Television Violence in Society

Violence is all over the media today, contained within the daily news, music, newspapers, and television. It is especially seen within popular programs among children. Children are easily influenced by what they view, which is why violence on television negatively affects the way children behave.
All too often today, we hear about children committing some heinous crime which is frequently media-related. Take for instance this excerpt from Douglas Rushkoff 's essay "Hating What Sucks": In October of 1993, a five-year-old named Austin Messner set a fire that cost his baby sister Jessica her life. The local fire chief blamed Beavis and Butt-head 's antics for having inspired the child 's pyromania, and Attorney General Janet Reno, already riding a wave of public distaste for violence on television, had a new example of just how dangerous the media had become. MTV ducked for cover and changed the "Beavis and Butt-head" time slot so kids couldn 't watch (Rushkoff 221).
In other words, Rushkoff is saying that people watch the mannerisms of characters on television, and feel that their actions represent real life; the way the characters act, speak, and handle situations portray the regular fashion in which everyday people act. Kids are especially prone to this idea. MTV 's "Beavis & Butt-head" aids in promoting the idea to children that everything they do is permissible and normal behavior. MTV portrays the idea that it is acceptable for anyone to mimic the antics of these two characters, who often perform obstructive and potentially harmful acts.
The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry tells the public that "extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness. Children who view shows in which violence is very realistic, frequently repeated, or unpunished, are more likely to imitate what they see" ("Children & TV Violence", Internet). Beavis and Butt-head are incessantly up to something; whatever they want to do, they will go ahead and do. They are never severely punished for their wrongful actions. These ideas listed above influenced Messner to set the fire to his home, killing his younger sister. He saw Beavis and Butt-head start a fire, or play with fire, which in turn caused him to imitate their action.
"Beavis and Butt-head" is not the only animated show that influences the actions of children today. Saturday morning cartoons are quite popular among the younger generation. Kids today are basically brought up watching these shows. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "Saturday morning children 's programming ranges from 20 to 25 violent acts per hour" ("Feature Films For Families: TV Violence Statistics", Internet). With such a large audience, and with children being so influenced by what they watch, it is not surprising that violence occurs in children due to television today.
How is it that these portrayals of violence influence children? Psychological research has shown three major effects of seeing violence on television, in which the first one is that "children become immune to the horror of violence" ("Children & TV Violence", Internet). They view different acts of violence everyday on television shows, in which more often than not the wrongdoer is undisciplined and unpunished for their actions. Seeing characters get away with violence everyday of their lives causes children to believe that performing violent acts is a normal everyday act; they learn to develop a desensitization for violence.
A statement made on the American Academy of Pediatrics ' web page backs up this idea. It states that "media violence affects children by increasing aggressiveness and anti-social behavior, making them less sensitive to violence and to victims of violence, and increasing their appetite for more violence in entertainment and in real life", ("Media Violence and Media Literacy", Internet). From the constant viewing of violent programs, children find nothing wrong with imitating these violent behaviors, which therefore makes the young children more aggressive and on a constant search for violence everywhere.
A study that was done helps to further demonstrate this idea stated above. According to the web page "Sofcom TV Guide - Australia 's Number 1 Online Television Guide", Children often behave differently after they 've been watching violent programs on TV. In one study done at Pennsylvania State University, about 100 preschool children were observed both before and after watching television; some watched cartoons that had a lot of aggressive and violent acts in them, and others watched shows that didn 't have any kind of violence. The researchers noticed real differences between the kids who watched the violent shows and those who watched nonviolent ones. "Children who watch the violent shows, even 'just funny ' cartoons, were more likely to hit out at their playmates, argue, disobey class rules, leave tasks unfinished, and were less willing to wait for things than those who watched the nonviolent programs," says Aletha Huston, Ph.D., now at the University of Kansas ("Sofcom TV Guide - Australia 's Number 1 Online Television Guide", Internet).
Once again, the fact that children act out the mannerisms of all different characters that they see on television programs is proven in the excerpt above. This is yet one more example of the many that have been found which proves that children display violence through their actions based upon the influence of television.
