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influence of mass media on children
how violence on tv impacts teenagers to be violent
effects of tv on youth
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The entertainment that television is now portraying is not exactly what the younger society of America needs to be exposed to, but unfortunately in today's economy that is the only kind of entertainment that sells. There is so much unnecessary exposure to violence, aggressive behavior, and sexual acts now being broadcasted daily on television, movies, music, and even the news. The broadcasting systems are now targeting younger children and teens. The crime rates have skyrocketed due to delinquent juvenile behavior over the past ten years. The whole viewing society is now becoming very tolerant and at ease with sex and violence. Youth and children are picking up on these behaviors daily. Studies have shown that by the age of 18, the average American teen will have viewed around 200,000 acts of violence on television. The violence and sexual content that television and music are now portraying has negatively influenced younger children and teens to commit murder, exhibit aggressive behavior, and become tolerant of violence and sex.
The negative influence television has begun to have on children is unreal. Americans seem to ask themselves what brings on such things as the Columbine shootings, eleven-year-olds murdering toddlers, and an increase in teen rapes. Then, these same people allow their children and teenagers to watch movies like Saw, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Frailty. Irving Kristol is part of the American Enterprise Institute and in 1994 wrote an essay pointing out proof of these influences on teens and children. He used a report done in the United Kingdom on what they called "video nasties" (Kristol) and gave evidence of negative behavior in children who had watched such vulgar and violent shows. He again...
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...ry. If the violence and sex are forced to become under control, our society will be a much better place to live and raise our children in.
Works Cited
Grossman, David, and Mary Cagney. "Trained to Kill." Christianity Today Aug. 1998.
08 May 2005 <www.christianitytoday.com>.
Jacoby, Jeff. "A Desensitized Society Drenched in Sleaze." Elements of Argument. Ed. Annette T. Rottenberg. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003. 626-628.
Kristol, Irving. "Sex, Violence, and Videotape." Elements of Argument. Ed. Annette T.
Rottenberg. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003. 610-613.
Palumbo, Frank. "The Social Impact of Music Violence." American Academy of
Pediatrics. 06 Nov. 1997. American Academy of Pediatrics. 09 May. 2005
<www.aap.org/advocacy>.
Schroeder, Ken. "Education News in Brief." The Education Digest Sept. 1998: 74-75.
Mass media is a major influence that causes violence in youth culture. According to Hoffman, studies show that children experience an incredible number of violent acts per hour of watching television (Hoffman 11). The advancement in technology such as video games and televisions have aimed children to watch shows with numerous violent scenes. In making this comment, one can infer that violence is becoming a common and unexceptional act for which one can learn that violence is an accepted act in our society (12). Personally, I agree with Hoffman. I visited a websit...
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...
As television has become increasingly popular over the past few decades, it has allotted researchers a large amount of time to collect data and explore many aspects of this wonderful, yet harmful invention. It is safe to say that almost every household in America has a television, and it is on and used for multiple hours a day. The vast variety of different shows to watch is outstanding; shows about food, homes, the news, imagination, reality, horror, action-thrillers, the list could go on and on, there is always something to watch for everyone. However, is everything on television appropriate for all of its viewers? The answer to that question is up to the reader, but may they be informed of the effect violence on television has had on children, and will effect those children for the rest of their lives.
Whether one use television to figure out the weather forecast for the week, or to catch up on one’s favorite soap operas, television is the best way to communicate with Americans. It's said that the average American spends about anywhere from four to six hours a day watching television. Many of these viewers are children or teens who will avail themselves to more adult shows. “With only 14 percent of the networks' schedules devoted to children, young people often resort to adult programs that, more often than not, feature adult topics such as violence, drunkenness, and promiscuity” (Chamberlin, Suzanne). Even with 14% of television devoted to children those shows can show different types of violence. These violent shows can viewing of cruelty and brutality pays a toll on the minds of its viewers and can sometimes carry the following effects: Copycat violence, exaggerated fears, and last but not least desensitization to violence. A lot of things seen by children on tv is often repeated in the real world, because they have no sense of morals at a young age, or even teens who lack the ability to think for themselves and are almost peer pressured into doing something that their colleagues told them to do. Like the incident on April 25, 2001.
Violence and explicit themes on television have been a main benefactor in behavioral problems in children, causing educational issues as well. Studies have shown that “excessive TV viewing can lead to poor grades in school” (Boyse Online). TV has even been shown to affect the mood of the child, usually “TV doesn’t improve their disposition. They’re grouchy and irritable right after they watch” (Winn 19). When violence is included in speech or an action a child’s favorite show or movie it wouldn’t be uncommon if that youth would try to imitate it. “Many shows glamorize violence. TV often promotes violent acts as a fun and effective way to get what you want, without consequences, Even in G rated movies violence is common” (Boyse Online). As children are growing it’s important what parents put in the stomach’s of their child so it’s also important what being fed to their brain. This makes them vulnerable and susce...
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.
