|
| |
TV VIOLENCE & CHILDREN.
Term Paper ID:19690
|
|
|
Essay Subject:
Concern about impact, studies.... More...
|
7 Pages / 1575 Words
6 sources, 7 Citations,
TURABIAN Format
$28.00
Return to List of Papers
|
Paper Abstract:
Concern about impact, studies.
Paper Introduction:
A beautiful young girl is found dead, blood all over her face, wrapped in a plastic garbage bag. A mill goes up in flames, trapping two people who were lured there by the killer who hopes they burn to cinders. The bullet-ridden body of a detective lies on the floor, the deed done by a mysterious killer. A purported drug dealer is strangled to death, his body flailing and contorted with pain. Two people commit a brutal rape and leave the victim for dead. Just exactly where do these hideous deeds occur? Why, every Saturday night on the television show Twin Peaks. Violent acts are a dime dozen in this small town. Are viewers repulsed? Not exactly. In fact, the television show has become a cult favorite and is a darling of the critics.
But Twin Peaks is not the only television show with violence. From cartoons to the news, docudramas, weekly series
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
[4]Carter, Douglass and Strickland, Stephen, TV Violence and The Child,Russel Sage Foundation, New York, 1979, p.53. In reality therewas no other child. Children were being exposed to more violence then ever before. [5]Ibid., 54. By 1964, another Senate Subcommittee found that television contentproduced anti social behavior among juveniles. But Twin Peaks is not the only television show with violence. What kind of world does it depict? The report wasissued through the Surgeon General and it concluded that television viewingcould indeed be dangerous to one's health. TV Violence and The Child. One has to wonder what darkvision television writers share to present so much grisly mayhem week afterweek. A longer term study conducted by Chaffee-McLeod-Atkins from Wisconsinlooked at three sets of factors. In every matchedpair, the child who saw the more violent show became more aggressive thenhis partner. Thereport issued by the subcommittee said it was unable to find a direct andcasual relationship between viewing violence on television and any criminalbehavior. There was to be no violence forviolence sake and it was never to be shown in an attractive light.Unfortunately, the admonition was not heeded. The average American watches over seven hours a day. Why the fascination with violence? A study by ABCindicated that 22% of crimes committed by juveniles are suggested by TVprograms.[6] One nine year old accused of robbing a bank with a toy gun,was defended by his lawyer saying the child got the idea from television. The Effect of Television Violence on Children What effect does television have? The children'sfacial expressions were watched to see how they reacted to the program.There was no consistent correlations for either violent or non-violentviewing for girls. [2]Todd Gitlen, Watching Television (New York: Pantheon Books, 1986),3. Two people commit a brutal rape and leavethe victim for dead. Studies have found this stress causes nightmares,bedwetting and increased illness in children. Is there anything that can bedone to reduce its negative effects? Eron andLefkowitz found among boys that the measure of a child's aggressivenessdepended more on the amount and kinds of violence seen on television thenon school achievement or socioeconomic status. The results indicated that some violence was contained in 7 percent of the programs! Moreover, researches could alsopredict which children would actually be more aggressive. The first television code written in 1951 had a paragraph on violencein the section of children's programming. In 1954 and 1955, televisionwas considered a factor in a Senate Juvenile Delinquency Subcommittee. A beautiful young girl is found dead, blood all over her face,wrapped in a plastic garbage bag. Watching Television. BibliographyBailey, Ronald. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986.Singer, Dorothy, Jerome Singer, and Diane Zudkerman. Of major concern was the factthat children were watching TV much later then anyone had predicted andmore often. Another problem children have is the confusion of real life withtelevision life. One ofthe most chilling findings related to " copy cat" crimes. A purported drug dealer is strangled to death, his bodyflailing and contorted with pain. A mill goes up in flames, trapping twopeople who were lured there by the killer who hopes they burn to cinders.The bullet-ridden body of a detective lies on the floor, the deed done by amysterious killer. Killings and violence were staples of theearly television shows which featured cowboys and Indians, cops androbbers, detectives and murders. For many children,this is more time than they spend in school. The world of television hasbeen alternatively called entertainment and a vast wasteland.[2] It servesas a model of the world around us. Surprisinglysocioeconomic status was not a clear predictor of violence viewing andaggressive behavior as previous research had suggested. the violence could be categorized into threetypes: - Violence for its own sake - Overtly graphic views of brutality and humansuffering - The portrayal of anti-social behaviorLater studies found that even shows specifically geared towards childrenhave violence in them. The analysts watched over 33 hours ofentertainment programs in a sample week and monitored specific acts ofviolence. However with boys it was a different story. [7]Pamela Turchscherer, TV Interactive Toys, The New High Tech ThreatTo Children (Bend, OR: Pinaroo Publishing, 1988), 95. A number of efforts have beenorganized by parents and politicians to pressure networks into reducing theamount of violence sen on television. NewYork: Russel Sage Foundation, 1979.Gitlen, Todd. And one has to wonder about viewers who accept the violence as amatter of course. [6]John Wilkens, Breaking the TV Habit (New York: Charles ScribnersSons, 1982), 31. A study conducted by Yale University found that children who were themost prejudiced against black children were those who watched more violentprograms.