Television Violence 2 Essay, Research Paper
In today s society the levels of violent and minor crimes are at an all time high. It is now estimated that a car is stolen every minute of every day. Someone is robbed as often as a car is stolen, and murder and rape have a common place in the evening news. With all of these illegal activities increasing on a global scale, people are starting to look for a cause of aggressive behavior in society. There are several factors that are thought to be the blame of this problem in society. Television has become a leading cause of violence in society. While television tends to reflect society, the programming is starting to mold violent minds. Today almost every program on television contains some type of violence. Even cartoons such as The RoadRunner contain high levels of violence. In a single episode of this cartoon there are numerous explosions, use of guns, and all types of other weapons. Watching these kinds of programs are leading children to be violent.
One of the most popular programs on television for children is W.W.F. Monday Night Raw. The program is made to portray real life situations. In his article Why America s Hooked on Wrestling, John Leland explains that the draw to these programs is the mix of sex and violence that is present throughout the program. This violence on the program leads children to imitate the wrestlers at home. In imitating these wrestlers the children accidentally hurt each other. There is a trial currently going on this is trying a thirteen-year-old boy for murder. The boy killed a friend while trying a wrestling hold that his favorite wrestler does. There are hundreds of other similar accidents that happen around the world almost daily. The young children who are watching these programs are slowly being transformed into violent without anybody even noticing. Wrestling programs also depict bad people as top stars. John Leland points out that To the uninitiated or unconvinced, pro wrestling may seem like a dopey spectacle in which really big guys put on silly tights and pretend to beat each other up. When children see these people in silly tights they actually want to be those people. One popular character on the show is a pimp named the Godfather. This particular character is led out to the arena by a group of beautiful women. Glorification of these characters is causing a problem with children in society. The children see these characters cheered on by thousands of people every week and think it is ok to do what the characters do. So often when they grow up they start fights on the playground and might even get into illegal activities such as drug dealing. Everybody loves these characters that the children see every week. So the children get a re-enforcement that they are good people. Some children will watch as much as ten hours of wrestling every week so it is easy to see how they become totally immune to the fact that the wrestling is not real.
There have also been numerous studies on the effect of television on a child s mind. A child learns from the things that are presented to him in every day life. When the children watch hours of television they get a warped sense of reality. A child can grow up thinking that a gun shot wound is not really a bad injury. On the television someone can be shot and be running around on the play ground two minutes later. David Buckingham wrote Moving Images, which was a study of how children react to television violence. This book is a good support for the argument that children are being turned into violent people by television. Buckingham points out that children are effected a lot more than adults are by what they see on television. This is because they don t yet have good critical thinking skills. In the example of professional wrestling they have no idea that it is fake unless someone sits down with the children and explains to them that it is not real. After they explain that it is not real they also need to constantly re-enforce what they tell the children. As children grow older they start to think critically about the things going on around them. So it is important to try to teach children while they are young so that the wrong lessons don t get burned into their memory.
A common argument is that television violence is a true reflection of society, and that the only reason that violence is on television is because people want to see it. The fact is that while the levels of violent activity on television might be real the depiction of how crimes happen is not even close to reality. The bad guys are glorified on television. Cops kill people for fun, and people get shot and just keep going as if nothing has happened to them. In the real world when a person is shot they are hurt badly. If television would show that people get hurt when they are hit children might start to think about the things they do to other people. If they knew that when you hit somebody with a chair you might kill them they would most likely not do it. So it may be the responsibility of the people putting programs on the television to try to make it clear that what is happening is not a real life situation.
Recently the problem of violence effecting children has finally come to the attention of the majority of the general public. Since this has become an obvious issue there have been several steps taken to keep violence out of the minds of children as well as the general public. One step is using technology new advancements such as the v-chip have made it easier to censor programs. This device allows parents to get involved in the programming that their children are allowed to watch. Another helpful device that has come along is the television rating system. These have been designed to let parents know ahead of time that a violent program is coming on. A lot of programs have also started putting commercials on before and during their programs to remind people that what they are seeing for the most part in fact only acting done by professionally trained people. Television has not been the only form of media effected by this link to causes of violence. Radio and newspapers have also started to tone down their stories, and what is heard on the air. Recently some radio stations are starting to play songs that have been edited to exclude a long list of things. Anything in reference to guns, drugs, or murder are no longer heard on the air. This is a well thought out strategy to try and keep some violence out of children s lives. The most important thing that is helping is just letting the public know that this is a serious problem so that they will get involved with what their children are watching and even try to explain to them why they shouldn t do certain things.