Tv Violence And Its Effects On Society

Essay, Research Paper

What has the world come to these days. It often seems like everywhere one looks, violence rears its ugly head. We see it in our streets, back alleys, school, and even in our own homes. Ironically enough in our own homes sits a television that is arguably on e of the major providers of violence. But does television influence society s attitude towards violent behavior. In order to fully answer this question we must first define what violence is. Violence is the use of one s powers to inflict mental or physical injury upon another; examples of this would be rape or murder. Through the course of this essay it will be proven that violence in television is a major factor in the rise of violence in society. It will be proven that the television and the children who view it are often pulled into its realistic world of violence scenes with sometimes devastating results.

Television with its far-reaching influence spreads across the globe. Its most important role is that of reporting the news and maintaining communication between people around the world. Television s most influential, yet most serious aspect is its shows for entertainment. Violent children s shows like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and adult shows like NYPD Blue and Homicide almost always fail to show human beings being able to resolve their differences in a non-violent manner, instead they show a reckless attitude that promotes violent action first with reflection on the consequences later. In one episode of NYPD Blue three people were murdered in the span of an hour. “Contemporary television creates a seemingly insatiable appetite for amusement of all kinds without regard for social or moral benefits” (Schultze 41). Findings over the past twenty years by groups such as: the Surgeon General, Attorney General s Task Force on family Violence, the American Medical Association, the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and other medical authorities indicate that televised violence is harmful to all of us, but particularly to the mental health of children (Medved 70-71). In 1989 the results of a five-year study by the American Psychological Association indicated that the average child has witnessed 8,000 murders and 100,000 other acts of violence on television by the time he or she has completed sixth grade. In further studies it was determined that by the time that same child graduates from high school he or she will have spent 22,000 hours watching television, twice as many hours as he or she has spent in school (Bruno 124). These figures a re astonishing and undeniable. And in result have lead to a backlash.

Many studies have been performed to see if any ties could be made to violence on television and the violence in society. In a study by the Centers for Disease Control, published by the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), it was shown that homicide rates had doubled between the introduction of television in the 1950 s and the end of the study in 1994. In that same study other possible causes for the vast increases in violence were studied, “the baby boom effect, trends in urbanization, economic trends, trends in alcohol abuse, the role of capital punishment, civil unrest, the availability of guns, and exposure to television”(Lamson 32). Each of these purposed causes was tested in a variety of ways to see whether it could be eliminated as a credible contributor to doubling the crime rate in the United States, and one by one each of them was eliminated, except for television. Children average four hours of television per day, and in the inner city that increases to as much as eleven hours a day, with an average of eight to twelve violent incidents per hour. It is also interesting to note that violence occurs some fifty-five times more often on television than it does in the real world (Medved 156). FBI and census data shows the homicide arrest rates for seventeen-year-olds more than doubled between 1985 and 1991 and the rates for fifteen-and sixteen-year-olds increased even faster. These figures are only few of the many that are attainable. There is a clear relationship between television violence and the increase in violence in society.

Movies that are shown on TV eventually also add their fair share to the problem of violence in society. “Researchers have established that copycat events are not an unusual. Statistically speaking, they are rare, but predictable occurrences. Television shows and especially movies can trigger copycat violence” (Medved 72). As recently as November of 1995, New York City officials believed that the burning of a toll booth clerk was a result of copycat violence, resulting from a similar scene in the movie Money Train. In 1994, Nathan Martinez shot and killed his stepmother and half sister after watching the movie Natural Born Killers at least six times. Later, Martinez, who had shaved his head and wore granny sun glasses like Natural Born Killer s main character Mickey Knox, reportedly told a friend, “It s nothing like the movies”(Purtell 57). In a 1993 film, The Program, there was a scene showing college football players lying in the center of a highway in an attempt to show their courage and dedication to their sport. This movie was later blamed for inspiring real-life imitators; (one of who died). In numerous experime