Violence in the Media :: essays research papers

It often seems like everywhere one looks, violence rears its ugly head. It is seen in the muggings on the streets, physical assaults in back alleys, shootings at schools, and even at home. The last of these, surprisingly, is a major source of violence. In most living rooms there sits an outlet of the most violent behavior and it often goes unnoticed. It is the television and the children who view it are often pulled into its realistic world with sometimes devastating results. More parents are using television as a means of entertaining their children when they are unable to, and the amount of television that children are watching is a growing concern in our society. In 1950, only 10% of American homes had a television and by 1960 the percentage had grown to 90%. Today, 99% of homes have a television. (Note 1) The results of many experiments and research have all shown that television is a major source of violent behavior in children and that the two do, in deed, go hand in hand.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As much as society would like to ignore the fact, violence in the media does affect children. In New York, a 16-year-old boy broke into a cellar. When the police apprehended him and asked him why he was wearing gloves, he replied that he had learned to do so from television as to not leave fingerprints. In Alabama, a nine-year-old boy received a bad report card from his teacher. He suggested sending the teacher poisoned candy in retaliation as he had seen on television the night before. In California, a seven-year-old boy sprinkled broken glass into the stew his family was to eat for dinner. When asked why, he replied that he wanted to see if the results would be the same in real life as they were on television. These are certainly sobering examples of how television can affect a child.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The average child spends approximately 28 hours a week watching television; twice as much time as is spent in school. By the age of 18, one child will have witnessed over 200,000 acts of violence on television, to include 16,000 murders. (Note 2) One might argue that these are impressionable children with no sense of right and wrong; however, some psychologists and psychiatrists feel that continued exposure to such violence might unnaturally speed up the impact of the adult world on the child.