Television Violence Essay example

* According to the National Television Violence Study, the context in which violence is portrayed is as important to its impact as the amount of violence. The study concluded that 66% of children's programming had violence. Of the shows with violent content three-quarters demonstrated unpunished violence and when violence occurred 58% of the time, victims were not shown experiencing pain. (14)

Television is the mainstream of our culture. Violence on television has been a topic of conflict since before 1950. There have been repeated debates on how to protect children from the harmful effects of violence on television. Television is one form of modern media that influences the everyday lives of people. Televised violence has a major effect on how children perceive the world and how they behave. "American television has become the most violent in the world. It is for this reason why researchers have focused their attention toward television violence" (Cantor & Hoffner 424-4-25). Children enjoy watching television and now with the increased technology of cable and movie

The portrayal of violence on television is shown in cartoons, comedies, horrors, dramas, and many other genre television shows. Some cartoons as well as other television shows, endlessly display violence--that youth often view as a form of entertainment. However, the actions and behavior conveyed on the television do not make youth commit violent acts. It induces them to believe that violence is just the standard way of living life. On the television, the lawbreaker gets away with the crime and does not face disciplinary actions, and therefore they are not held responsible for the repercussions of their wrongdoings (Menhard 11).

In the United States children watch an average of three to fours hours of television daily (Cantor & Wilson, 1984, p. 28). Television can be a powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming is violent. Studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found that children may become insensitive to violence. Consequently, they tend to gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems by imitating the violence they observe on television; and they identify with certain characters, good or bad. Therefore, extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater

American television viewers have an insatiable appetite for televised violence, and as they become desensitized to violent images they seek out stronger images. The image providers have discovered a novel way to increase the intensity of the violent images -- move away from entertainment violence and show real violence. In the past few years real "life and death" programming has become more commonplace on television, both as news and entertainment programming. Shows like Cops, Real Life Encounters with Wild Animals, and Real Highway Pursuits have begun to appear on our television screens with an incresing regularity. These programs routinely show acts of real violence, caught on home video. Television news directors have adopted the credo "if it bleeds, it leads" to such an extent that it has almost become cliche. The thrill of watching fake violence is waning and being replaced by the drama of watching real violence. And the higher the body count, the more we watch.

Johnson breezily admits that modern TV shows are becoming more violent, but he treats it as a trivial fact that should not be heavily weighted. However, the subtle influences of shows like 24 should not be taken lightly. 24's influence in particular encourages its audience to bypass the terrorist activity that takes place and eventually numbs their minds to the horrors of blood-and-guts violence. Although Johnson is correct to state that 20 years ago audiences would probably not have been able to track such complex, intertwined plots, they also would not have tolerated the vast doses of violent and inappropriate behavior that can be found in today's popular shows. Therefore, the constant intake of violence that is portrayed on TV is muddying our perceptions of hostility and quietly increasing our acceptance of

In conclusion, violent TV programs cannot take the blame for crime. A more thorough analysis is required before taking rash

Furthermore, Carol Olsen proclaims, in an article titled “Carol Olson: Senior Columnist: Too much violence on TV and movies”, it states shockingly “there has been a mass shooting somewhere in America ALMOST monthly since 2009”. Her belief is that the violence in the media, including video games, teaches the viewer to “shoot and kill people just for the fun of it” and that in addition to that the reality based television programs portray family members that behave badly toward one another. Dishonesty and loss of values are what is portrayed by these families via many lies and deceitful behavior, and Olsen’s belief is that it is not possible to be surrounded by so much cruelty and anger without it having an effect on you; I agree wholeheartedly. Contrarily, some of the supporters of these types of programs defer to the first amendment and claim that censorship violates their freedom of speech, and in a way I agree that it does; however, I believe as a society we must weigh the pros and the cons, and that the

There is no question that television and films these days are filled with violence and antisocial behavior. Virtually every show, movie or news story nowadays has some sort of violent theme. Studies have shown that for every hour of television, there are 6 violent exchanges shown, and this number increases to 14 exchanges an hour

This paper is about two TV shows which demonstrates violence in certain charters. It will also address the violence that occurred and ways that could lead to desensitization. The two TV shows selected were “Criminal Minds” and “NCIS” that have violent episodes. These movies have physical violence that could have been trigger from mental or psychological issue of the aggressor. Criminal Minds (CBS)

By the age of 18, the average American television viewer has witnessed over 32,000 murders and 40,000 attempted murders on television alone (American Psychological Association). These statistics do not include such violence seen in movies or heard in music. To witness such an amount of violence is clearly unrealistic and exploitative. Violence is being used by television programs as a superficial way of grabbing and holding an audience's attention. Producers of television programs that show violence must take the responsibility of showing a realistic amount of violence on their shows. That is, they must not use gratuitous violence to appeal to male viewers, or else the violent crime rate in the United States will rise.

Media violence is one of the most debated public issues society faces today. Television screens are loaded with the glamorization of weapon carrying. Violence constitute as amusing and trivialized. Needless portrayals of interpersonal violence spread across the television screens like wild fire. Televisions spew the disturbing events such as children being assaulted, husbands inflicting domestic abuse on their wives and children succumbing to abuse by their parents. Scenes of betrayal, anguish, infiltrate the television screen. Unfortunately, a child becomes subjected to media violence. Everything a child sees or hears in the media affects them in some way or another. The precise effects of media violence on children are

          Due to violence on television, children become less sensitive to that pain and suffering of others or to become more aggressive to others. It also makes children more fearful to the world around them. (Abelard 1) Viewing habits of children observed for many decades deduced that violence on TV is associated with aggressive behavior, more than poverty, race, or parental behavior. It also reported that a TV show contains about 20 acts of violence an hour.

According to E.F Dubow and L.S Miller, authors of Television Violence and Aggressive Behavior: Social Science Perspectives on Television, “Ignoring consequences of violence (including the pain of victims, the victims’ families, and the families of perpetrators) or depicting the consequences unreasonably sets in motion a destructive encoding process.” There could be found a direct correlation between aggressive behavior and violence witnessed on television. The more violence watched, the more desensitized a viewer would become. Dubow and Miller further state “viewers become [fearful] and begin to identify with the aggressors and the aggressors’ solutions to various problems.” It is this identification that causes violent behaviors to become encoded in the person’s mind when exposed to repeated violent acts. The person may then come to see the world as a bleak and sinister place. Along with this

some adults), however, do not always realize this is not the way difficult situations are handled in