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Does Violence on TV Promote Violence in Children? Theorists argue that violence in the medias influence can lead to an increase in violent behavior in youth. Youth violence is a serious issue, and there are many things that contribute to youth violence. It is difficult to put a finger on just one single factor that contributes to youth violence. One fact is that if a child grows up in an unhealthy household that he or she will be more likely to grow up to be a violent person. Another fact that is linked to violent behavior is if the child grows up in a tough neighborhood.
The list of contributing factors to violent behavior in our youths is never ending. One thing society should remember though is that not just one single factor can be linked to youth violence. The combinations of these variables leads youth towards have the tendency to be more violent. The focus of this paper is how violence in the media contributes to the many other factors that lead to violent and aggressive behavior in youths. Since the 1950 s there has been a substantial increase in violence among American youth that was certainly unthinkable back then. When looking for the cause of this increase one can point out that since television was introduced, there has been a noticeable increase in the level of crime.
Since the 1950 s, America has moved from being one of the safest places to live to the one of the most violent place. In 1951, with a population of 150 million, federal crime reports showed a national total of 6, 820 homicides, 16, 800 rapes, and 52, 090 robberies (Barry, 1993, 2). After seeing these numbers, it is unbelievable to see how much each of these has risen since the introduction of television. Some skeptics claim that there is no link between television and the increase in violence, but after seeing the statistics, they may begin to see some a link.
In 1980, the numbers had increased to 23, 000 murders, 78, 920 rapes, and 548, 220 robberies. These statistics support the theory that the invention of television corresponded with the increase in violent crime. Today there is more variety, and more sources of violence than ever before. In addition to violence in movies, and television broadcasts, violence has also been integrated into rap songs, music videos, commercials, and news broadcasts.
It is estimated that The average American child will witness. 200, 000 acts of television violence by the time that child graduates from high school (Gillespie, 2000, 2). A child between the ages of 3 and 12 who watches 28 hours of television a week will watch 8, 000 murders and 100, 000 violent acts. In addition to television, movies also increase the amount of violent acts seen per hour. It is surprising that many of the movies that are at the top of this list of the most violent movies are not all adult movies, but they are childrens movies also. The movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a very popular movie for kids when it first came out. Then parents watched the movie with their kids and realized that maybe it was not such a good movie for their children to be watching.
Each hour of this movie contains about 133 acts of violence. Many kids idolized the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, because they were good and because they beat up all the bad people. They were seen as heroes to most children, and most children would run around acting just like them after watching the movie. We have in our culture today, a steady diet of violent role models and very little nurture and direction from parents. Many children are drawn to violence because it is a demonstration of power in their eyes.
Once a child has that first encounter with the feeling of having complete control over someone it can be like a drug. They get addicted to that feeling and want to have that feeling repeatedly. There are studies that show that after being exposed to many films containing pornography, men start to build a strong distrust towards women and begin to rape women. Many teen boys admit that they have already been exposed to pornography at an early age. In addition, we all know how teens like to imitate visual images. Moreover, this means that the younger a child the more likely he or she is to imitate visual images under the influence of TV.
Parents may not be able to prevent their children from imitating the actions they see others doing on television or in real life. Parents and society need to make sure that children only view the actions that they find acceptable. This can be difficult to do because every child is left unsupervised at some point, so it is a good idea to be aware of what and where children are at all times. One last thing parents can do if they see their child doing something wrong they must tell the child that the action is wrong. This will help the child begin to make a distinction between right and wrong behavior. The rate of violence being shown on television is much higher than it ever has been.
There is more variety, and more sources of violence than anyone has ever seen before. Normalization of violence by both the media and the entertainment industry has occurred. If a family were to sit down and watch a movie where many people are being killed right in front of their eyes, it would not really be abnormal for them. Families see violence on television everyday, so we expect movies to be that way. Besides, watching violence became a very popular form of entertainment. This is the reason why families see so much violence in the media, because violence sells.
It is as the nation has an appetite for violence. Humankind may have had more bloodthirsty eras, but none as filled with images of violence as the present, primarily because of televisions obsession with crime (Gerbner, 1996, 1). There is no clear explanation as to why our nation craves to watch violence so much, but for some reason society does. Violence is such a normal occurrence in our society that the media treats it just like any other issue or story.
As you can tell from this, violence is thrown in with the rest of the news showing that it is a normal everyday occurrence. It is as we are supposed to accept that it is there, and it should not affect us that much because it happens all of the time. There is nation wide acceptance of violent behavior. Society considers the occurrence of violence to be inevitable, and as society keeps on doing this, they will never make any progress towards a solution to this problem. There should be a way to decrease these acts of violent behavior.
Reducing the amount of violence parents let their kids see in the media and entertainment industry could be a good start towards a possible solution. There is probably no way that society can stop violence from occurring altogether, but they can do something that will at least decrease it. Television violence according to many psychologists, can lead to heightened aggression in people today. As children watch increased levels of violence on television, they develop sort of a mean world syndrome.
This leads the children to perceive the world as much more cruel and sinister than it really is. Many children might grow up being afraid of the world because of the violence that they see in the many hours that they spend watching television. This does not only have an effect on children, but also on the adults and the elderly. Adults and elderly people are becoming more and more afraid for their lives as violence in our culture increases. They are not used to these high levels of violence like is seen every day now. They are still adjusting to the fact that television has much more violence than it has ever had before.
Statistics indicates that ever since television was introduced the rates in crime have increased, especially among youths. There is the belief that the increase in violent crimes such as rape, assault, and murder in the United States, committed mostly by youths, is directly related to the increasing amounts of violence shown on television. Researchers explain how and why media translates into real life crime. Society must stop this violent epidemic. Not every person reacts to violence in the same way. Children, who are poorly nurtured have little inner strength and are more susceptible to its influence than children, who are well nurtured and who have received a strong value system from their parents.
Bibliography: Barry, David S. (1993). Screen Violence and Americas Children. Spectrum: The Journal of State Government, v 66, n 3, pg. 37 (6) Gerbner, George (1996) TV Violence and what to do about it. Nieman Reports, v 50, N 3, pg. 10 (3) Gillespie, Thom (2000) Violence, Games & Art (Part 1). Techno's: Quarterly for Education and Technology, v 9, i 1, pg. 17 (9) Hat temer, Barbara (1994) Violence in the Media Causes Youth Violence. In Violence: Opposing Viewpoints, Edited by S.
Barbour and K. Swisher. Green haven Press.
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Research essay sample on Violence On Television Violence In The Media
