"There was murderers going around killing lots of people and stealing
jewelry." This quote comes from the mouth of an eight year old girl after
watching the evening news on television. The eight year old girl claims
that she is afraid "when there is a murder near because you never know if
he could be in town" (Cullingford, 61). A recent report from the National
Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) pools evidence from over 2,500 studies
within the last decade on over 100,000 subjects from several nations to
show that the compiled evidence of television's influence on behavior is so
"overwhelming" that there is a consensus in the research community that
"violence on television does lead to aggressive behavior" (Methvin, 49).
Given that the majority of scientific community agrees that "the research
findings of the NIMH publication support conclusion of a causal
relationship between television violence and aggressive behavior" (Wurtzel,
21), why is it that "the Saturday morning "kid vid ghetto" is the most
violent time on T.V." (Methvin, 49), and that "despite slight variations
over the past decade, the amount of violence on television has remained at
consistently high levels" (Wurtzel, 23)? Why is it that, like the tobacco
companies twenty years ago, the present day television broadcasting
companies refuse to consent that violent films and programming can and do
have harmful effects on their viewers (Rowland, 280) What can be done to
combat the stubborn minded broadcasting companies and to reduce the amount
of violent scenes that infest the current air waves?
The television giants of today, such as ABC, CBS, and NBC continue to
air violent shows, because they make money off of these programs. In
general, society finds scenes of violence "simply exciting" (Feshbach, 12).
Broadcasting companies argue that "based on the high ratings, they are
giving the public what it wants, and therefore are serving the public
interest" (Time, 77). Michael Howe states: "We have to remember that
children and adults do enjoy and do choose to watch those programs that
contain violence" (48). At the same time, however, we must also remember
the undeniable truth that "there is clear evidence between television
violence and later aggressive beh...
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Lowe, Carl, ed. Television and American Culture. New York: The
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Methvin, Eugene H. "T.V. violence: the shocking new evidence."
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Milavsky, Ronald J., Ronald C. Kessler, Horst. H. Stipp, and
William S. Rubens. Television and Aggression. Orlando:
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Palmer, Edward L. Children and the Faces of Television. New
York: Academic Press Inc., 1980.
Pearl, David. "Violence and Aggression" Society Sept.-Oct.
1984: 17-23.
Rowland, Willard D. Jr. and Horace Newcomb. The Politics of T.V.
Violence. Sage Publications Inc., 1983.
Feshbach, Seymour and Robert D. Singer. Television and
Aggression. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1971.
Skornia, Harry J. Television and Society. New York: McGraw
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Time. "Warning from Washington: Violence on Television is
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and starts to loose her words a bit. She says this quote in a way that
Daisy’s face was filled with fear as she slowly stood up and walked around the room. “She was…she was killed?” Daisy questioned in a trembling voice.
"My mom has no love story, so she doesn't believe in it...," this is Heather telling Chapel all about her mother and why she is irrational.
To begin with the narrator is nervous from the start to the end of her confession. She’s “very dreadfully nervous”, paranoid, and delusional. She is
Everyone’s seen the classic cartoons. Wile E. Coyote chasing the Roadrunner around a bend, only the Roadrunner turns, but our comedic--and usually stupid--villain doesn’t. So, he falls from a height of what looks like about 500,000 feet, only to become a small puff of smoke at the bottom of the canyon. After all, if what happens to you when you fall from that height were to have happened to Mr. Coyote, that would have been a very short lived cartoon series. Maybe this example is an exaggeration, but the idea is the same: violence comes streaming into our homes every single day through our TVs not to be viewed, but to be devoured. It’s been proven that sex and violence sell. For those of us who can tell the difference between reality and fantasy, the effect of TV violence is miniscule. But for our children--who think when the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers come to the local shopping mall, that it’s the biggest event since Bert told Ernie he snores too loud--the violence seen on TV seems like a logical reaction to life’s problems. And that’s a problem within itself. The impact of televised violence on children is only a slice of the pie that is the problem with the endless stream of violent acts on TV.
sure that she is afraid of death, “death is so vague.” He tries to tell her that
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?
that she knew a song that Sethe made up to sing to her children to
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.
Fear was something she experienced when she was little. She wrote the poem “ Life doesn’t frighten me .’’ This talks about things that she isn’t scared about she it’s actually things she is the most scared about. For example in the poem she says “ Bad dogs barking loud, Big ghosts in a cloud, Life doesn't frighten me at all. ’’ Bad dogs meaning men screaming at her and telling her what to do. The poem is written like she isn’t scared but in reality she is.
When the police arrived they try to understand and figure out how Patrick has been killed. But unluckily the officers can not notice Mrs. Maloney was the killer. At the end of the book Mary Maloney giggles when the officers said, “Probably right under our very noses. What you think, Jack?” (Dahl 18). Throughout the beginning, Mary Maloney seemed like a nice caring wife but what Patrick said caused her to do a crime. At that point, Mary knew she got away she eliminated the evidence and managed to escape. Mary laughing shows readers that the killing of her husband was not important to her at all. Therefore the theme of this story is to not trust everybody.
Life is hers for the taking and she dares anything to stand in her way.
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.
depict a fantasy world are a lot more interesting to watch. People don't want to
The Effects of Television Violence on Children's Behavior. Television violence causes destructive behavior in children, however television can be a powerful influence on young viewers in our society. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming is 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.