicit, and often unrealistic portrayals of death and violence, the impressionable clay of our children's minds are being molded into vicious statues incapable of comprehending the gap between what is real and what is injurious. What you see is what you get has taken on an all too terrifying reality. It's not just an escapist ideal, denial, or unavailable evidence that define why people equate violence on TV with the violence in their lives and in other Americans lives. It's a founded and plausible justification. Over 1,000 detailed studies confirm this link. Advanced scientific research illustrates the horrific results we hate to hear: television is bad for kids. Our electronic babysitter has reached the end of her employment - she shoots out too many intensely violent acts in a surprisingly perfunctory way. Leonard Eron, PhD at the University of Illinois, conducted a close study of television viewing from age 5 to age 30. The results hurt our television-loving brains: the more hours of television violence viewed, the more the tendency for aggressive behavior in teenage years becomes as does the likelihood of criminal acts and arrest in later years. Brandon Centerwell, professor at the University of Washington, depicted the doubling of the homicide rate after the introduction of tele...
Adams, N. (2014, January 17). How Watching Violence on TV Affects Kids. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
Partying, inappropriate behavior, and even sometimes illegal activity sadly describe what many people view as entertainment today. It is known as reality television. Reality television has been around for a while, but has changed tremendously. The first “reality” shows were considered good and wholesome for the entire family. Now, many of these shows are not appropriate for children. Even though reality television may seem to be harmless, it has created a culture where people are encouraged to be impolite, dangerous, and lazy.
The government should not control the content of television shows and limit the amount of weekly violence shown. The responsibility of controlling the viewing of television shows expressing acts of violence should specifically be in the hands of parents. Parents are becoming too reliant upon governmental provisions with respect to raising their children and television violence is becoming an excuse for criminal acts. Children, especially younger children, are impressionable, but with proper guidance from a parental source in regards to television viewing, kids are not likely to act out violent television images.
Thompson, Robert J. “Tv Violence and Self Regulation”. britannica.com. 30 Sept. 2013. Web. 7 Jan.
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.
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).
American Psychological Association. "Violence on Television. What Do Children Learn? What Can Parents Do?" APA Online. www.apa.org/publicinfo/violence.html. Accessed October 23, 2001.