Violence on the Tube
One Saturday morning many years ago, I was watching an episode of the ‘
Roadrunner' on television. As Wile E. Coyote was pushed off of a cliff by the
Roadrunner for the fourth or fifth time, I started laughing uncontrollably. I
then watched a ‘Bugs Bunny' show and started laughing whenever I saw Elmer Fudd
shoot Daffy Duck and his bill went twirling around his head. The next day, I
pushed my brother off of a cliff and shot my dog to see if its head would twirl
around.
Obviously, that last sentence is not true. Some people believe that
violence on the tube is one of the main factors that leads to real-life violence,
but in my opinion, television is just a minor factor that leads to real-life
violence and that it is the parents responsibility to teach kids the difference.
According to Rathus in Psychology in the New Millennium, observational
learning may account for most human learning (239). Observational learning
extends to observing parents and peers, classroom learning, reading books, and
learning from media such as television and films. Nearly all of us have been
exposed to television, videotapes, and films in the classroom. Children in day-
care centers often watch Sesame Street. There are filmed and videotaped
versions of great works of literature such as Orson Welles' Macbeth. Nearly
every school shows films of laboratory experiments.
But what of our viewing outside of the classroom? Television is also
one of our major sources of informal observational learning. According to Sweet
and Singh, viewing habits range from the child who watches no television at all
to the child who is in front of the television nearly all waking hours. They
say that on average, children aged 2 to 11 watch about 23 hours of television
per week, and teenagers watch about 22 hours per week (2). According to these
figures, children spend less time in the classroom than they do watching
television. During these hours of
viewing, children are constantly being shown acts of violence.
Why? Simple: violence sells.
People are drawn to violence in films, television dramas, books,
professional wrestling and boxing, and reports of crime and warfare. Does
violence do more than sell, however? Do media portrayals of violence beget
violence in the streets and in the home?
It seems clear enough that there are connections between violence in the
media and real violence. In the 1990's, for example, audiences at films about
violent urban youth such as Colors, Boyz N the Hood, and Juice have gotten into
fights, shot one another, and gone on rampages after the showings.
In “Television Harms Children”, Ann Vorisek White claims that the intellectual and cognitive development of children who frequently watch television is threatened. To support this claim, she points to the findings that “the more television children watch, the weaker their language skills and imaginations” (White, 2006). Before the brain fully matures around age 12, it is in the stage of rapid development. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) “recommends that children under the age of two not watch TV or videos, and that older children watch only one to two hours per day of nonviolent, educational TV” (White, 2006). A study from the AAP (as cited in White, 2006) found that the average American child watches four hours of television every day. Considering "expression and reasoning are not automatic" abilities, young children who routinely watch television eventually become "passive and nonverbal" to stimuli in their environment (White, 2006). Since the normality of curiosity and imaginations of young children are the foundation of how they learn, remaining passive for extended periods of time affects their intellectual and moral development.
As the parent, I control what my children watch. If I feel television wastes their time, I need to play games or do other activities that help teach my children important things like the importance of learning to share, tolerate differences in other
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 families sit down to watch television, they expect to watch family type of shows. Family type shows meaning rated PG or PG13, sitcoms and movies that do not include weapons, killing, foul language, and non-socially accepted actions. When children killing, they start to believe that it is accepted. Do children think that killing and hurting others and themselves have little meaning to the real life, children can become traumatized. Most killers or violators of the law blame their behavior on the media, and the way that television portrays violators. Longitudinal studies tracking viewing habits and behavior patterns of a single individual found that 8-year-old boys, who viewed the most violent programs growing up, were the most likely to engage in aggressive and delinquent behavior by age 18 and serious criminal behavior by age 30 (Eron, 1). Most types of violence that occur today links to what people see on television, act out in video games or cyberspace games, or hear in music. Media adds to the violence that exists today and in the past few decades. It will continue in the future if it is not recognized as a possible threat to our society. When kids go to a movie, watch television, play video games or even surf the web, they become part of what they see and hear. Soaking violence in their heads long enough becomes a part of the way they think, acts, and live. The line between pretend and reality gets blurred.