Another effect is that children "gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems" ("Children & TV Violence", Internet). Take, for instance, the popular children 's television show "Mighty Morphing Power Rangers". The whole show is based on a group of teenagers who "morph" themselves into super heroes and combat "the bad guys". They fight off the villains, and everything always turns out to be okay. These teens succeed in their tasks through the use of physical violence upon the enemy. Children are easily influenced by this television show, as opposed to being influenced by the daily news. The daily news does not interest children; they become bored with watching the newscasters simply sitting and talking about subjects they do not care about. But, on the other hand, cartoons and other popular children 's television shows have the major influences. "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" persuades children to commit acts of violence, giving out the impression that this is the answer to getting rid of the bad guys.
Violence on television affects children in two more ways. One of the two is when children "imitate the violence they observe on television", and the other, when they "identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers" ("Children & TV Violence, Internet). Kids associate with characters on a television show, such as the Power Rangers, often wishing they could be like them. If the actor or actress that they admire so much is constantly inflicting violence, the young child will be prompted to imitate their role model 's mannerisms, resulting in a violent behavior seen throughout the child 's actions and attitude.
Along with these three effects of viewing violence is a basic idea construed by Albert Bandura known as the social learning approach, devised in approximately 1961. According to the book Psychology: Behavior in Context, Bourne, Jr. and Russo write that the social learning approach that [Albert Bandura] takes emphasizes personality development through observation, modeling, and imitation. Bandura is probably best known for his work on observational learning processes, showing that we don 't need to be rewarded (reinforced) and we don 't need to practice in order to learn new behaviors. We can learn by just observing another individual (a model) perform the behavior (523-4).
This theory can be put into terms of violence on television. Since children learn by viewing others, such as characters on television like the Power Rangers where defeating the enemy resolves the conflicts, children are influenced to behave in the same manner as their heroes or heroines. As the web page for the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry states, "television can be a powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior", which relates back to Bandura 's social learning approach ("Children & TV Violence", Internet).
It has been found that "the average child watches 1,689 minutes per week" of television (Lockwood-Summers, Internet). With such a vast amount of time spent watching violence-polluted television, it is no wonder why young kids imitate the actions seen by their favorite actors, actresses, or cartoon characters. They have grown up watching violence, thinking that acting in such a manner is a social norm. Little do they know that this behavior is a threatening and dangerous problem in today 's society.
Whether this is television 's fault or the fault of the parents who allow their children to watch too much television is a matter of speculation. All of these facts and figures point to one major conclusion: that violence is heavily dispersed within the media, in which people of all ages are easily subjected to. Furthermore, this violence found within television shows leads people to be subconsciously affected, and sometimes hardened to violent depictions. To avoid such a negative affect from violent television programs, parents should monitor what their children watch. As stated on the Children and Crime web page, parents should "encourage younger children to watch shows like "Sesame Street" and "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood". Just as television can have an poor effect on children, positive TV shows can encourage learning and build self-esteem" ("Children and Crime", Internet).
Children who watch a lot of television when they are at the elementary school age tend to gain more aggression once they become teenagers. Doctor Leonard Eron, a University of Michigan psychologist, studied a specific group of people from elementary age to the age of thirty. Doctor Eron found that the ones who had watched a lot of television when they were around the age of eight were more likely to be arrested and/or prosecuted for crimes as adults ("Television Violence and Its Effect Upon Children", Internet). "Much of what [children] see on TV", he explained, "represents violence as an appropriate way to solve interpersonal problems, to retaliate insults, make up for injustice, and get what you want out of life" ("Violence! [Television Wasteland], Internet). Therefore, those who watch a lot of television mimicked the violent acts they viewed, believing that it was acceptable to act in such a manner since most television stars are not punished for their wrongful acts. By being subjected to so much violence, children learn to accept violence as a commonplace action.
One advance that is being used to help solve the problem of children witnessing violence on television is the v-chip, or violence chip. An article entitled "The V-Chip Story" talks about how President Clinton approved legislation that requires television sets to contain a v-chip. This chip enables adults to block violent programs from their television screens. Dr. Eron thinks that the v-chip will not make much difference. He says "it 's a step in the right direction, but a parent has to be concerned and available to control it. The v-chip will have some effect, but it doesn 't solve the problem" (Banta, Internet).
The article states two major problems with the chip. One is that children today are more likely to master technology faster than their parents. This would enable children to find a way to reverse the effects of the v-chip, and therefore make it very ineffective. The second major problem with the chip is that it confronts the question of whether or not parents should get involved with matters like this (Banta, Internet).
