TELEVISION VIOLENCE

Television Violence and the Effects of Behavior on Children



Table of Contents

Introduction3

Hypothesis3

Discussion3

Violent Television Shows and their Impact on Children4

Major Concern Areas6

Conclusion6

Limitations6

Recommendations7

References9

Television Violence and the Effects of Behavior on Children

Introduction

Television has become the central activity in most homes today. Currently, in the United States, 98% of all households have at least one set. Even more astounding is the fact that it is watched an average of 7.5 hours per day (Asamen & Berry, 1993). Beckman (1997) concurs, saying that children watch more than 28 hours of television each week and in the process the average child, before the age of 12, has viewed over 8,000 murders.

Violence is a common characteristic of many television programs. While children are being exposed to an increased amount of violence on television, they are not learning the consequences of unruly behavior.

Hypothesis

Violent Television effects Children's Aggression

Discussion

In order to clean up the airways for young audiences, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) enacted The Children's Television Act in 1990. One of the main concerns with television programming is the violence viewed by children. Attention to violence on television became a matter of serious consideration in the 1950s, with the first congressional hearing taking place in 1952. From 1952 to 1967, many analyses were done of the content of television programs. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the scrutiny shifted from content alone to specifically discerning the effects of violence on viewers. The resulting findings supported the idea that a casual relationship existed between television violence and aggressive behavior (Huesmann & Eron, 1986).

Violent Television Shows and their Impact on Children

In addition to theories that television can cause children to be more aggressive and less sensitive to the results of violence, there is also the theory that televised violence causes viewers to be afraid. According to this theory, the misconstrued world presented on television is seen as a mirror of reality and viewers become convinced they will fall victim to violence. It is reasoned that viewers absorb information without analyzing it and subsequently develop false beliefs about law enforcement and crime. Chen (1994), who found that crime during prime time is depicted 10 times greater than in reality, gives credence to the notion that television is distorted in its portrayal and resolution of crime and violence.

Levine (1996) says 3-to 5-year-old children live in a magical world that often leaves them terrified of things which completely surprise adults. On the other hand, there are those who disagree that television makes them afraid. According to Hamilton (1993), today's children are much more preoccupied with violence. Therefore, according to Dr. Daniel Koenigsberg, chief of child psychiatry at Saint Raphael Hospital, it is not so much that children are scared by it, as it is that they accept it and are intrigued by it. Thus, it is easy to see that not everyone agrees about the effects that violence has; however, it is generally agreed that it does play a significant role in the children's construction of social reality (Voojis & ...