Television has become a big part in children’s day-to-day lives especially in the 20th century. Children in this century rely on television to keep them entertained and educated instead of entertaining and educating themselves by participating in activities, which will teach them a lot more in life then the actual television. There is no doubt that children are most easily influenced by television because of the different content that they watch as well as the amount of time consumed watching TV. The television does have an emotional and intellectual development on children but this all depends on the content that they’re watching and the way that they absorb the information that the show is trying to send out. Different programs will portray
"Television and Children (Child Development Institute)." Child Development Institute - Keeping Parents Informed on child development, psychology, parenting. Child Development Institute, 2000-2010. Web. 03 Feb. 2010. .
By the age of 18, the average American has seen 200,000 acts of violence on TV, including 40,000 murders. There are a few potential explanations why people are compelled to watch TV brutality. One of the justifications is the normality or familiarity of disorder. With real life rampage going on close and far from home, TV aggression is a way to cope. If the world was not as cruel as it is today, TV destructiveness would not be as prevalent because it would seem odd to viewers. In other words, the vicious tendencies humankind have lead to the prevalence of TV bloodshed.
Television has been in American Society since 1920’s and has gradually been spreading around the world. Television is like a drug in American Society, it is addictive to all ages including children. It has the most effect on children that are young and do not know anything about television. As children grow older they focus more in watching shows and playing video games for many hours.“Kids and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of a TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer (outside of schoolwork) and playing video games.” (How) This is bad for children because if they spend almost 6 hours just in mass media. Then the question of how much time will they spend in doing task that might benefit their body and their physical aspect of life.
Although the causes of violence are multifactor and include variables for individual biological vulnerability, psychiatric disorders, substance abuse and social conditions such as poverty, poor education, family psychopathology, and child abuse, research information quite interesting in showing that among the most important variable is the exposure adolescents to television violence are at much greater risk. Current research has confirmed the link between violence presented through a variety of media and aggressive behaviour. If young children also have ready access to firearms, then the likelihood of violent behaviour, for themselves and others, increased.
...er factors have also shown to be influential in this cause and effect relationship between television violence and violent behaviour. Such factors as age, gender, parental influence and amount of viewing contribute to how influential television violence is on an individual’s behaviour. Findings are still however inconclusive in this debate, although a large proportion of the evidence does appear to strongly favour the hypothesis that viewing violence on television does have an effect on a viewer’s violent behaviour. As a Washington Post article states "the preponderance of evidence from more than 3000 research studies over 2 decades shows that the violence portrayed on television influences the attitudes and behaviour of children who watch it" (Oldenburg 1992 cited at http://maple.lemoyne.edu/~hevern/ericdig.html).
Many times watching television is a source of entertainment for many people. It is a source of entertainment because people are able to entertain themselves by watching movies, reality programs or series in the comfort of their houses. The truth is the watching television is a source of relaxation for several people; however, it is also important to understand the presence that television has on children’s lives. A study shows that children ages from 2 to 5 years spend 32 hours watching television, and many other electronic devices. (Boyse, 2010). Furthermore, it is important to understand that the ones who love to watch television more than anyone else are the children. In part this is because they follow the same behavior as their parents and siblings when they have one, but it is also due to that fact that television is now creating
Television violence causes destructive behavior in children, however; television can be a powerful influence to young viewers in our society. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming are very violent. Many researchers like scientists, pediatricians, and child researchers in many countries have studied to find out what it is about television violence that makes it such a big affect on the way kids act and behave. Sometimes, children think that is a normal thing in our real life, by watching only a single violent program, which can increase aggressiveness on children and become violent, aggressive, and vicious.
depict a fantasy world are a lot more interesting to watch. People don't want to
Children between two and eleven years of age watch an average of 25 hours of television a week.(Children's Television) Which means that children spend more time watching television than in school. With that statistic it is no wonder why this is such a huge problem that this nation has to deal with.
Without a doubt, television is the central and principal form of communication in many people’s lives. This form is most often exposed to a child who instantly becomes accustomed to its presence. Children are televisions largest audience, as Morris shows, “Children aged two to five look at the TV tube on an average of 28.4 hours a week; those between the ages of six and eleven average 23.6 hours a week”. Television has played an important role in many children’s lives and its viewing has been a favorite activity for many of them. The effects of television on children have been disputed. Some people have said that viewing time has a negative impact on children. Other people, however, feel that the early educational television productions for children help tehm learn.