What else can be done about the overwhelming effects that violence has on its viewers today? The most obvious answer would be to cut down the amount of violence found in the media. The television community in particular should produce more programs that avoid violence. When violence does occur, the number of incidents should be kept low, more negative consequences should be shown, non-violent alternatives to solving problems should be provided, and the consideration of applying anti-violent themes should be used. Programs with higher levels of violence should be scheduled in later time slots, when children are less likely to be watching. Also, the media could increase the portrayals of powerful, non-violent heroes and characters. Perhaps these characters may not be considered "heroes" by all, but encouraging young children to watch programs such as "Barney" or "Sesame Street" would aid in the young generation avoiding viewing violence at an early age while providing a strong basis in educational preparation.
While the media can be held partly responsible for the effects their shows have on their audiences, parents have great power to control the influences children face. There is a great amount of violence in both adult and children 's programming, so just limiting the number of hours children watch television can reduce the amount of violence they see.
There are many steps and actions that parents can take to ensure that their children are viewing proper programs. Parents should pay attention to the programs their children are watching. Along with this idea, they should watch some shows with them so they will know what is contained in the programs and be able to discuss them with their children (Blumenthal, Internet). Doing so will help the parents to explain to their children what is going on, what is right, and what is wrong.
Set limits on the amount of time a child spends watching television, and encourage them to spend their time on sports, hobbies, or with friends to turn them away from the television set ("Turn Off TV Violence", Internet). A good idea is for parents and children to sit down and draw up a list of other enjoyable activities to do rather than watch television, such as bike riding, rollerblading, or drawing. This will aid in the avoidance of young children viewing unnecessary violence on television.
Parents need to disapprove of the violent episodes in front of the children, stressing the belief that behavior like that is not the way to resolve a problem. Contacting other parents and together agreeing to enforce similar rules about the length of time and type of programs that the children may watch would increase support in the fight against television violence ("Turn Off TV Violence", Internet). Following these guidelines would help parents to supervise their children 's viewing of violence on television.
The effects of violence in the media, especially on television, are very evident in today 's society. Frequently, shows geared for the younger generation depict violence, in which this behavior is hardly ever corrected or punished. Television presents the idea that violence is an acceptable behavior, which is promoting the wrong idea to its audience. Television severely affects children 's attitudes and behaviors as the rates of violence in the media among children grow. Works Cited
Banta, Mary Ann. "The V-Chip Story". Internet. Infotrac.
Blumenthal, Richard. "What Parents Can Do About TV Violence". Internet. Last Updated 26 March 2005. http://www.cslnet.ctstateu.edu/attygenl/tvtips.html
Bourne, Jr., Lyle E. and Nancy Felipe Russo. Psychology: Behavior In Context. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1998. "Children and Crime". Internet. http://www.ehsnrc.org/two.html
"Children & TV Violence". Internet. 2005 http://www.aacap.org/factsFam/violence.htm "Feature Films For Families: TV Violence Statistics". Internet. 2005. http://www.familytv.com/stats.html
Lockwood-Summers, Sue. "Public TV For The Rockies: Act Against Violence Outreach Campaign. Internet. 2005. http://www.krma.org/six/aav/medialit.html
"Media Violence and Media Literacy". Internet. 2005. http://www.aap.org/advocacy/childhealthmonth/media.htm
Rushkoff, Douglas. "Hating What Sucks". Signs Of Life In The USA: Readings On Popular Culture For Writers. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon. Second Edition. Boston: Bedford Books, 2005.
"Sofcom TV Guide - Australia 's Number 1 Online Television Guide". Internet. 2005. http://www.sofcom.com.au
"Television Violence and Its Effect Upon Children". Internet. 2005. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4658/
"Turn Off TV Violence". Internet. http://www.babyplace.com/uuu16.htm "Violence! (Television Wasteland)". Internet. Infotrac

Cited: "Feature Films For Families: TV Violence Statistics". Internet. 2005. http://www.familytv.com/stats.html Lockwood-Summers, Sue "Media Violence and Media Literacy". Internet. 2005. http://www.aap.org/advocacy/childhealthmonth/media.htm Rushkoff, Douglas "Sofcom TV Guide - Australia 's Number 1 Online Television Guide". Internet. 2005. http://www.sofcom.com.au "Television Violence and Its Effect Upon Children"