Studies reveal that children watch approximately twenty-eight hours of television a week, more time than they spend in school. The typical American child will view more than 200,000 acts of violence, including more than 16,000 murders before age 18. Television programs display 812 violent acts
On average an American child will see 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence by the age of 18 through the television. Thousands of studies from the 1950s to the present day have all suggested that viewing violent acts will increase violent behavior while only less than 20 have suggested otherwise (Boyse). As our children are exposed to these 16,000 murders and 200,000 violent acts one can only conclude that aggression, crime and violence can only increase in our younger generations from being exposed to the current media.
Television violence linked to bad behavior in young children has been going on for years. Some claim that parents are using it as an excuse to blame the media and I agree in some cases that is true but not in all cases. We cannot ignore the fact that television does feature a lot of violence and aggressive behavior and in young fresh minds these type of behaviors stick. Children begin mimicking behaviors as soon as they are born and as they get older they continue to do so. A two year old learning how to speak hears a curse word and repeats it, sure they don’t know or understand what it means but just because they don’t understand the meaning of the word doesn’t take away the fact that it is a bad word and should not be coming out of a young child’s mouth. The same ...
During the 20th century, the literacy rate in America has begun to fall at an alarming rate. A factor contributing to the problems in the literacy rate includes children’s exposure to television which has resulted in a shortened attention span during other activities. Today, children are less active because of technology such as television and video gaming and, as a result more children are suffering from obesity.
Violent media influence on the attitudes and behaviour of young people has been a hot topic of debate for decades. Critics say that violence in television, movies, and video games, desensitizes children to real effects that violence has on society and themselves. The problem is that teenagers tend to act on the behaviour seen in the television shows they watch and the video games they play every day. They shoot someone in a video game and not be able to distinguish that it is morally wrong to kill someone but to influence every day it does not affect them and they will grow up and be a savage. This subject is debated because of the profound effect that violence can in the future of society. The introduction of television violence has led many to theorize that chronic exposure to the act will desensitize some teenagers and cause them to develop the characteristics of a more aggressive.
As early as 1958 investigations were being conducted of the effects of television on children. During this time, the researchers found that most of the television content was extremely violent. In almost half of the television hours monitored, the programs main focus contained violence. The common theme that was seen throughout the programs were crime, shooting, fighting, and murder. The universal definition of violence used was, "Any overt depiction of the use of physical force, or the credible threat of such force, to intend to physically harm an animated being or group of beings." In this investigation, Wilbur Schramm concluded that under some conditions, some violent television could effect some children. For the most part, most television is neither helpful or harmful to most kids under most circumstances. As you can see this conclusion is quiet vague, and does not give a lot of crucial information for us to correct and improve. Schramm and his colleagues came up with a solution for parents to provide a warm, loving, secure family environment for their children, and they would have little to worry about.
In the argumentative essay “T.V. Addiction” by Marie Winn, Winn relates watching television to having an addiction with drugs and alcohol. The television experience allows us to escape from the real world and enter into a pleasurable and peaceful mental state. When it comes to television, Marie asks the following question: Is there a kind of television viewing that falls into the more serious category of destruction addiction? I believe there is. Why do so many people, instead of doing what they’re supposed to be doing, put everything on hold and just focus on television? I think this is because they want an escape from their problems.
of violence or tunes into their parents favorite soap opera might find an increasingly amount of exposure to violent acts and sexual content. Children are very vulnerable to such influences and often do not know the difference between right and wrong and the difference between reality and fantasy (Dritz, Russel 1996). As the years go on and television seems to be too censored to most, studies have continued to prove the increasing numbers of children associated with violence and sexual behavior. Although a seemingly older statistic, the Neilson Index averaged American children to watch 18,000 television murders before he or she graduated from high school (Tucker, Larry A. 1988). Could this be a reason for an increasing amount of murders and violent acts among children today?
With the explosion of technology today, access to the media is at your fingertips, anytime, anywhere, and almost 24/7. Video games, movies, cartoons, daily news, websites, music videos, and even in commercials, violence is everywhere, and it becomes harder and harder to avoid. Violence in the media has been increasing and reaching dangerous proportions. According to Report of the Media Violence Commission, the effects are remarkably consistent regardless of type of medium, age, gender, or where the person lives in the world (336). Many studies and researches reveal the empirical evidence that links violence in movies and television shows to aggressive behavior in children, teenagers, and adults. Increasing aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, and fear are three types of negative effects contributed to by violence in movies and television shows. The article, “The Influence of Media Violence on Youth” emphasizes that violent television shows, films, and music reveal unequivocal evidence that media violence increases the likelihood aggressive and violent behavior in both immediately, and in the long term (Anderson, Craig A., 81). Violence now has gone into the mainstream. The Hunger Games, one of the top grossing films in 2013 replete with blood, gore and violence. The Walking Dead was once voted highest-rated entertainment program on TV with horrific violent scenes, killing from stabbing into the heads, bloody corpses, and disturbing, haunting images shown in most of the scenes. CBS’ Criminal Minds is television show with series of scary scenarios showing the violent murders of psychopath people. Worst of all, Silence of the Lambs deals with a psychopath who ...