[8] Other studies have found that children who were heavytelevision watchers were less imaginative and less successful in theirrelationships as well. However, the results are mixed.Today's television shows still have their share of murders, rapes,robberies and other crimes. Concern about violence on television began in the earliest days ofthe medium in the late 194 's. The children were placed in pairs according to the amountof television they watched. TV Interactive Toys, The New High Tech Threat ToChildren. Researches concluded that in order tounderstand the effects of televised violence on aggression the child'semotional reaction to the violence had to be considered. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1982.----------------------- [1]Ronald Bailey, Violence and Aggression (New York: Time Life Books,1976), 9. Just exactly where do these hideous deeds occur? This report charged thattelevision was becoming a school for violence. One member from each pair was then shown anaggressive television show on ll different occasions. Boys whoshowed pleasure or happiness during the violent action sequences were moreinclined to press the hurt button. The Annenberg School of Communication confirmed these findings.They found that children who watched alot of television had an exaggeratedsense of danger and mistrust. Concern continued and alandmark three year study was conducted by the government that commissioned23 different projects on the effects of television violence. The children were then lead to an "aggression machine".Each child in the experiment was given twenty opportunities to press abutton that would either help another child or hurt him. As television became more popular, therivalry for ratings led to more violence. [8]Dorothy Singer, Jerome Singer, and Diane Zudkerman, TeachingTelevision (New York: Dial Press, 1981), 35.----------------------- 1 The Amount of Violence on Television According to the renowned psychiatrist Karl Menninger," We not only tolerate violence it is part of our life. Mounting evidence during the 7 's indicated there was a strongconnection between children's viewing of television violence and theirsubsequent aggressiveness, whether immediately afterwards or years later.Certain conclusions were made: television could be and often wasinstructional as regards behavior patterns, it could and sometimes didproduce children's imitation of behaviors learned, it could affectattitudes and it could correct attitudes and behaviors.[5] Studies in the 8 's continued to support these conclusions. One study found that 37% ofchildren reported having unwanted memories of violence and horror fromwhich they could not free themselves.[7] Violence in television has been found to affect social attitudes aswell. Fromcartoons to the news, docudramas, weekly series and made for TV movies,violence is a way of life. An independent study conducted by the Universityof North Carolina looked at the effects of television in a natural setting.Children at nursery school were observed playing and were rated for theiraggressive behavior - kicking, hitting, choking and throwing objects atanother child. A long term study 1 years later using new data and existing datafrom the Surgeon General's report confirmed some of these findings. [3]Ibid., 37. Are viewers repulsed? Because of theimmediacy of the message, it is often seen as another member of the family.What a person sees in terms of images is bound to have an impact on theirbeliefs and attitudes. Since then, study after study has been conductedwith controversial results that add to the debate. My dear friends,we love it?[1] There are more than 2 million television sets in America. Why over one thirdof our television programs use it for amusement. It seems like the best way to reduce the amountof violence on television is to just turn it off. It gives people withdifferent values and background common information. Condone! Television acts as a cross-culturalinfluence cutting across nationalities and class. Breaking the TV Habit. A recent poll conducted by Parent Magazine ranked violence ontelevision as parents number one concern. Why,every Saturday night on the television show Twin Peaks. Violent acts are adime dozen in this small town. Results from a study conducted by the Foundation for ChildDevelopment found that heavy viewing children were more fearful for theworld and more likely to have bad dreams then children who watched lesstelevision. The message is often one ofviolence. In fact,the television show has become a cult favorite and is a darling of thecritics. However, it found programming in large doses could be potentiallyharmful to young viewers. Teachers report that first, second and third gradersassume much of what they see to be on television is real and true. Year after year, Variety does an analysis of thecurrent television season and makes the same pronouncement -- the incidenceof violence on television shows increases. These included adolescent aggression,television viewing and the family's social environment such as punishment,affection and communication patterns.[4] The Wisconsin researchers found anumber of items correlating television viewing with aggressive behavior.They also found that children who did poorly in school were more likely towatch violent television and approve of aggressive behavior. Cartoons averaged eight episodes of violence a show.In one show, Inhumanoids, 86 acts of violence were shown per hour. The results indicated that those children who saw the violent showwere more likely to be aggressive and push the hurt button then thosechildren who viewed the neutral button. Bend, OR: Pinaroo Publishing, 1988.Wilkens, John. Teaching Television.New York: Dial Press, 1981.Turchscherer, Pamela. Not exactly. Data collected by the government study was used in other experimentsthrough out the country. Somechildren were shown a segment of a television program which had not onlycommercials but a chase, two fist fights, two shootings and a knifing.[3]Other children were shown the same commercials but a sports event insteadof the violence. Thisstudy asked does violent television really affect young children when theyare balanced out by school activities or the home environment? Thisadds to their anxiety. One study continued the experiments of the Bobo doll studies. New York: Time Life Books,1976.Carter, Douglass, and Stephen Strickland. Violence and Aggression. In 1973, the Annenberg School of Communications at the Universityof Pennsylvania, devised a "violence profile" to measure the amount ofviolence shown on television. In all,it is estimated that the average child between the ages of 5 and 15 willsee the violent destruction of more then 13,4 people.
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
Click here to request an essay written just for you.
|
|
|
